Maybe it all walks hand in hand.
Shitposting and scammers may not affect the blockchain's capabilities, but somehow they might influence the project's reputation. People are fickle... and often go more by rumors and reputations than by underlying facts.
I can't help but think somehow we/they jumped the shark by putting so much emphasis on the "money making" aspect of things. Simply put: it was a mistake... the sort of mistake people make when they are afraid (or too impatient?) their idea isn't good enough without a little misleading publicity.
Advertising "free beer and BBQ" will definitely fill a restaurant... but are those people the people you WANT there?
They all promise to be 'the next Bitcoin' when the only next Bitcoin is Bitcoin.
The analogy of next bitcoin is present scenario of bitcoin compared to the future scenario of a blockchain.
There has been numerous next bitcoin by that comparison.
So when btc was $1000, and Eth was $1-$5, they said Eth will be the next bitcoin. Do you think ETH now at $800 won't get to $1000?
As such is the logic of the metaphor.
Just pointing it out.
Here is the same logic as Eth that is relevant to our Steem scenario:
If you think bitcoin can get to $1million at say 20+million coins produced by then or whatever the timeline in decade+.
Then if Steem is the next bitcoin and we are just 20x more than bitcoin is total possible coin liquidity (assuming everyone powers down and trade Steem like bitcoin) at that point in time (say mid of next decade), then we will be worth around: $5,000 to $10,000 per Steem.
If you like I can do the math for you but I can see as a bitcoin fan you can easily figure that out.
Note for Near Future Comparison: We are only around 15x more (in liqudity) than bitcoin today, and say bitcoin today has optimistic 1 million real users (approximately over 1million bitcoin wallet exist about end of last year). If we get to 1 million real users in Steem in next 1-2 years, then our value can easily be justified as bitcoin divide by 15 without competing with bitcoin at all and using even today's number $18,000 bitcoin/15 is way-way greater than $100 per Steem.
Respectfully, even your account in a decade could be worth 6 figures, definitely in the thousands in the mid term, I hope you hold onto your Steem Power.
Truth!
They do effect it for sure. I e had friends give up on Steemit because they just saw and got spam all the time
Tens of Thousands gave up on Bitcoin, their story are all over reddit, but it's still $16,000 today.
And honestly for those who do figure out how to use it (especially if they find a niche and connect up with a few like minded souls) here on old beta Steemit, it's way more addictive than Bitcoin.
I was thinking along those same lines earlier today when reading a post. The scammers will detract from the site and as a member, I know they distract from my enjoyment when I am scrolling through new posts to find some content worth reading. I want to see the site prosper just as much as anyone, so I spend time and effort to post decent content and comment on posts that are worthwhile. I upvote every time I can if the content is valuable to me and I honestly gained something from reading. I think if we take the time to reply back to those who took the time to read our content and actually engage in interaction then things would pick up. I do what I can even as a newbie.