As you have probably heard, there is a little bit of hype (confusion) on whether Justin Sun from TRON is in the process of acquiring Steemit. Just in case you didn't know, Steemit isn't Steem.
It is quite interesting however and whether they buy or not, it is good to have Steem in the news and perhaps some who don't know will start paying attention.
As I mentioned last night in a well-timed post that looked a bit at hype:
Just think how uncertain the future of Steem is as a currency and community and how many people are relatively negative on it. Then consider that there are 2300+ cryptocurrencies currently trading and Steem is one of the most utilized among them and, boasts one of the largest and most active communities with a host of applications that overshadow nearly all others in usage.
It is this usage that many don't seem to know about, but perhaps someone like Justin Sun may consider valuable to integrate into TRON's direction. One of the challenges of crypto and blockchain is getting users and Steem has successfully onboarded tens of thousands of people with many thousands interacting with the blockchain daily doing normal community orientated things.
While it is far from perfect, Steem does indeed have a good track record of usage in comparison to other crypto projects, even though from the inside it may not appear so. This is something that most other projects have been unable to maintain for any length of time and, it has been able to do it without only offering the possibility of financial gain. Sure, this is why most are here, but considering how long the bear market has been and how insignificant the rewards are, people are still here.
Cryptokitties
Splinterlands
Remember the Cryptokitty hype? 
As Stem is not Steemit, what TRON would be buying is a private company, however that company doesn't own the blockchain - yet does have a proverbial crapload of STEEM powered up which can be used in various ways. For the rest of us however, what would change as STEEM holders?
Up until now, the Stake that Steemit Inc holds has been largely dormant but it is easy to imagine that it would change if Sun bought all of the holdings. That means that about 40% of the powered up STEEM could become active in various ways, including Witness voting.
It could be at this point that the witnesses might consider lowering the amount of witness votes an account has so that one super large account couldn't vote all 20 consensus positions. Although, I am not sure that even with Steemit Inc's stake that is possible, I would have to do the math later. If they tried, I would predict that other large stakeholders would very quickly band together to make sure they held enough positions to protect the chain.
But regardless, I think that the spotlight being on Steem for a little while would be great going into a bull market, and I am interested to see if there is a spike in signups on the news out of China over the last 24 hours.
I would predict that this is more hype rallying of course, but it is kind of like pre-season theatrics before the first game.
The season start is just around the corner.
Taraz
[ a Steem original ]
