I keep thinking of Microsoft and Apple that have reached a point of outright conning their customers because their customers are loyal come whatever may. Backdoors exist, shady production methods, all sorts of red flags with these companies, their leadership and working conventions and still they are hyped beyond belief and are everywhere.

BTC may be technically way inferior to the other blockchain projects of later generations but it does have market leader advantage despite the technicals.

Don't get me wrong, I am the first to acknoledge we need to get out of our obsolete financial conditioning, to design structures where cooperation trumps competition and where voluntary projects are materialized because people who work on it want the best not only for themselves but for everyone involved (i.e. the wider network).

The issue remains that anyone with financial firepower, malign interests and questionable networks of business connections can undermine projetcs and turn them into a pile of garbage - and still make them big and successful (thereby stealing the vision if you will). The merging and monopolization of media companies in the US would be a prime example.

That said I do want to focus more on "building value from within" and concentrate less on the scenarios that may or may not come to pass with Steem. It just kinda gripped me like an obsession because it's just such a thriller. hehe.

100 days of steem is just freakin' creepy ;)
Thanks for your take