Thanks for the great post. In my expectation, powering down will continue til `total_vesting_fund_steem` reaches 90% (currently it is around 96%). This may happen in 6 months.

Good point ... as always. :)

Did you abandon all your NXT projects and developments?

I got out of NXT about a year ago and got into DASH. I could not be happier with the decision as my assets multiplied several fold,  despite the fact that I still think NXT could have a promising future.

First of all we need to prolong the exposure of the posts to the community or else Steem will degrade into a cockroach race for numbers with no respect for content quality at all.
Here is my suggestion for [the solution](https://steemit.com/steemit/@cuckoo/future-of-steem-five-questions-and-one-solution) to this grave problem.

Sure they will power down but that gives content producers a chance to power up. We will find equilibrium.
https://media.giphy.com/media/BmWXKNQPpzyVi/giphy.gif

Lets hope for a better steemit community in the years to come.

멋찌세요~

Thanks for giving us a solid long-term view, with common sense added. 

There's another reason for the "grab it while you can" effect: STEEM's success has been sudden, and sudden success reinforces "too good to be true" skepticism.  I can see a level-headed person who got >$1000 in Steem dollars saying to himself, "Well, I won the lottery; I'd better cash in my scratch ticket. " 

"won the lottery" is the go-to analogy for a sudden financial windfall. Not surprising that sensible folks act accordingly. 

Myself, I've put my rewards into more STEEM: i.e., I've used them to power up. But then again, I'm something of a fool ;)

Interesting article jl777, I remember you from the NXT forums, I used to be an investor 1 year ago.

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I also think that the inflation is not a concern, it will trickle down slower given that it takes 2 years to power down, and they might not all cashout, they can keep the money in Steem Dollar, which does not add to inflation, but it's more liquid than SP.

I have my theory too:
https://steemit.com/steemit/@profitgenerator/steem-inflation-doesn-t-decrease-steem-price-immediately

I think cheap Steem is good for now. But soon the need for new users who want to make up the power, balanced whales power down. And the price will go up.

"Considering the rapid growth in userbase..."

Actually, there has been a 33% contraction in (posts + replies + edits/day) in the last 3 weeks 27,000/day to 18,000/day.  This probably the best metric. Users active last 24 hours is  flat and bounces around between 5,000 to 7,000 users/day (also a good metric). 

https://steemle.com/charts.php?charts=posts
https://steemd.com/distribution

This is happening while a lot of money is being given away. So by now it should be obvious Steemit is not Reddit and must focus on becoming the crypto version of Seeking Alpha. Then you expand into the broad financial markets and challenge Seeking Alpha. It can be done, but is there any roadmap?