I have been away from Steem for about a month as I have been having a holiday and spending time with friends and family. During that time it has given me the space to step back and take stock about Steem, and what I think is holding it back from mainstream adoption. I thought I would share my thoughts, and as always welcome any debate or discussions.

Blog posts on Steem are niche

One thing I notice on Steem is that the blogs are very niche (with a large number of blogs focusing on the Steem ecosystem and the cryptocurrency space). Although this is becoming less of a problem as dapps such as @steemhunt and @dlike seek to diversify the content on Steem, it is still something that affects the user experience and how people view Steem. It is understandable that there will be alot of this type of content, as people here are financially invested, and thus very interested in the future of this blockchain.

Although I am not a user of Reddit, and a minimal user of Facebook, these platforms do offer a much wider range and scope of topics and discussions. I feel that this is an area that Steem should move towards, and think that in particular @dlike are moving in the right direction, by allowing users to share and discuss articles from the web.

Steem is not Steemit

This is something that new users have a fairly big learning curve with, and is probably one of the reasons so many people come and go (along with their hopes and dreams!). Yes Steemit is the most popular website on the blockchain and probably the one most people are still signing up through, but it is not the only site/dapp on the Steem blockchain, and there are many other opportunities to make money, and share content that you enjoy. Blogging just isnt for everyone, and luckily there are more and more ways to share content and earn Steem.

If you are interested in just creating memes and having fun, then you can use @dmania. If you are interested in learning about new technology and sharing new products you have found then there is @steemhunt. If you are a fitness buff, then there is @actifit, which rewards you for your daily activity! If you are interested in strategy games then there is always the ever popular @steemmonsters.

I could go on, but the point is that the Steem ecosystem is diverse, and constantly growing and offering new opportunities to earn Steem in a number of different ways. I think there needs to be a big push going forward to let new users know that there are many different ways to earn Steem - this is starting to happen with the fact that some dapps are now onboarding new users, but there is a long way to go on this.

Steem is too complicated for the everyday user

Im sure most of you will remember the first few weeks on Steem, and trying to navigate through this new (complicated) ecosystem. Steem, SBD,Steem power, delegation, dapps, bidbots, flagging.... I could go on. The joys of social media such as Facebook and Instagram is that they are very easy to use - you can pretty much sign up and its all pretty self explanatory. Steem on the other hand takes a bit of time to learn how it all works - and I do think that this scares away some users before they have even really go started.

However, because Steem is more than 2 years old now, I think that making it much more simple will take some major changes, and will not keep everyone happy. But if we want mass adoption there there has to be a balance, and a way of keeping current users happy while attracting new users who are not overwhelmed by how the Steem ecosystem works.

Conclusion

Although Steem has great potential, it does suffer from a few flaws which are holding it back from receiving mass adoption. I would love to hear your thoughts about what is holding back Steem from mass adoption.

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