During a chat with a good friend this question came up. Now to some the answer might be as clear as E equals MC squared. Yet, not everyone is a Blockchain/ Bitcoin veteran. Therefore it might not be that obvious to non-insiders. Simply stating that Steem is driven by a blockchain is just cutting a corner by miles. A lot of accounts posting here might have some sort of question that needs to be provided with an answer. And for those who want a short read, spoiler alert, the answer: "No, Steem cannot be sold, as it is not a company."
Steem is a social media platform on a unique type of blockchain. This blockchain is like an open ledger, where every transaction, or (journal) post, is locked together into one big database. This locking in is done by cryptography, complex mathematics, that makes sure no human, group, or company, is needed as a middle man to proof it is the real data. In effect this means that to corrupt it somewhere, all the other data in this chain of transactions needs to be corrupted too. That would mean a lot of complex mathematical computations to begin with.
And as a this type of public blockchain is exactly copied one on one amongst many computers in a peer-to-peer network those would also have to accept this corrupted data. They would do this by doing a shortcut calculation to check wether the cryptographic key fits the claim. It is not likely that all the other connected computers would agree to such weird behaviour. And in the meantime all proven safe transactions get bundled into a block of data. That gets interwoven with the previous one by complex math, called cryptography. In effect creating, what is known as, a Blockchain.
Nobody owns the Steem blockchain
One of the nice things about a public blockchain is that nobody owns it. One can have an exact copy of that database on ones own computer at home, yet not own the information that is stored on it. All participants in this system connect together to make a strong trustless network of computers, that make an exact copy of the database. While complex mathematics secures all kinds of transactions on it, luckily for us computers got very good at crunching numbers for us. And with the kind of blockchain technology used by Steem there is a team of so called 'witnesses' that make sure our posts are stored the way it should. At an amazing speed of one block every three seconds! (Bitcoin does one block every ten minutes...)
These witnesses have to be chosen through voting. And this is what the Steem accounts can do. You and I all have a potential 30 votes for the witnesses we like to be in the top 20. It will be hard to buy off all those witnesses that are competing for a spot in the top of the securing network. And also that is an open transparant proces that you and I can follow and influence by our vote. All this time without the need of a third party to control it, or worse even, to manipulate the outcome to fit its own agenda. That is one major difference with a private company that can be sold to the highest bidder. The one who buys the most shares and so on. Steem can never be sold to one buying a majority of its shares, because it hasn't got them, or does it?
But SteemIt dot com is a company
Steem is a social media platform driven on its own unique type of blockchain. It is like blogging on a blockchain and its great, it is the best, ah well, you get it. But this is all raw data, a lot of it, like journal posts that are stored in transactions on a public ledger, put together in 3 second datablocks. And if you would want to look into those blocks of data, chained together by complex math, you'd need to filter all that information that you would want to see. Posting would have to be done by in a little more complex way than you may have gotten used to by now. Thanks to SteemIt dot com or the eSteem app this is made quite simple to do.
But SteemIt dot com and apps like eSteem are in fact clever interfaces with the Steem blockchain. It can provide you, the human user, with information you actually can understand and it helps you to store new information on the Steem blockchain, as easy as pie! And if you want to get a more complex presentation of the Steem blockchain data you can go over to SteemD dot com. Just replace the 'it' part in the address of you browser with 'd' and go there. The data presented there could give you way more insight, but I'm not sure if it would be more to your liking that way.
And no matter if it is a company that provides you with a nice user interface {UI} to the data stored on the Steem blockchain, it can not claim, ever, that is 'owns' it. It just provides you and me with a service that we may, or may not, want to use. For the developement of the Steem Blockchain it might at some point be better to have that secured in a company structure. Same goes for the developement of the SteemIt dot com user interface. Or the upload of images. Moving things for SteemIt dot com to a cloud computing service. Yet, it never ever means that SteemIt incorporated becomes owner of the Steem blockchain. And the owners of that company do not even want too, that is why the software is Open and Transparant. It is a public blockchain that nobody owns.
It might be that SteemIt incorporated one day will disappear, moving control over to a Steem Foundation for developement and protection of the technology, making sure it stays Open and Tranparant. And developing the User Interface further. And for all those services it might start to ask a, tiny, part of the payout. Because the current Steem Power owners that are connected to SteemIt Incorporated might decide to sell a, large, part of their Steem Power, so others can join in. At this time the Steem Blockchain will run completely substantive. Or they might choose to start deligating a, large, part of the Steem Power {SP} in the accounts they are holding.
But is Steem Power not like holding company shares
At one point, eons ago, I did write an article that suggested that Steem was much like a company on a blockchain. This was mostly about the Steem Power that accounts can hold. And back then it did give a kind of Return On Investment {ROI}, that was described by Daniel Larimer, the smart brain behind all of this, as a kind of inflation compensation. At that time the inflation was 100% growth in Steem every year. But has dropped drasticly since then after the last software change, known as Hardfork {HF} 16. It is now less then 10%. Before that it was a like getting interest on holding Steem Power, for me that was quite nice back then, at about 24 STEEM growth per day. Yet, for the good of all, this was the best to do back then.
One thing that kind of resembles holding shares in a company, is that the Steem Power {SP} an account holds at a certain time determines its Voting Weight {VW}. Meaning that its vote will have more weight in at the distribution of the available STEEM in the reward pool every round. There is also a complex logarithmic math behind this potential payout system, to make sure it is difficult to predict and thus it is hard to rig the system. Also by giving value to a post this way the holders of Steem Power can get part of the potential payout. So the Voting Weight connected to the Steem Power of an account can result in payment. This proces is known as curation. Many accounts are doing this with the help from automated curration programmes and systems.
But even if all the accounts have Steem Power, they do not own the Steem Blockchain. They can own Steem as value in accounts, where Steem Power can determine their Voting Weight and indirectly their curation earnings. Yet, nobody is able to sell the Steem Blockchain for their own profit. Or get control over the whole realm, by getting a lot of Steem Power. Because all the other accounts can decide to vote for witnesses that support a software developement change to create a different Voting Weight system. Or another kind of payout system. It is a very smart kind of public Blockchain, that Steem one.
Future revenue, even when Steem is not a company that can be sold for profit
Well, if you have bought a great account name, that has build up quite a Steem Power and did grow a nice reputation, then you might be able to sell it to the highest bidder. So might an idea you have and launched on the Steem blockchain be worth some cold hard cash. You will know when somebody gets in contact with you asking if they may take over a project from you. That means there is something to be earned in an idea or project of yours. And maybe you do find some innovative ways to use the Steem blockchain, that could generate income for you. For the Steem community this would be great to, because you will make Steem more wanted on the market. Therefore raising the value of the SP holding accounts...
You can even start a company that uses the Steem Blockchain to store and retrieve data. Think about what kind of data you could compress into four posts of 28 KiloByte. Maybe use the Message system that comes with payments you can do with any account. Your imagination is the limit here, because the underlying blockchain technology will evolve even more with the next major release. That is something I'm convinced about. My gamble would be at the simple sidechain implementation. But revenue may come from other things, like a product and services market, totaly decentralized, just like the Steem Blockchain it self. All to be payed in Steem of course!
Same goes for advertising. Like Ned Scott, one of the owners of SteemIt incorporated, once suggested. This advertising could only be purchased through using Steem as payment. Now, SteemIt dot com might choose to do so. And might state that you could get a part of the revenue that brings. Or find a smart way to start a Steem advertising system on the Blockchain. Remember SteemIt dot com is an interface with the Steem Blockchain data, not the blockchain itself. SteemIt incorporated would not just want to go safe on break-even alone. There has to be made some way of financial reserve, for the future of Steem. Yet, one might get the choice to opt-out, and give a part of their paypout for instance, to share in the costs. Or only approve to some kind of advertising. Anything is still possible.
We need the public open and transparant blockchain
So, no, Steem is not a company that can be sold, it is a public blockchain, you could maybe state that it is owned by everyone, yet cannot be claimed by anyone. And it is worth keeping it Open and Transparant, because there are competitors on the horizon. There is a developement going on that is about privately owned and controlled blockchains. (Although it seems unlikely that these innitiatives will get mass adoption.)
Even so, it might be best to keep as much public open and transparant blockchains going as possible, moving forward, innovate, be creative. As this might be the technology that could benefit all of humanity.
Thank you for getting all the way to here, adding one to the view count, I do appreciate this!
Have a good one and keep them blockchains rolling!
image cc0 by MasterTux at Pixabay
EDIT: Removed all the Graphene references from the innitial post, as this is no longer the case for the Steem blockchain technology.