It is very easy to get tunnel vision when looking at a project like Steem.

Each day numbers are posted and they are going down.  The number of sign ups is much lower than in the past.  The retention rate looks poor.  And to top it all off, for a social media/blogging platform, posting (activity) is down. 

All this is enough to lead one to believe Steem is crashing.  

The truth is what we are seeing is par for the course.  In fact, a case could be made that Steem is holding its own.

![dapp.png](https://ipfs.busy.org/ipfs/QmRtJSz8rSKnUdY55aTJ1hyu7GG4qTgogpvxaBmea3Xf4Q)


A recent report released by DAPP.com detailing the trends in DApps tells a similar story.  In other words, Steem is not alone.

To start, transaction volume over DApps was $2.03B for the quarter, which is a drop of 40%.  This included what it thinks is the major DApp platforms:  Ethereum, EOS, Steem, TRON, TomoChain and IOST.

At the same time, the development of DApps slowed greatly.  In quarter 2, there were 164.6 apps developed each month while Q3 saw a drop to 150 for total for the entire quarter.

Decentralized Finance is starting to penetrate the DApp world, replacing gambling as the Big Kahuna.  One of the major problems with charting traffic is the revelation that most of it is from bots.  Both Tron and EOS applications are revealed to have a lot of bot traffic on their gambling DApps.

DeFi could be a major shift for the blockchain world.  The market is enormous compared to that of gambling.  It rings in at $1.5T compared to $450B for the later.

The full write up and report can be viewed:

  https://cryptobriefing.com/dapps-out-defi-in-dapp-q3-report/

https://www.dapp.com/article/dapp-com-q3-2019-dapp-market-report

It is easy to see that the entire market is suffering.  The fact that Steem is listed as one of the major DApp platforms is encouraging.  Following the overall trend is not although it does show that what is being experienced on here is not unique.

Another important point is to watch the shift to decentralized finance.  I wrote about this on a few occasions and it is going to be, in my opinion, one of the major thrusts going forward.  The financial world is primed for disruption since the present system is so wrought with corruption.  Applications that either focus upon this or implement it into their projects are going to fare much better.

Yesterday, I got an email from Robinhood announcing that people could earn 2.05% APY on their cryptoholdings through that application.  It is starting to appear throughout the crypto world.

In news related to this entire topic, Steemit Inc announced that it is going to start sending out a newsletter to all the accounts that it has emails for on file.  This is in an effort to update people as to what is taking place on Steem in an effort to attract some of the more than 1M users who set up accounts yet are not active.

https://steempeak.com/newsletter/@steemitblog/announcing-the-steemit-newsletter

This is obviously a terrific move.  I am not sure how many actually are on the mailing list but even a hundred thousand emails would be helpful.  It is easy for the community to get "lost" especially with how things were in the past.  

Steem has a new attitude which is positive.  There is a lot more excitement being generated compared to a year ago.  Of course, those who read my articles know I feel the true excitement will come next Spring when SMTs and the RC Pool goes live.  Nevertheless, in the meantime, we have a lot to show people who were away for a while.

Overall, Steem is progressing very nicely in my opinion.  We need to understand this entire industry is still a major work in progress.  The comparison to the centralized applications that are around more than a decade is not a legitimate one.  Presently, there are a lot of advantages they hold as compared to the decentralized counterparts.

That is continually changing.  Innovation is on the side of the decentralized applications with the foundation being laid.  The magnitude of the moves in this industry are much greater since it is so new.  Hence, another 50,000 people is a major jump as compared to something like Reddit or Twitter.

We are dealing with technology and that takes time.  It is easy to over estimate the impact of new tech in the short term.  We all get impatient with something that we know is going to change things greatly.  

Apple sold 1.35M IPhones globally in 2007.  That sounds like a lot until one realized it sold 231M in 2015, just 8 years later.

https://www.statista.com/statistics/276306/global-apple-iphone-sales-since-fiscal-year-2007/

Continual progress is what is going to keep the ball moving.  At some point, all that is being accomplished in the blockchain/cryptocurrency world is going to get the attention of the population.  When it does, those platforms that remained consistent with the development will be in a strong position to benefit.  

In my opinion, Steem is going to be one of them.

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