Its a very unique platform and encourages quality on the web. It gathers serious contributors who can even financially gain from their efforts. Crypto currencies are more likely to survive if they are at least backed by something and a powerful social platform like steemit is a clever idea. Other cryptos I fear will suffer once the Euphoria dies away, as is already happening, but there is definitely a future for some of them. It must worry the banks and especially the central banks with this new independence from their controlled systems. Where will Bitcoin be end of 2018 ? Hard call, but my guess would be MUCH lower.