The value of Steem will go up when devs start actually using this place for all the crazy things it can actually do.
- Zero rake (break-even) gambling.
- Decentralized video/text games with provable ownership and monetized communal development.
- Porn? (just trying to think of the big money makers)
There are a lot of things we can do here that you can't really do on a lot of the higher market cap coins. On top of that we have the built in community.
The really big problem is that the best products have no financial incentive to be built in the first place because it's difficult to siphon off money for the devs. Decentralized organization and payment for work is really hard to attain. Everyone tries to game the system and take as much as they can for themselves. .. then the final product ends up getting gutted and looks nothing like originally envisioned.