This is a response to the five questions posed by 
Blockchain technology is still a bit opaque to me. I've read up on it a couple of times but not seen an explanation that dovetails well with my perception of crypto and Steem.
How did you hear about Steem?
has been very vocally promoting Steem on Facebook and in person. He initially explained it as a social media site where you could get paid to contribute. I don't think he mentioned the cryptocurrency aspect, nor is it a big part of his pitch.
When did you join?
May 2018. I put my details in, but the length of time waiting for the paperwork to clear meant that I'd lost interest and had to re-apply. I think this is a block to the take-up of the platform; if I even look at Facebook, Twitter etc. I'm encouraged to join, rather than held at arms' length.
I became fully engaged in September 2018.Why did you join? (What was the attraction?)
Have you expanded your crypto life beyond just Steem?
No. See below...How would you explain your current interest in Steem and Crypto in general?
I think cryptocurrency is an investment bubble economy. It relies too much on enthusiastic investment, rather than having a quantifiable value base. Bitcoin mining is no longer cost-effective unless you use geothermal energy or con others into providing the required energy at no cost to yourself. This predictable state of affairs is ridiculous for anything that claims to be a viable replacement to barter (my preferred way of thinking about any currency).
Steem: The Steemit hardfork occurred the day after I joined. It was amusing. It took a while to recover, which at least gave me some space to be seen in the first few weeks, but I quickly tired of analyses of how bad things were/are/will be.Are you holding or investing (no judgment here, I am just wanting to prove or disprove the value)
I was going to invest in November when the Steem price was at its lowest, but lost my job. Currently I'm just chipping away, earning what I can through blogging and competitions.
For Steem to engage the great unwashed (such as myself) then in my opinion it needs to have the killer app.
Have a single platform that is easily identifiable, available on all web-enabled hardware and handles long-form, short-form and picture posts in a way that it can be my WordPress, your Twitter and another's Instagram at the same time.
At present there are numerous applications that handle markdown differently, so a long-form post isn't consistently displayed across all platforms. Getting rid of markdown, or extending it to a level that improves on WordPress/Blogger is important.
Getting rid of the BS merchants would help too - I think a lot of mid-level users are seeing that an anarchy is only thinly disguised fiefdom. Human society created rules, governments and police forces for a reason...
I'm still positng most days and have no intention of stopping any time soon, but I'm not here expecting to make huge swathes of money.