At the time of writing, Bitcoin's total number of transactions is at ~276 million entries. How about Steem? According to Steemdata, Steem's total number of transactions is currently at ~211 million entries. Note that Steem is only ~2 years old while Bitcoin is ~9 years old. The speed of disruption is certainly getting quicker these days. We are at 76% progress in number of transactions. Conservatively, it will take 1 or 2 more years to catch up. As for Ethereum, Steem has already surpassed its current total transactions of ~92 million entries. According to https://blocktivity.info, Steem is currently ahead of the pack with the highest rate of transaction as well. It just means that the network is very active in the cryptosphere.

_{Clarification: Please correct me on the numbers and stats if I'm wrong.}

But, isn't Steem filled with spammy transactions?

Arbitrary transaction fees used to limit spam in most cryptocurrency networks are instead, replaced by community regulation and account bandwidth on Steem. So the spam might not be as overwhelming as you might think it is, although naturally there's definitely more here compared to any other networks. However, Steem also allows for low-barrier, quicker transactions and higher throughput, thus providing superior user experience. Users don't have to worry about transaction fees and ETA everytime they use it. There's a larger scope for innovation as well.

Steem goes to great lengths to reward people for contributing to the network. It would be counterproductive to turn around and charge people every time they attempt to interact with the community. Truly decentralized applications must offer users the appearance of free transactions if they wish to compete with their centralized alternatives. Imagine solving the email spam problem by introducing a small fee on every email; people wouldn’t use email.
_{Excerpt from the Steem Whitepaper}

The user experience matters

One of the greatest business hurdles nowadays is to get the attention of users. There's just too much information. This is why cryptocurrencies are a great gateway as it currently has the potent mix of money and functionality that works better in cutting through the noise. It's an irresistible offer. The easiest way to sell cryptocurrencies to any average user is to let them experience it right away. Give them some coins to play around and transact with. A good majority will get hooked through repeated use that create a sense of ownership. @grantcardone laid the smack down in his recent interview on @ivanli's channel.

@grantcardone definitely knows his no-nonsense, straight-to-the-point sales common sense. In 13:20 of the video, he entertainingly said:-

"The problem you guys have is y'all have Bitcoin conversations and crypto debates. And you sound like a bunch of fuckin' over.. over.. like you sound like you're from another world! Just give me the freaking Bitcoin bro, just give me a piece. What does a drug dealer do? He didn't need explain his drug.. he's like.. just try it man.. try it bro!"

So in my opinion, Steem actually does this exceptionally well already being the freemium layer of cryptocurrencies. Experience it right away just by posting and voting. Plus, I've never seen any other communities on the Internet that's so eager to give. It's engineered to facilitate frequent transfers between users and communities. All that Steem lacks at the moment is the capital growth and market acceptance that Bitcoin is currently experiencing.

The money can only go so far, so what about utility?

If Bitcoin doesn't offer access to external resources and high return-on-investment, what other utility does it have? Better security and efficiency for the individual compared to fiat-currency systems - that's a given, since they're the core features of cryptocurrency. But there's really nothing else you can do with Bitcoin, and Steem already does everything better. Also, Bitcoin relies too much on expensive energy. The protocol would need something like a Dyson Sphere in 10 years if the rising power requirement remains on its current trajectory. Just half-joking, but you get what I mean.

Steem has a distinct use-case. The vested token has the utility of providing users with access to network influence. There's a social game-element that users may earn or buy into, and this shouldn't come as a surprise since both social and gaming industries are huge for obvious reasons. It's so closely tied to user experience that no other cryptocurrencies out there currently exhibit this utility. With Steem's number of transactions catching up to Bitcoin's, we'll probably start to see more market demand for the currency, especially when the user experience is greatly improved through user-interfaces and well-curated communities in the future.

Is Steem catching up?

It was reported recently that Coinbase just surpassed the number of users on Charles Schwab. At ~14 million accounts at the moment, Steem needs about 30 more times adoption before meeting this benchmark in terms of accounts. Regardless on the volume of users, greater market share will come when users feel more secure and confident about the technology, something which can only happen through frequent usage and superior user experience. It can only be proven over time.

Bitcoin conversations and crypto debates are fun, in my opinion. But as @grantcardone said, let's try to put more focus into getting people to transact, transfer, and move products between users. This also means more communication. The many different communities popping up on Steem alone is already facilitating this notion in various ways. An incentivised public content platform also creates social networks, forming trust and confidence in the system. So while Bitcoin and other major cryptocurrencies are enjoying capital growth and market acceptance at the moment, all these money needs to translate to actual long-term use at some point in time in order to sustain itself. This is where Steem will shine in the ecosystem of cryptocurrencies. Steem on!

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Side thoughts about voting

As far as I know, most tycoons understand one thing: hire people that are smarter than themselves. So in the case of Steem, spreading votes on the work of others is always the better move. That's how we diversify into getting smarter people to help grow our accounts and the platform. We can't see and do everything by ourselves.

Resources

Steem's whitepaper: https://steem.io/SteemWhitePaper.pdf
Steem's bluepaper: https://steem.io/steem-bluepaper.pdf
Smart Media Tokens whitepaper: https://smt.steem.io/smt-whitepaper.pdf

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_{This is not to be taken as financial advice. @grantcardone is currently on Steem, but this post isn't a written endorsement from him. Just my take on his recent interview with respect to Bitcoin, etc. First image is a modified screenshot of Mass Effect. The other images are from Pexels.}