What makes this both a unique and uniquely difficult project is you have Steemit the platform and STEEM and STEEM Based Dollars, the currencies. In many ways they are all used and perceived as interchangeable when the ecosystem is discussed.

From a product development standpoint Steemit is still in its infancy. In this phase, the focus needs to be on grabbing market share and users more than investors. I don't think that speeding up the Power Down time frame will help. I have worked in a few startups with Venture Capital, and, generally speaking, my experience dealing with them is they are willing to be patient and play the long game, hoping for multiples of what they invest in down the road.

I think the message being sent to the market about what Steemit is and does is creating some seriously bad expectations in the minds of new users and the rewards system (in its current form) is a pretty serious negative feedback loop, which discourages new content discovery and reward. Why risk finding new content for curation when I can dogpile a sure thing and be assured a reward? Until that is resolved, the user churn will continue and the user retention seems to back that position.

From the standpoint of STEEM and Steem Based Dollars being a crypto, I think the issue of utility needs to be addressed (ie. where can I spend STEEM or STB directly without having to loose value exchanging to fiat first) and the issue of liquidity needs to be addressed (ie increase the number of exchanges this can be traded on). @ hisnameisollie had an awesome analysis on why the price of STEEM is falling currenty https://steemit.com/steem-help/@hisnameisolllie/the-push-and-pull-effect-of-steem-power-incentives-why-the-of-steem-held-in-steem-power-will-tend-to-90-overtime

My $0.02 anyway...