I hope it does have a future, but projects need to work out a business plan. I know some take a cut of post rewards, but they have to be very clear about that. Steem Monsters are selling the cards and I assume they do well from it, but many players will not get into posting and voting. A higher Steem price makes it more viable to operate the nodes and witnesses, but there need to be reasons for people to invest. I know some people are buying thousands of Steem to power up, but it will take millions to really affect the price. I think the platform needs to be marketed better, but I have little idea of how you would do that.