Earning is secondary. When Steem's price will be steady and finds a floor, creators will earn with different tokens and Steem. They will be better off and whine less. Before that we have to figure out why investors will buy Steem and who are those investors.
There will be another 280M Steem that will be produced in next 15 years. Assuming half of them, 140M Steem will be sold to the market, we need 140 die-hard Steemians like 
There are currently 11 #steemmillionaire accounts except STINC accounts. There are another 194 accounts who hold more than 100K SP. Assumption is that these 205 accounts are financially well off and have other decent sources of income. There are another 185 more orcas (or, in total 385 orcas). Out of these 400 accounts, if 140 of them decide their long-term goal to be #steemmillionaire, then Steem price will find a decent floor.
I, personally, have $100K Steem goal (my SPs are stored in several family accounts: 
Currently, I had a big loss in Fitbit that has wiped out all my trading profit and incurred $7K loss. Fitbit and STINC has similar problem with leadership. Though Fitbit has very good MVPs, its leadership lacks skills and charisma to please the investors. Similarly, STINC's early leadership squandered the opportunity of the popularity by not making any marketing effort or selling large number of Steem in bull market to hedge. I am still not convinced with STINC's current leadership's lack of interest in any aggressive marketing effort.
However, the very nature of blockchain does not require central leadership. Steem are getting more decentralized and impact of STINC will be less and less everyday. Therefore, even though Fitbit failed due to poor centralized leadership, Steem will succeed due to decentralized leadership. One of the good examples are LTC, DASH and even DOGE, let alone BTC.
However, I am a decent day-trader. I have already recouped $4K loss and at this rate, I will recover $3K loss in next 12 trading days. I am a worse swing trader though since I am not good at diversification. I put all my eggs, $30K in Fitbit at $5 seeing the low value. Ironically, Fitbit had $600M cash, but its marketcap is mere $850M. However, luckily I get out before the mega crash from $4.3 to $3.2 by incurring $7K loss. Since then I am day trading for a couple of hours to recover my loss and make some profit.
Earlier, I have bought, mined or traded 40 BTC, 4000 LTC, few thousand DASH and few millions DOGEs from 2013-15. I lost most of them in futures trading (3000 LTC in 20X margin trading in OKcoin) and sold out rest of them at low price (e.g. 10 BTC at $400 on average) due to agony of loss. I knew that LTC will hit ATH in coming years (from the last ATH at $48 in 2013). It indeed reached $380 in early 2018.
Since then all my eggs are in Steem from 2017.
If I continue to make profit in day-trading, I will put big portion of them to buy Steem. If Steem's price keeps crashing, it will make my goal of #steemmillionaire quite easy.
I am quite sure and encouraging fellow orcas (385 of them) and others who are capable to buy Steem in continuous basis. If my assumption and lessons are correct, then Steem will reach a very high valuation in coming years.
I predicted $20 LTC to my wife (
However, form that days of trading, I have learned how to day-trade both cryptos and stocks. I have practiced for 10 years in Simulators. I have won several competitions in simulators. Finally, I have good enough skills and capital ($30K) to continue daytrade.
If history is any lesson, then Steem has bright future. I feel more bullish about Steem that I felt about LTC back in 2013 and 2015. Market is too irrational in cryptocurrency, it swings two ways in big ways. Nobody thought Steem would reach $8.5 or SBD $20. Yes, it reached. Nobody thought about Steem will crashed down to 20 cents twice, now it has.
Similarly, in the next altcoin bull run Steem may overcome ATH since it is sounds irrational. But that's how the market works. Emotions and irrationality are bigger in both ways.
Therefore, it is high time all the bigholders of Steem to think again and buy in loads to make a floor.
Once Steem ship will be steady with release of SMT, community and solutions for on-boarding, finally, return of altcoin bull run, we can sell few portion of our Steem to hedge against future drop.
This is how both BTC and LTC have been stabilized even at higher floor of $10K and $100. They have lots of big whales who are the strong hands and HODLers. They may sell at the very upswing but they never get rid off their holdings. In abrupt swings, they may increase their holdings and still make money.
We need such strong hands and HODLers, 140 #steemmillionaire to consume liquid Steem in the next 15 years to flourish as a top chain in price and rank-wise!
If Steem reaches 1/4th of ATH in next altcoin bullrun, we all will able to make a decent return. However, I still believe that Steem will overrun previous ATH in next 1-3 years. For that to happen, STINC has to be vanished or sold out (pun intended).
Disclaimer: This opinion is not a financial advice, it my personal perspective and opinion. Please seek professionals for financial decisions.
Thanks for reading.
Cryptominer since 2013, trader and tech blogger
