I really don't want that to happen. It has happened. Last July, I am told, many Steemers abandoned the platform, and the price of Steem plummeted from a high of around $4 to a quarter of that (I wasn't here so don't recall personally the event, or the figures, and am just repeating what I recall folks that were here then saying).
As Steemit grows and turnover is greatly reduced, investors in Steem achieve capital gains, and this is an appropriate mechanism for such gains.
I was here in July. What was happening then with so few people was unsustainable. The $4 per steem was purely due to hype I think and the platform coming live. An unknown who was not one of the powerful making $36K on a makeup tutorial. A lot of strange things like that... there were things on the trending page every day that were over $10K and they were often simple recipes. People that abandoned due to the price decreasing after that abandoned due to their unrealistic expectations. I expect the price to rise and fall, but I don't expect the platform to go anywhere. Two of my kids Kelly and Nathan are kicking themselves for not being as active on it as I have been and sticking with it like I did. Nathan started I believe on the day I did or the day after, and Kelly the week after.
Thanks for letting me know the facts about what happened then. I have managed finally to finish the Steemit white paper, and it has bettered my understanding of Steemit - almost as much as you have. I also reluctantly have acknowledged that I just can't curate all the content I want to. It is very frustrating withholding my vote from authors and content I want just to upvote.
I've managed to get my VP back up to 37% after two days of self abnegation. It's one of my main impetuses for why I have been commenting on this issue, and the post I dropped this morning after writing it all night long.
Now, Imma take a nap =p
Thanks again for your always thoughtful posts and comments.