Steem is the first currency that allows anyone to work their way in (not just technologically savvy, capital intensive miners). It is the only currency that doesn’t ask people for money.
Precisely. The crypto crowd who might dislike steem WILL benefit from steem indirectly, because the cryptosphere is expanding, the network effect is growing and consequently the price rises for bitcoins and altcoins. New people enter and since they are paid in cryptocurrency, they are "forced" to get acquainted with it through incentive. They blog, they get paid, and then they learn how crypto operates. In a sense, it is in the best interest of the whole ecosystem for steem to be successful as it will have a positive effect on crypto-demographics.
As I see it, it is actually the only application that is running right now that can do that. ETH may have 1+ bn marketcap yet smart contract use cases are too few and too problematic for the average user.
Blogging/posting is an entirely different issue altogether because it is extremely accessible. This has a multi-million user potential, smart-contracts not so much. We could be writing our lines right now in the "killer-app" that brought crypto to the masses in a very legitimate way and not "dark-web'ish" type of way.
A very valid point alexgr. I certainly wasn't a stranger to cryptocurrency before joining Steemit, but I'm more much engaged with it now. It also comes up in discussion with friends who 2 weeks ago didn't know what cryptocurrency was!