I'm optimistic after seeing sneak's engagement with the community. It's great to know he's heading the backend team - his approach seems to be the ideal combination of realism (i.e. directing development for speed and efficiency) and idealism (i.e. open source principles). Though a brilliant developer (Steem wouldn't have existed without his contributions), I always felt Dan was too idealistic in many situations. Utopian, even (remember the hyperinflation?) I hope this continues - look forward to their announcement about the new development process. (Though not impressed by how long that post has been in the works...)

Now the goal has to be a quick-ish update to HF19 with a flatter reward curve and some bug fixes, hopefully by late-April. It's a significant enough feature to merit its own hardfork, one that must be rolled out before significant marketing efforts begin. We are much more likely to retain new powerers up who see a visible impact from their votes.