There is a great contest going on right now where @stoodkev is challenging everyone to creat a Steem Elevator Pitch in video form. In this contest he's challenging everyone to come up with a clear (don't just try and talk really fast) and concise (fit as much valuable content as possible) in a one minute video.

To try and gather my thoughts so I'm just not filming a thousand videos, I'm going to use this post to try and create some talking points. If others would like to use this to create their own video feel free, but all I ask is just don't read off my list of talking points either think of a creative way to talk about it, expand on one or two of my points, or some other way to use this information, but present it differently.

More than a Whitepaper

I saw one person write in the comment of the post, that people shouldn't be forgetting about the Whitepaper an Bluepaper for Steem. I think most if not all what's in whitepapers is garbage that focuses on who has the most transactions per second, the cheapest transaction fees, whose security system (POW, POS, DPOS, etc.) is best.

If I see a person in an elevator that is familiar with blockchain I cover all that in one sentence, Steem is a fast blockchain with free transactions that uses DPOS. Steem is an inflationary currency that helps promote the use of the currency rather than holding it for future gains. Steem has dapps, smart contracts, side chains, and a very active community that is continuously working on improvements outside of the core devs.

Continuous Steemit Improvements

Steemit has been recently working on SMTs and impoving the Steemit website in which we recently got a sample of how they're integrating communities with the Beta site. This will allow content creators and communities to easily tokenize their content and have an alternative form of income.

This is a decentralized income stream. In recent months, how many YouTube content creators have had their ad revenue cut, or loss due to changes in what content is acceptable according to YouTube. I know Crypto Faucet sites loss all their Google Adsense revenue due to changes in Google Adsense Terms of Service as well. Creators can switch to Patreon, but then only get a certain percentage of all the donations.

With SMTs (Smart Media Tokens), creators could get 100% of the donations sent to them through the purchase of SMTs which will allow another option for monetizing content which should be simple, easy for supporters to use, and besides maybe an initial fee to help get set-up and started, free of fees to use.

Steemit has recently completed improvements to the code to make nodes easier to run and less costly over the long term. With more nodes, this helps to secure the Steem network for the long term. Steemit has also broken out wallets from the main site to help make them more secure.

Continuous Community Improvements

The creation of Dapps like keychain and steemconnect which helps new users be able to onboard easier, not requiring them to remember or have to input their keys constantly reducing the security of your private keys. For those not familiar Keychain is the equivalent of Metamask on the Ethereum network.

New and improved frontends. Steempeak deserves a huge shoutout for all the development efforts they have put in to improve the User Interface for Steemit. They have quickly integrated communities into their website, as well as personal metrics, an improved notification system, quickly claiming rewards, and developed Peakmonsters which I can talk more on later. There are a few others that deserve shoutouts such as the Engrave, Busy, and SteemLeo which I like to use.

The creation of communities has also created many opportunities within the Steem blockchain. Opportunities for more content creators to get noticed and rewarded, as well as people getting compensated for helping to currate and ensure good content is highlighted on the platform, as well as chances for traders to speculate on the success of said communities. Some communities I'd like to highlight are the Steem Leo and the PAL community.

Minnow Support Projects PAL has been an established community to help people onboard into Steemit, Steem, and the crypto comunity, and Steem Leo is a new community for investors that has done a great job creating value of there token through partnerships, rewarding great content, and creating tools such as the Leo Dex. If you're interested in other communities be sure the check out Appics, Actifit, Fundition

Dapps! Splinterlands has been a huge success so far and I don't seeing it slowing down anytime soon. This is where the fast and free transactions comes in huge for the Steem Blockchain. Ranked #2 on State of the Dapps this Dapp is addicting, rewards its users with daily quests and season rewards, is fast paced, and a healthy 3rd party market, including a rental market via Peakmonsters which is the sister site to Steempeak. Not to mention the Splinterlands has completed several successful kickstarters, has a token of there own (SPT), skins to change the look of your cards, and people that are constantly working on lore for the game.

The Steem-Engine team has created a token creation system, dex, and is now working on NFTs and becoming a money transfer so that tokens can be purchased via USD. There are investment tokens, tokens backed by silver, tokens backed by communities, plenty of crap coins, a token that's pegged to the USD, a token to invest in the Splinterlands business, and pegged tokens that are back by the cypto they are pegged to. They also have candlestick charts on their beta site.

Conclusion and Future of Steem

Steem via Steemit and other communities is a great way to onboard new people to crypto. They have to create an account, learn what keys are, how to transfer crypto, how to use Keychain or Steemconnect to interact with the blockchain, and built in communities already set-up to onboard and answer questions for new users.

We have the knowledge and leaders in the space that have already taken blockchain by the horns and can help mentor others on setting-up and creating their own blockchain project. Steem-Leo offers a service to help individuals set-up communities and troubles/successes they have had on their journey. Steem-Engine also offers a similer service for setting up new tokens. Both these examples also serve to provide value to both of these tokens.

I've written about it before, but I can see Steemit and the Steem blockchain becoming the hub or crossroads of all things crypto. I can see it becoming the source of all the news in the space, any new crypto or dapp announcement will take place first. It can be an avenue of getting people excited about new projects by doing giveaways on Steemit or on Steem-Engine. It can be an avenue of promoting yourself as well, by purchasing Steem and self voting your own articles to "advertise" what you're doing and updates you're making.

The foundation of crypto will be built through Steem. I'm not a Steem maximalist and saying Steem will be the only blockchain in the future, but the people building on Steem are starting a great foundation of what blockchain will be able to provide for the future. Steem has the beginnings of a strong social network, Dex, Token creation system, Dapps, and members who openly share their knowledge. I can see the Steem blockchain being the place where new Dapp games are started, new projects that may go on to create their own blockchain, and a new way to monetize your time and knowledge that is shared on the internet.

Steem is the build-it and they will come of the industry.

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^{Originally posted on All things Crypto and Dapp Related. Steem blog powered by ENGRAVE.}