Lots of great comments on this thread. I published my vision for the future of Steem seven months ago after #hf20 was released. After brief review, I believe that most of it is still relevant. (Enough that I would rather share that old post than write a new one).

Timeline is always slower than i would like, but we are further down this road now than we were then. MIRA, side chains, hivemind, etc. are all movement toward my predicted vision.
https://steempeak.com/busy/@josephsavage/my-thoughts-on-hf20-rcs-smts-and-the-future-of-steem-contest-enclosed