At its peak in the Summer of 2016, steem was valued at over 0.006 BTC. Today that would equate to over $100 per unit of steem.
So while steem has risen in recent weeks in dollar terms, it is no where near its previous highs relative to the current $18,000+ price of bitcoin.
One must ask why this is the case, considering the meteoric and sustained rise of steemdollar (SBD) in the same period from under $1 to over $13 at the time of this post?
Let's reflect on this question while considering a recent tweet from Brian Armstrong, the CEO of Coinbase:
"In 2018 we get to see which crypto projects actually ship now that they have all this money. Common advice in SV but worth repeating: if you aren't embarrassed by your first release, you waited too long." - Brian Armstrong, 12/18/17
I would argue that unlike SBD, which has a circulating supply of about 4M , steem is constrained by its excessive supply of over 250M units.
Complicating things further, the disproportionate amount of steem currently in possession of Steemit Inc. is antithetical to the decentralized value proposition and corresponding predominant appeal of cryptocurrency to the majority of its enthusiasts.
Accordingly, I agree with the following post by @ats-david that calls for Steemit Inc. to burn a considerable amount of the steem in its possession to reduce the overall supply.
In doing so, it is my expectation that the broader crypto community will be more inclined to embrace the steem blockchain and the underlying potential of this platform as a first mover in promoting a social media experience that rewards users worldwide for their content contributions.
The debate about the quality of content posted on steemit and the negative impression that numerous spam posts have on the broader appeal of the site to serious writers/artists/etc. is beyond the scope of this post, so I will restrict my comments to the above for now.
What are your thoughts on steem lagging the price appreciation seen among its peers in the broader crypto space and how can this ultimately be addressed?