However, as a marketcap, the situation is different. In my view, as far as cryptocurrencies go, there is nothing that can convince me that Ethereum is more useful than Steem. I can't see any reason whatsoever on why Ethereum should have a marketcap multiple times higher than Steem. Of course there are big institutional whales behind it, which is THE reason, but the fundamentals regarding its actual use cannot compare with Steem - which has actual, real life use. Either Ethereum should crash, or Steem should go higher. The price is not reflecting the fundamentals which should be reversed. Steem should have a higher marketcap than ETH - no matter how that is achieved.
EXACTLY this. Speculation is the only reason why many blockchains have any value at all. For the sake of crypto, I hope Steem can fix it's current model and develop into a successful project.
Ethereum (Classic) is estimated to have higher speculation upside for numerous reasons.
- Another DAO is waiting to happen because it is a programmable blockchain.
- You don't need to lockup your investment for 1 year weighted average cashout in order to speculate.
- You don't have this massive inflation.
- There is a plan to move to some form of PoS and stop or significantly reduce inflation.
- Everyone who runs Dapps needs ETH to play.
- Charles Hoskinson is involved again.
- Etc...
Sorry the utility of Steem for social blogging while it looks pretty on the screen (and it captured the interest of some females and those one or two degrees removed from the male cryptonerd), just doesn't even compare at all for a speculation vehicle.
Price speculation is one part, but there are also the fundamentals. What's the ETC use in the real world? What is its network effect? What about ETH-dominating-the-market uncertainties ? What about uncertainties that other smart-contract platforms will do what ETH/ETC can't effectively do without creating multiple clusterfucks?
Of course we can "speculate" that one day ETC might be useful for something, but STEEM is already proving its usefulness *right now*. People are writing, people are getting paid *right now*. The speculation regarding STEEM is not whether it'll ever be useful for something, but how much it will scale.
ETC has a marketcap 2.5x compared to STEEM and nobody knows if it will ever be used.
Yes, we can say ETC (and ETH) are much more speculative. But the fundamentals will eventually catch up. Not necessarily through the price of STEEM going through the roof, but through a combination of a large number of coins x a small value, producing a high marketcap. That's also the bottom line for SP holders. If price per STEEM goes down 2 times and their SP goes up 4 times, they are in the green.