STEEM's HODLers and community are the future for its success.

Shrewd traders and noob traders flock around hyped coins for easy profits. They hold the coins to get out with big profit. Once they get their desired profit, they leave the coin and never look back. Or, the noob bagholders get frustrated after few days and leave the coin with lots of regrets. Bitcoin Diamond is such an example which is pumped 100% recently. Other example is Monacoin, to some extent VERGE.

On the other hands, there are many coins that do not provide many innovatiosn but that have strong holders. Their followers come to social media or forums, hang out, brag about their coins, believe its lofty futures. The coin survives and gets stagnant though blockchain tech is evolving everyday.

DOGEcoin is one such good example. Though it started as joke, but gained many light hearten crypto-enthusiasts. When it began its journey, it had a competitive hashrate to Litecoin. But devs later decided to merge mining with LTC fearing its difficulty drop could kill the coin. That means that it is not supported by a mining community rather holders. Those holders are somehow faithful community around dogecoin who just love their coin besides its all limitation.

There are 120K reddit followers for DOGEcoin one of the largest in the cryptocurrency sphere. DOGEcoin is one of the widely traded cryptocurrency. Though there is no major developments going on, but reecently, it rose above STEEM.

Similarly, DASH, MONERO, Bitcoin Gold other PoW based coins have very low developmental activities other than algorithm changes to deal with ASICs.

On the other hand, STEEM is the most active blockchain in the world. Since it already have 360 DApps, probably STEEM is one of the most used blockchains by developers. STEEM has more than one millions accounts. Though Ethereum has 1500 DApps on its blockcahin, the most popular and used DApps such as Steemit, Dtube, Dlive, Steepshot run on STEEM blockchain.

The best thing about STEEM is that it is building a very strong community or HODLers. Since learning curve for STEEM is very steep compared to light hearten DOGEcoin or Litecoin, those who are involved actively can understand its potential. Moreover, since they have invested time in STEEM blockchain which make them emotionally attached to it.

Moreover, Steem DApp users can find fellows who have similar interests, ideologies, pursuits, and struggle, they become mini community. Upcoming Hivemind can only increase such communal behaviors.

The minimum price level support shows that STEEM holders have faith in their coin. STEEM does not reach moon frequently but does not fall too much either. Since STEEM needs heavy growth in users to sustain higher price, most of the times in bear market, it is hold out. Future upgrades and marketing can change the dynamics of supply and demand, STEEM can reach moon too like EOS or TRON.

If STEEM devs and STINC can release products as they promise (e.g. easy onboarding, Hivemind, SMT), it will reach its high valuation today or tomorrow.

Some coins have HODLers but little to no developments. Some coins promise to have breakthrough techs but has no or small community. In the meantime, STEEM is not only the most active and developing blockchain but also making a strong HODLer community each day which is very unique among cryptocurrencies.

In the long run, coins with innovations and developments along with large community and HODlers will survive. Lack of developments can crash community's hope after a long period. On the other hand, a technically superior coin can die sooner due to lack of community support (i.e. HODLers) in hard time (i.e bear market). Fortunately, STEEM has both a strong community and consistent developments. It is here to stay for long time and see its rise to top rather than sudden pump and dump.

Disclaimer: This opinion is not a financial advice, it my personal perspective and opinion. Please seek professionals for financial decisions.

Image sources: Most images are open sourced (e.g. Pixabay, Wikimedia etc.) with Creative common license. Some images are used with due courtesy to respected owners.

Thanks for reading.
@riseofth
Cryptominer since 2013, occasional trader and tech blogger