Right now Crypto-Currencies are being treated as a commodity rather than a currency. That can be a good thing. It spurs interest in Crypto-Currency. It helps spur development of new crypto-currencies. Buying up Ether supports Etherium in a manner not unlike buying Etherium stock would.
The goal is to eventually see some of these as currencies to replace fiat currencies. But that isn't now, I believe that comes later. Crypto-Currencies are a commodity rather than a currency for most people in most situations today.
Also right now, the path toward cashing out that Crypto-Currency generally leads you to BTC. Nearly all the "how to turn your crypto-currency into USD" type guides and paths that I can find, require you to take that Steem or Ether or (insert Crypto-Currency name here), convert it to BTC, then sell that for U.S. Dollars (USD) or some other form of fiat currency.
Because of this, all rivers flow to BTC.
As far as I can tell, that happened mostly by accident. BTC is perceived as "safe" because it has held value among Crypto-Currencies the longest. It's had the most time to devote support to it in the form of the various exchanges. In terms of tools and in the widest perception of it having value. So BTC locked in this crucial job of serving as the gold standard transfer Crypto-Currency. All rivers flow through BTC.
What if someone changed the flow of that river by design? What if someone intentionally sought to do what BTC is currently doing by accident?
The problem with cashing out via BTC is multi-faceted. There are high fees, there's slow transactions and there's price volatility. All that hard-earned Steem or Ether, converted to BTC, might gain or lose a lot of value before it makes it into a fiat currency.
To use a stock metaphor. It's like to sell my Amazon stock for cash, I gotta trade it for Apple stock. Then sell the Apple stock. It doesn't make sense. I'm trying to get out of the market, not deeper into it.
BTC is a poor "gold standard" as a transfer currency. It was never built to do that. It's flaws in this department are glaring. There's an opportunity to plug in something else as the transfer currency of choice by exhibiting a fairly stable value, undercutting the BTC fees, and having a big enough net-number of users to be perceived as another transfer currency of choice.
What the Crypto-Currency world really needs, is a specialized crypto-currency instrument, with more restrictive, standardized value to it. Something stable and predictable....
Which brings me to Steem Dollars.
Steem Dollars by design are a fairly stable asset, tied in value to the US Dollar. There might be some fluctuations in their value but if I understand it correctly, Steem Dollars are like a savings tool. You are locking it into a fairly specific price range. Any Crypto-Currency locked into Steem Dollars stops becoming a price maniac.
To use a metaphor. Locking in value in Steem Dollars is like putting your money in a Swiss Bank Account. It's trusted, it's reliable. It isn't going to go way up in value, but it isn't going to crash either.
Steem Dollars, I think, can be that for the Crypto-Currency world. Steem (and Steemit) have built into itself a savings tool that could be a conduit from other types of Crypto-Currency, to something like USD.
It's not that hard to envision. Tesla didn't invent electric cars. They invented a good battery pack. But there isn't a market for a good battery pack that doesn't go to anything. So they built electric cars that use their battery pack.
Steem is tied to Steemit. A platform-based Crypto-Currency. But what if Steem Dollars also became the Transfer-to-Fiat Crypto-Currency of choice? Utilized by people who just want to get their financial earnings out of Crypto-Currency and back to USD or some other kind of fiat money.
If that happened, Steem would be tied to two things, not just one thing. The more places in which Steem merges with people's daily lives, the more valuable it will be perceived.
So I'm no Crypto-Currency expert, by a long shot. So my thought processes on this might be flawed. What I'm suggesting might be impossible. But as a casual user of Steemit, I feel like there's an opportunity there and I just wanted to call it out to my fellow Steemians.