I see Bitcoin (and Steem) as technological experiments and as such Bitcoin is very important as it is the longest living and the ones where many faults were first detected. As a real currency I doubt that it will be the one that will go mainstream, but it will maybe become a bit like gold because of its scarcity principle.

Scarcity is not meant for the masses but for the already rich so I agree that things like Steem is much better and more democratic. That said this is all in the baby-age and I consider it all to be promising but volatile and erratic. The cynical part of me (about 88.9 %) sees a future where the national banks take over big parts of the crypto-market.