It seems to me like both Steem and Ethereum are highly undervalued.
Comparing them to each other feels like apples to oranges, though. They are functionally different platforms, meant for different purposes, and have distinct (even if often overlapping) developer ecosystems.
The way I see it, STEEM as a crypto asset has the potential to follow a 2017 ETH trajectory – which would mean 80x-100x in 2018. The value of a well tested (compared to other blockchain platforms) media publishing and sharing network, designed specifically to incentivize network effects for content creators & social media users everywhere is hard to deny.
It will hit a sudden inflection point in adoption and media attention, with all of the capital that follows, when account creation is simplified, the UX of Steem based interfaces like Busy, DTube, DLive, Steepshot, and Steemit continue to improve, and the Communities feature goes live. That last one will have a massive impact.
That's why I've been telling everyone I know to pay a lot more attention to Steem (the blockchain & the assorted cryptos). To join this community, post about anything they care about, and buy Steem. If history is any guide, they'll continue to ignore it until FOMO becomes too much for them – and complain about why they didn't see the opportunity sooner.
Same thing is happening with Bitcoin and Ethereum now, even if for entirely different reasons than what will drive Steem adoption...
I went to a crypto event run by a friend of mine in NYC last week where 9000 people – mostly institutional investor types – tried to get in to a venue that unfortunately only had space for ~100. Key takeaway: Hundreds of billions of dollars are about to flood in to crypto markets from institutional and retail investors.
tldr; Mike Novogratz is right: The herd is coming.
b tway: can you talk more about this meeting? are there photos?!
I'm planning to do a full write up of that event and a few others I've gone to over the last week tomorrow. Will cross post the link for that here when I do.
The question is is it a good thing that the herd is coming? Up until now, retail investors are the power behind the rise of bitcoin and ether. Now the pros are getting excited. Wall Street money managers have a long history of creating pump and dump scams and all kinds of accounting tricks. It would be very easy for them to apply the tricks on the ICO market as the market does not have regulations or third party audition for their financial books.
I don't know whether it's good or bad. Just that it's happening... and that it was probably inevitable.
It's a strong part of why I see value in the potential of Ethereum, crypto games & Steem as platforms for viral user growth: We're in a race with established institutional players to spread access to cryptoeconomic opportunity to everyone on the planet.
IMO, when everyone has substantial access to networked markets, financial literacy becomes the new standard, and incentives better align against institutional abuses.
i agree, great comment!!