Steem is better than Ripple
Steem is better than Bitcoin Cash
Steem is better than Stellar
Steem is better than Litecoin
Steem is better than Tether

All of these coins are in the top ten right now.
Why does Steem continue to hover in the 30's?

Hard to take us seriously.

If you look at all the drama on Steem it's not hard to see why investors wouldn't want to get on board. Even worse, Steemit Inc is constantly marketing the platform under false pretenses. We like to tout proof-of-brain while the whales continue to exploit our true proof-of-stake identity.

Centralized

You can't blame the witnesses for implementing HF20. Steemit Inc still controls the blockchain. How many millions of coins are they in control of again? Do you really think it would be that difficult for them to vote in witnesses that will do whatever they say to do?

Truth be told, I'd rather have Steemit Inc controlling those coins until heuristics are developed to find trustworthy holders. It's better to have the developers in control than it is to hand over the reins to anyone with a bankroll.

Untapped potential

When most people look at Steem they see a blogging platform. They see competition for Reddit. Even our frontend name is a bite on Reddit. But that's the thing, Steemit is just one tiny application on the blockchain, and most people do not understand that.

The more developed we become the more the world will see that we are capable of so much more than being some Podunk blogging site. In fact, in five years I'd be willing to bet that blogging and vlogging will be one of the lesser known features of the blockchain. There are many applications being developed here that could easily overshadow the original main function.

Massively underdeveloped

I don't agree with how Steemit INC is racing toward SMTs ASAP. They are leaving quite a mess in the wake of their overzealous rush to the "finish line". However, I'm still excited for where this is all going. Once SMTs finally come out, the dev team can turn around and start tying up the loose ends. HF21 will be SMTs. I think HF22 will be the time for us to gain massive value because everything is getting organized and tidied up.

All of the side chains that get created by SMTs will decentralize Steem in a big way. A lot of these projects are going to demand much higher standards from the dev team. They will not allow disasters like HF20 to take place because it hurts their own project as well. In fact, a lot of these SMTs might even have incentive to help stabilize the platform themselves. Steemit Inc needs all the help it can get.

Conclusion

Steem is undervalued. HF20 should be a sign for everyone that we are getting ready to scale. Scaling up means coins and bandwidth will become much more rare. Even the government is preparing for the moon, are you?