### Space travel (officially) hasn't advanced very far in the past century due to the cost of getting weight up into the atmosphere. 
Gravity is a bitch and getting things off the ground requires tremendous energy. That expense of energy necessarily requires a point, beyond flying in the air for a bit and falling to the ground eventually (why bottlerockets are cheap). 

Looking at the cryptocurrency top 10 list, I realized an analogy -- only a few cryptocurrencies appear to have a payload worth getting into orbit.

I argue Steem is one of those.

Follow along for a moment...

* Bitcoin is the main drive chain providing access to applied force to all other cryptocurrencies, via exchanges and supply/demand
* Ethereum provides a payload based on the promise of smart contracts and the flexibility/security that can and will provide commerce and governments in the future. 
* Monero, ZCash and provide a payload that allows crypto users access to provable privacy, something that is also in demand (and will undoubtedly continue to be)
* BitShares appears to be acting as a tether bridge to things like Steem and EOS in the future

This may anger some super fans, and I'm certain there are use cases that I've missed, but I don't see much else on the immediate horizon as far as use cases go in crypto.

### Steem Payload Value Proposition - Why This Rocket is Worth Launching
* Simple account names versus complex addresses in crypto competition
* [Less friction in adoption from current social media users](https://steemit.com/steemit/@kerp14/i-was-addicted-to-facebook-but-then-came-steemit)
* Rapidly Growing [user base](https://steemit.com/steemit/@furion/steemit-s-community-engagement-is-up-over-1-000) generating critical mass and defending against competition eating market share
* Stable platform allowing for rapid transactions at essentially zero cost
* Censorship resistance and virtual permanent storage in an age where Facebook and Twitter have become Orwellian Thought Police

### Conclusion
The trajectory of this platform bears out my analysis, and barring some catastrophic failure, I see no reason for it to change in the immediate future. I made these arguments [against Bitcoin Maximalist Tone Vays a year ago](https://steemit.com/steemit/@blakemiles84/the-great-steemit-debate-tone-vays-vs-blakemiles84), and (after the inflation change), my arguments stand as valid then as they did now. 

I've already staked my reputation on this position and will continue to do so. Steem on.

![steemRocket.gif](https://steemitimages.com/DQmSgqXeWruea52QyXDujBz8BQoMSUiXjm1NDCTzbv4iJaU/steemRocket.gif)

[* Image via @tuck_fheman](https://steemit.com/steem/@tuck-fheman/steem-price)