I lost faith in steem some time ago, due to the Whale problem and the fact that only the whales can take away their own power. However Steem is still VERY useful, if only as an immutable ledger for text communication and broadcasts. I do share with you that Steem will grow during 2017, I personally will be using it quite a lot. However I feel that the financial cases for using steem are flawed. A basic income is granted to EVERYONE, steem is administered by the whales. I've not fully considered how much of an effect the 3 month power down will have, but my initial thoughts are it will go some way to removing their seemingly limitless power. Great article though thanks for sharing. Ive been following you for months now

I'm hopeful for steem too. Nice post.

I think you need a more robust disclaimer - you heard me yesterday and you have no justification to purport as you do in the face of reality - this post is classic whale strategy - lots of votes, no content - well done kevin - very very wong

>Steemit acts like a crowdfunding platform that goes to all kinds of entities (groups, individuals).

You are absolutely right...I have touched [subject briefly myself here](https://steemit.com/steem/@good-karma/why-steem-is-successful-dao). Potential is huge and we only see tip of the iceberg, as @ned said it couple times. 2017 will be year of Steem!

2017 is going to be a great year for the crypto currency community and I am sure Steemit will get plenty of love.

Nice insightful look at the possibilities... in these markets any and all logical approaches could flip on a dime... it's all a crap-shoot.

Very informative post, thanks for sharing, Kevin. I enjoyed reading it!
Upvoted and followed.

Awesome post, Im gonna power up another 1000 steem today

I should be more active again but 2016 robbed my energy ....let's get it in 2017. Great summery Kevin

Thank you for sharing this information.

I consider Steem Blockchain one of the most advance Blockchain for these reasons: zero transaction fee,  3 seconds confirmation time, can process upto 100 000 trx/s, first mover advantage in social & mainstream. These are huge advantage to take in consideration when comparing with other Blockchain (Ethereum, Synereo, Akasha etc.) . It's take to build a business or a good community. It's a baby and you need to make sure he grow well. So I'm not worry about the whales issue. They don't control de network, nor the Blockchain.  Technologically speaking, Steem has the last miles possible in transaction fee (zero). Imagine if you are the CEO of social media start-up building on Ethereum and some one just announce to you that your competitior is charging zero fee. What would be your reaction, where do you think your customer/user will go when they learn that Busy.org , SteemQ, SteemSport (all Steem Blockchain projects) are charging zero fee in transactions.  That's were I see the power of Steem and It will be difficult to beat this advantage.  Imagine that with our reputation system, we can start building insurance, micro-payment, remittance services for developing world, build on Steem Blockchain.  The future is bright here, we just need to give the community time and keep participating. Steem is 2 yeards ahead of the curve. That's why people don't understand what is really going on because Bitcoin is still finding it's way to scale. Dan the genius behind Steem have been building these tools since 2013. Power to Steem.

I think this positive community and steemit ability to actualize ideas is very compelling. 

Here's to a great 2017! 🍻

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A little birdy told me that there's going to be another roadmap announcement on the 1st of January as well, from another start up using `steem_api` for something revolutionary to its industry. Exciting times ahead!