How Steemit helped me start understanding the disruptive force of crypto/blockchain

Since I joined Steemit, I couldn't escape the impression that I was seeing the future. Now, after only about a week here, it inspires me with hope for a better world, where people take control of the technology they use to assign value to something. Instead of a few big banks telling us that we should value the dollar or the euro, now we can come up with all sorts of things that in most traditional systems are underappreciated and actually start rewarding them. We can exchange that value directly, without interference of any group that imposes their rules on the users. 

But it doesn't stop there. What the blockchain/cryptocurrency technology does is create a platform, rather than a certain product. On this platform, we can build many applications using the same underlying technology. So we can have forms of Liquid Democracy, in which voters (much like on Steemit) vote for the best ideas to organize society. We can build cryptocurrencies to support a sharing economy of things that are traditionally part of the fiat money economy, which can help to make goods and services that are now only available to the 1% available for everyone. This technology is both meritocratic (it rewards those with the best ideas and best work) AND democratic (in the sense that there is no barrier to participating, except for the technological devices needed). In a sense it is Anarchistic, because it breaks down such barriers and empowers everyone to follow their own path. 

As this technology becomes user friendly over the next years, and as more and more people will be attracted to it, the value of the cryptocurrency ecosystem will explode, while traditional economy will collapse (let's hope slowly, broad ranging chaos is never good for innovation). It is great to be a part of a movement that values the valuable things in life.