Tokens like Steem acquire their power and new value from increasing network externalities. Unfortunately, the steep learning curve to the site and difficulty for new contributors to break into the system makes it impractical for a lot of new users from participating much at all. Steemit should be relentlessly focused on growing new users and nothing else, best achieved by:
-partnerships with existing social media sites;
-outreach to new users that focuses on the ability to basically get paid to do what they already do for free on reddit, Facebook, and their own blogs.
The potential is there but Steemit seems focused on protecting its existing power-users instead of trying to find one. I just joined and would never have heard of this place if not for my overzealous deep reading of every relevant cryptocurrecy subreddit. There is a lot of user engagement on this site for experienced users but the tutorials and FAQs are weak, new users like me are flailing in the dark, and there is no marketing investment from Steemit whatsoever as far as I can see.
Working on getting listed on new exchanges is of no value if nobody wants to buy the token. The token achieves its value and power not from its concentration in the hands of a small number of power-users, but by expanding the userbase to the point that you have lots of people who have a genuine use for the token. My two cents.
I see that this is your first post. Welcome and good luck on Steemit. I like your comment and agree with most of it :-)
Tokens like anything of value is acquired by belief, and power is no different.
Steemit is a company that holds the hosting for the front end of the system, and when I say the front end I mean that they host noting else, you can create your own front end, youc an even right now FORK this, like GOLOS and make your own steemit that is focused SOLELY on growing new users through whatever whorish means available: such as contracting with the devil.
Steemit isn't about "basically get paid", the idea is economic freedom, read the whitepaper.
I am still waiting on a detractor of steem to fork it and I have challenged numerous people to do just that.
In other words, you might as well save your criticism and get hard at work because none of that is constructive if you understand the ethos behind steem, you're basically explaining how we can rape, murder and kill on the market when we aren't even remotely interested in inflating and blowing up steem as some kind of slut, what good is it gaining the whole world if you lose your spirit in the process? The spirit of steem and steemit has not been Hype, has not been Partnerships with the Devil, has not been masive onboarding, because all those things come from people that are simply and solely interested in profits, numbers and those are at odds with the values of quality. People will come, nobody is going to jump on the first wave, or the second or the 5th but eventually those that happen upon it will accrue, and this is a mathematical fact that as long as there is no better place than steem, more quality AND much more quantity of quality, steem will remain supreme, and I credit it mostly to the values and ethos and WHY behind steem.