It's a real interesting concept, and I see it starting here and there around steem. Generally it seems to start with a topic (interest) and goes from there...
I love the SteemEngine/Pal concept. A coin with some value that's got a chance to move beyond the content creation model to real social media applications. Since it's a side chain it doesn't need to record everything on Steem so it's fast and easy.
Then throw Lira into the mix. Zuck and friends really surprised me with their willingness for long term growth and profit as opposed to instant zillions from an ICO of epic proportions. Rather than 'centralize' the chain, run the centralization off the RESULTS of the transactions of the chain. A small fraction of a billion transactions is a fair piece of change. Lira predicts 1000 transactions per second for 3 billion members. Could Lira become the 'new standard' alt coin?
I certainly don't know. What I do know is that people will band together where ever they might hang out, Steem is a good a base and place as there is for that.