> There is no power for change greater than a community discovering what it cares about. - Margaret J. Wheatley 

You can tell.

After having attended Steemfest² I was already blown away by the *power of community*, but Krákow just topped the experience.

Before I start out with the details: THANK YOU @roelandp and team for another amazing event! We all know how much efforts you put into that project, and it was appreciable during the whole conference.

**The fact that I've lost my voice produces evidence. I probably spent all the words I had left for the rest of 2018 in only three days.**

Steemfest is always pretty intense.

## Here's to the power of community, the thrill of building and the necessity of value creation!

![nedmarlzz.png](https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmYakxDoVCwzukxGfw37pQsm4nMnkVSgN7K6REATWPFYwV/nedmarlzz.png)
Glad we found some time to chat, @ned

# Communities are built to build.
**My personal goal for Steemfest³ was to talk to as much people as possible, learn how they're involved in the blockchain and sponge up their opinions and ideas about the future of Steem.**

Besides the social impact, the fun and the party, there's been a couple of really valuable takeaways I'd like to share with you as long as they're still fresh and present.

It all started with one of Ned Scott's statement in the [opening Q&A](https://youtu.be/ToQfmnj7FR8):

> The sexiest thing that can happen is that someone stands up and starts a business that not only survives but thrives in the crypto space. 

Could we've started out any better than focussing on the innovation factor?

**The fact that more than 300 people came to Krákow this week in order to talk about Steem provides even more evidence.**

### Our all common denominator is that we want to build something - and we want to build it on Steem.

Now we may all have our different backgrounds, perspectives and approaches in order to leverage STEEM and the Steem blockchain for our ideas. However, when you start talking to people, then there's always a common ground with regards to the uniqueness of this blockchain and the unrivaled power of its community.

There've been a lot of new promising projects being launched lately - underlining how valuable and powerful Steem's Proof of Brain capital is - and it was incredibly inspiring to talk to their founders and get some first hand information on how they see the future of our blockchain.

**By the way all the investors and developers I've been talking to one-on-one truly believe that we're in the verge of living a great breakthrough with Steem on all levels.**
*This is an investment advice :-)*

![fuaojgz2gx.png](https://img.esteem.ws/fuaojgz2gx.png)
Matt during his presentation for @oracle-d

>## Steem offers a mecanism to reward voluntary action. - @starkerz

When Matt dropped that idea in a round table around #promo-steem a couple of people started to take notes, including myself.

On one hand that catchy sentence is a great way to easily describe how tokens should actually be distributed within the Steem ecosystem, and on the other hand it informs about the necessity of value creation and the need of increase in capital.

**A social blockchain only works if there's a win-win for all participants, and new projects such as @oracle-d, @steemmonsters and @steempress - just to mention a few - include that very concept.**

It was also a great experience to agree with many on the fact that Steem services can't always be *for free*. If we're talking about investments, then we also need to talk about ROI. Thanks for underlining that fact @yabapmatt in your interview with @andrarchy.

Steem can be a lot of fun, but it's primarily a business.

**That's why it's evident to not only reward those who use applications on the blockchain, but especially those who create them for us.**

Were you able to watch @aggroed presenting SteemMonsters? The fact that this project has already created a total market cap of $1.3 million dollars in cards is totally insane - and it was so refreshing to see that one of the founders himself looks at it in the very same way:

>### This is just staggering to me. Really staggering. I'm already lucky if my five best friends are going to play this thing with me. - @aggroed

Thanks for being so down-to-earth :-)

I believe that one of the key drivers to success for those projects is that they're able to provide opportunities for the overall attention economy, including investors, content creators and curators.

**Only being able to understand that was worth traveling to Krákow for me.**

![satnjhfglh.png](https://img.esteem.ws/satnjhfglh.png)

>### And yes, we also had a couple of beers, my bowling team became the winner of hearts, I was appointed an offical *crypto babe* and interviewed in bed with @steembirds at 3am, but I will mention all that in my next @steemfest posts.

**Stay tuned.**

*Much love,* 
Marly - 

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![h8k8q6qssd.png](https://img.esteem.ws/h8k8q6qssd.png) 
This blog was created in July 2016, aiming to provide thought-provoking content for open-minded people who go on adventure, step out of comfort zones and embrace the new. 
**Thanks for being part of the journey!** 

![dpd4dhbnk4.png](https://img.esteem.ws/dpd4dhbnk4.png)

PS: All my blog posts are created and submitted via eSteem Surfer 1.1.12 - my favorite Steem desktop client that was developed by @good-karma's @esteemapp team. Check out their account for more information.

Original content.