I predicted this was happening about a month ago:

https://steemit.com/steemit/@l0k1/the-shakeout-of-steem-s-early-phases

You may think, from the subjective data you have in front of you, that there is a rot in the core of the curation scene here, but a tomato seed does not sprout unless the fruit first rots. My Steem Power is now up over 1250, and in a month's time I get another 1000 for showing up at SteemFEST.

I have finally found what could at last be a serious and competent group of investors and developers and we will be working on setting up a Steem Developer Hub in Amsterdam (most probably). A lot of people are concerned that steem is dying, but it was never intended that Steem by itself, and especially not the blog system, was the be-all and end-all of what this project aims at. 

Even when 95% of the posters are shaken out of the system, and the top 19 witnesses are barely earning enough to operate, the network will still be around. This will be the point at which new developments can really start, and one thing that I have been banging on about since nearly the beginning of my time here: 

[Steem is not (just) a blogging platform](https://steemit.com/ascensionteam/@l0k1/steem-is-not-a-blogging-platform-steem-is-an-ad-hoc-public-and-transparent-corporation-let-me-explain)

[Steem is not even (just) an ad-hoc public and transparent corporation](https://steemit.com/government/@l0k1/steem-is-not-just-an-ad-hoc-corporate-system-but-also-a-prototype-for-a-government)

Not only is this a transitional process, as some whales engage in stupid, selfish and pointless collusions continue to waste their SP skimming a bit of the pool of rewards for their mates, regardless, those who understand and believe in the bigger mission for the platform, and understand it well, have been gathered together, and they are slowly finding each other and Steem Outposts are going to pop up all over the world, and accelerate development towards the bigger goal.

Steem's evolution has been following a process a lot like the condensation and solidification of a cooling vapor, from vapor (pre-beta development and discussion), into the liquid form (what we have now), and the next phase is crystallisation. I am pretty sure Dan and Ned realised that there would be quite a significant shake-out process through all of this, and that many who they managed to get to join, would not stick around to see it through to the next phase, the physical manifestation, the solidification into a strong and robust but decentralised network of development projects running that build all the very things that anyone who has been following cryptos for a few years, knows have needed to happen but nobody has up to now found a way to make it happen.

Those who are jumping out, that's perfectly fine, and thanks for your participation in the project up to this point, you have been very helpful and thanks to your help, within a year you will all see how important you have actually been, even if you were not rewarded a hell of a lot in the process. Steem will probably bottom out at maybe even as low as USD$0.20 before the next wave of momentum kicks in, I have been saying this for at least 6 weeks now. Once a realistic valuation is found, investment will flood in, and if you thought Steem was revolutionary, just wait until Steem has enough Power to persuade governments to accept identity documents issued by us as valid passports. It's going to happen, even if it seems like Steem dwindles away to a shadow of its former self. The hype is about what it can be, not about what it is. To become what it can be, it has to be refined into its pure, solid form, and then from there, it will start to grow really fast.