RE: $1,000 STEEM: Understanding Metcalfe's Law: How Many Users Will It Take???
Yes, it all comes down to Metcalfe's law. As economists surely know, the value of things can be measured from two perspectives: the value of using those things ("use-value") and the value that can be obtained by exchange them ("exchange-value"). The use-value is easy to SHARE on the Internet and this is nothing new. The novelty is that the exchange value thus generated can now be distributed instead of being all centered on the platform owner as you very well refer (e.g. Facebook). From now on, thanks to the advent of trust-generating protocols based "only" on mathematical rigor (!) the exchange-value will be TRANSACTED in a "peer-to-peer" (P2P) basis on the Internet, making trusted intermediaries obsolete. Thus, any exchange-value that can be decentralized will tend to be decentralized (as is already the case with respect to use-value on the Internet) and any value proposition, both tangible and intangible, that can be "tokenized" will tend to be "tokenized". This P2P networking effect not only creates more utility globally as it has done so far ("Metcalfe's Law") but now also creates more value-for-money and I strongly believe such atomization will make decentralized communities as Steemit and distributed autonomous organizations (DAO) more competitive than any centralized organizations.
Not only that, I think it will also send innovation through the roof. Centralized organizations stifle innovation....this is what makes decentralization so powerful. Whatever someone can come up with, they can put on the blockchain. If it is accepted and used, it is a winner. The users determine whether something is viable or not, not a central authority.
Great points all around.