I guess I come at this from the non-tech, non-developer side of the table and for me, that question includes what do I think about the future of Steemit, the social content platform?

I think Steem-- the token/currency-- is on a solid path towards a strong future; I see all the apps, sidechains, SMTs and other projects as laying a SOLID foundation for answering the deeper question "What is the purpose of and economic reason for the existence of this cryptocurrency?" which I think will be core to sorting the wheat from the chaff when it occurs to someone that simply using the word "blockchain" is NOT sufficient reason for a currency to "exist."

In two, five, ten? years from now, I think the crypto world will settle into having a small number of "major players" and a veritable ocean of worthless shitcoins... and Steem looks good to be part of that top tier... regardless of whether it's an "inflationary" coin, or not.

As for Steemit? I don't know... an awful lot of front-end work will need to happen if this is seriously going to become a "category changer" to take on the likes of Reddit and Facebook, face-to-face. At the very least, all the major apps will need to be somewhat integrated into the Steemit user interface... a large part of the reason Facebook is as dominant as it is is that you can do everything "on" Facebook... the average social media user isn't going to flock to a platform that requires 17 separate apps to do 17 things... decentralization and its merits notwithstanding.

But you asked about Steem, not Steemit, so I feel pretty good about its future!