<div class="text-justify">

Last night, my daughter opened a package from Australia (sent by @galenkp) and among more unicorn-y paraphernalia, there was a handful of coins - *of the physical type,* I talk about "coins" all the time, but I actually don't use them very often - other than to get a shopping trolley unlocked from the chain at the supermarket. but, the funniest thing I noticed in myself was that my first instinct was to calculate the Steem value in my head. 

In the image, with a quick count, convert and mental convert to US dollars as that is how I keep consistency, there is about 36 Steem worth at a guesstimate. 

https://i.imgur.com/NX5BZMq.jpg

At some point, I am hoping that there won't be the need for conversion at all as the public adoption starts seeing cryptocurrencies as having utility in the form that they hold. This of course means that there needs to be tokens that have utility but it is interesting to note that the Steem platform actually encourages the change in vocabulary by further removing the tokens away from fiat.

This is notably done through the SCOT tokens at the moment as they are paired against STEEM and when people consider their worth, many calculate the  *STEEM* value of them, not the fiat equivalent. That is pretty cool I think and it is this shifting in the discussion language that will normalize the inclusion and eventual wider usage of tokens as representations of value of various things. 

I think that the ramping up of the discussion will come during the next (imminent) economic collapse that the institutional money is preparing for now. Before the collapse happens though, the economies need to be propped up for long enough for the foundations and infra to be developed so that when the trigger is pulled, the customers will have a place to run with their investments. 

The coins in the picture will be relatively worthless, but ownership of value will always have utility. It doesn't really matter what the representation is, whether it be coins, cigarettes or pieces of chocolate, it is the one who holds it that has the purchasing power. 

On Steem, the stake of STEEM one holds purchases access to the inflation pool, another token could purchase access to newspaper content, another free drinks at the local bar. All of these things can be tokenized and while not all need a separate token, some will benefit from market differentiation depending on use case.

These tokens are going to infiltrate all kinds of interactions in our daily lives and due to the sheer volume, better tools of management and efficiency of usage will be required. Once those tools are built, more innovation that utilizes them takes place and, the range expands again. This is why I see that the development of tools for Steem is such an important aspect of future growth as having the tools that make utilization more efficient and simplified means more people can take part. 

Back in the day I used to create simple webpages and while there was demand at the time, that quickly fell of as tools like Dreamweaver and Frontpage simplified the process to the point it was not much of a skill, Wix types of online services have made it even simpler. These tools meant that there was not only an explosion of websites, but there was also an improvement in the *average* functions. 

I think at some point there are going to be a great deal more tools that empower relatively unskilled people to be Steem developers and integrate blockchain functionality as well as tokenized monetization easily into their random pages. Potentially, there could be millions of websites and forums that all have Steem plugins powering them and their own unique token or, a common token across many in the way Steem is now.  

Tee more tools that are created that make integration onto Steem simpler, the more chance there is for innovation of the ecosystem and the higher the instance, the greater the capacity for success. The benefit of a distributed network of experiences that are free to do much as they pleas is that the community can explore many options simultaneously and independently while still benefiting as a whole. The other is that failure of one is not the failure of all, unless that failure is at the foundational level, which is why chain stability and security is key. 

While some people are worried about the surface views of Steem, it is kind of like worrying about the looks of a website in 1995. The most important components of the Steem experience at the moment lay in the development aspects and the ongoing expansion of the toolkit as it is these that will be used to onboard the masses.

Mainstreaming isn't marketing and onboarding onto Steem, it is building the tools that will be used to flesh out the ecosystem of Steem, in the same way that the tools of the internet made participation possible for everyone with a connection - not just the nerds who loved the underlying code. 

The processes for adoption are developing and hopefully the SteemDAO is going to focus on creating the tools required for participation. 

Taraz
[ a Steem original ]

</div>