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<p>I was one of the early adopters of Bitcoin. I read about Bitcoin when<br>
it was valued at 10 USD and bought some (not a lot unfortunately) soon after.<br>
Unlike today, <strong>back then nobody talked about Bitcoin and blockchains</strong> and<br>
even fewer people understood the technology behind it.<br>
Buying Bitcoin seemed like a crazy idea to most people I talked too.<br>
For me, it was nothing more than an experiment.<br>
Yet, I was one of the few that understood that<br>
<strong>something big, really big had happened<br>
</strong>and I was there to witness its inception:<br>
<strong>Truly Decentralized Social Systems</strong>.<br>
<br>
A few years later now, like most of you I am equally curious about this new Steem thing.<br>
I quickly signed up and found exactly what I expected:<br>
<strong>Steem content is primarily about Steem.</strong><br>
<br>
<strong>This is typical for new technologies.</strong><br>
At the inception of the internet, the whole internet talked just about the internet.<br>
At first there were personal webpages containing nothing more then<br>
"Welcome to my personal webpage!"<br>
At their inception most people used instant messengers (IM) like<br>
AOL, ICQ for nothing more then discussing the very nature of instant messaging.<br>
Consequently, social media and the Web 2.0 were used for discussing the<br>
Web 2.0 although only few envisioned what that would be.<br>
<br>
While this is okay in the beginning,<br>
<strong>there is a consequence that most people underestimate: hypes</strong>.<br>
The direct consequence of the Internet initial hype was the Dotcom bubble of 2000,<br>
when Internet company stocks first gained, then lost a lot of value.<br>
<img src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/84/Nasdaq_Composite_dot-com_bubble.svg/500px-Nasdaq_Composite_dot-com_bubble.svg.png" width="500" height="280"/></p>
<p>Expectations of the Internet were simply to high for this early stage in 2000<br>
and this is why the price of stocks eventually had to fall.<br>
Yet, as we surely know now,<strong><br>
the Internet was not overrated as a technology,<br>
it just did not yet meet the expectations.</strong></p>
<p>Back in University I learned a very<br>
<strong>useful concept about judging new technology: Gartner's Hype Cycle<br>
</strong><br>
<img src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/94/Gartner_Hype_Cycle.svg/559px-Gartner_Hype_Cycle.svg.png" width="559" height="363"/></p>
<p>This graph tells us that all new technologies initially approach a Peak of Inflated Expectations.<br>
After the dead sure Disillusionment phase they rise on a Slope of Enlightenment until<br>
eventually reaching a Plateau of Productivity.<br>
<br>
So, what do we learn from this?<br>
<strong>While the hype is not here yet for Steem, it will surely come.</strong><br>
Maybe this is also the case for the whole crypto/altcoin scene as a whole.<br>
When the initial hype is over, a phase of Disillusionment will follow.<br>
Steem will loose value and interest from parts of the community.<br>
<br>
But that's okay because after a while (sometimes months or years)<br>
it will rise again to what it really is:<br>
<strong>A productive platform for content creation</strong><br>
<br>
Only then, nobody will talk about it anymore.<br>
Much less newspaper articles will cover it.<br>
The initial enthusiasm will be gone, but it will work like a charm.<br>
<strong>We will just use it, like we use Social Media, but it will be "our Social Media".</strong><br>
We will truly own the content.<br>
So hold and enjoy the rough ride through the hype cycle.<br>
<br>
Sources:<br>
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dot-com_bubble<br>
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hype_cycle</p>
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