So I've spent some time over the weekend attempting to summarize Steem's ingredients for long-term growth. What is it that makes it tick? I had to answer my mum as well and I wanted a simple, streamlined explanation. Here's something easy to remember: just remember ASDF!
Steem is Antifragile, Superconductive, Darwinian, and Fun!
1. Anti-fragile
Steem is anti-fragile. It does not merely withstand a turbulent market, but becomes more appealing under such conditions. The reason is this: value is subjective within the Steemit network. This enables the decentralized community to organize itself to independently unearth Steem's value streams. Experimentation is key.
The absence of heavy-handed censorship also means that risks are not artificially suppressed like what most traditional, centralized organizations do. This keeps the community on edge to continuously learn and fix problems along the way, instead of dealing with a massive blowout from years of risk suppression. Even Steem's failsafe is designed to avoid total market meltdown: 2 years of slow death from Steem Power liquidation. An ample time for the community to work together to regain market confidence.
2. Superconductive
Steem's value distribution mechanism is as simple (and as fast) as our decision to upvote, downvote, or ignore. If each individual Steemian represents a neuron in the brain, then Steemit is the ever expanding collective consciousness. It is designed to be low-barrier, low-resistance in all forms.
All you have to do is think about stuff, do stuff, and then get valuable feedback from the community. Steemit is speeding up conscious and meaningful communication. It's like fitting everyone right next to each other in one human mind. Learning and empathizing at the speed of light.
3. Darwinian (non-violent)
With thousands of stories being shared everyday, attention tends to converge only on select articles. The network's collective valuation for stories fluctuate over time, and no one single topic stays in the highlight forever. There is a sruvival of the fittest element to the posts on Steemit, albeit non-violent ones. You just fail to meet personal expectations.
There is also a Darwinian incentive not to disparage others and abuse the system. In that, I believe strongly that our collective minds will ensure Steem's survivability in the long run. It is what makes us different from other animals - our ability to adapt, and collaborate on a massive scale.
4. Fun
Every action that you perform on Steemit yields actual rewards, even if intangible through the many interpersonal connections that you make. Find your voice, be whoever you want to be, and do anything constructive in the platform. It's very liberating.
Instant gratification is also built into the system with dollar signs as its gamifiication factor. Plus, developers are constantly building fun and interesting applications on top of Steem / Steemit. At its core, Steemit is a social platform with the added surprise of rewards. What's more fun than that? Fun is a sustainable activity.
Looking back at the ASDF, I'm almost convinced that Steem / Steemit is modeled after the human brain. May the global collective consciousness be tapped into like never before.