I can remember early on when the crypto bug bit me in 2013, I became convinced of how it will power the unbanked when I learned about M-Pesa in Kenya and Tanzania. When I learned about how a group was developing an application called Kipochi to integrate Bitcoin remittances with the M-Pesa network, I felt Western Union and other money remittance services would eventually get displaced.

I then moved solidly into regular investment after I met a young man from the Democratic Republic of Congo. We spoke about his side business of exporting unlocked cell phones to his business partners. He told me while he could easily mark the phones up 350%, he would lose about 40% of what he made to money transmitters fees. I helped him get into Bitcoin. He could even purchase his unlocked phones through Overstock and pay with the BTC, so he didn't even have to convert into fiat.

I think the market which is a natural fit for Steemit are banking services for the crypto community.

• The SBD provides a fiat peg no other crypto offers with a relatively stable rate of interest established by the marketplace. That stability is unique for people who would like to place their nest egg somewhere "safe", which is not a brick and mortar bank. In light of the current events in the international banking community, a much greater demand for something like that will be on the horizon in the near future I wold think. Work out a deal like Dash is for a branded prepaid MasterCard/VISA and I think it will make user adoption explode faster than UX upgrades, new features and marketing.

• Microlending services similar to Kiva and Prosper make a ton of sense. Wallets are already established and the currency is inflationary, so the pool of funds would be there and remitting would be easy at near-zero expense. The current blogging platform is perfect for writing the pitch and interaction within the community would give the loan applicants the ability to develop social credibility and network for funding. The loan recipients could even blog about how the loans impacted their lives and potentially earn rewards, which would encourage more lending and engagement in a natural positive feedback loop.

• In that same vein, another natural fit for Steemit is to become an alternative to/displace Kickstarter and GoFundMe. Again, with teh built in social features of Steemit, The individuals/businesses who receive funding could continue to blog updates and receive rewards and engagement, which forms a very strong feedback loop.

I'd love to see Steemit begin to pivot towards banking services for the unbanked of the world. That would get all of us in the Steemit community to the moon at record speed and provide services which could truly change the lives of people who need them the most.