(Picture of Old Faithful, Yellowstone National Park)
STEEM has now reached $1 and continues to climb, but many people aren't sure what to expect next. So here is an outline of how Cryptocurrencies grow.
When a coin is first created, there are very few adopters, a coin can maybe reach a few forums, or an institution, but a coin never starts with a large user base. So when a coin first starts off, it will be low in value. STEEM has done better than most coins, in that it has been able to reach a fairly large user base in a short period of time. But it's not finished.
When Bitcoin started it was not very useful, you could not use it anywhere and you could not trade it for anything. Then eventually different markets began to open and the price went from $0 to $5 and up and up.
As Bitcoin reached $30, some people who knew what they were talking about, said: "It will go back to $5, and people who can't afford a $30 Bitcoin will be able to get in" (Because at that time a $30 Bitcoin had never been seen before).
Then as Bitcoin reached $100, some people said: "This is artificial, it will go back to $30 and fluctuate around there"
And as Bitcoin reached $500, some people said: "It will never reach $1000, and it will fluctuate around $500".
Finally when it got to $1000, those people said: "Sell, sell, sell!".
And they were right about the last one.
The point of explaining that is to say that STEEM is no where near finished. While the $1 Milestone is a great achievement, user adoption is still very very low. One major thing that many Bitcoin veterans and experts fail to realize is that not everyone is using Bitcoin yet, it may seem like everyone knows what it is, and knows how to use it, but many people have not even heard of it. Even some people who use Github every day of their lives and have been coding in C since the 70s and 80s, have never heard of Bitcoin. That is what allows it to continue growing past its expected potential, and STEEM has not even dipped its toe into the ocean of people in the world. It is ready to explode.
As STEEM continues to grow in the Bitcoin community, it will gain value. Then as STEEM continues to grow outside of the Bitcoin community, it will gain even more value. Then as those people learn about coins, STEEM could very well bring a large number of people to the Cryptocurrency world that have never been part of it before.
And that is just user adoption. There is still no STEEM computer parts website, or STEEM gift shop, or STEEM app, or STEEM ATM, and as those ventures are started by the STEEM content creators who are getting paid in STEEM, STEEM will continue to grow even further. There may be times when the Trade Volume is lopsided and there are more sellers than buyers, and that will cause the price to drop at various times, but as more savvy investors get involved in the STEEM markets, they will see that as the opportunity to buy cheap STEEM and the prices will go back up. STEEM is no where near done growing.
When STEEM prices go down, use Bitcoins to buy STEEM. As Bitcoin prices go up, use Bitcoins to buy STEEM. As STEEM prices go up, use STEEM to buy Bitcoin. As Bitcoin prices go down, use STEEM to buy Bitcoins. Doing just those 4 things you can go back and forth between STEEM and Bitcoin and earn money as each loses or gains value, but when you are trading between the two, pay attention to make sure that you are not buying a coin at its peak. You only want to buy coins that will continue going up, or that have gone down and will go back up, if it seems to have peaked keep the coin you have before the Plateau.
STEEM is building up in a geyser right now, and the content creators/people sharing links are the liquid stone that is boiling it.