During the much anticipated AMA aired by Tron founder Justin Sun and Steem co-founder Ned Scott on 16 February, Sun said his focus will be on the product and financial growth of Steem tokens and that he won’t rush into a “sudden token swap”. Steem and Steemit according to Sun was largely an “experiment with social media on blockchain” which will further benefit from Tron’s large ecosystem and resources. “Steemit’s new version has been on beta version for a long time, including lots of new features. Users will have features to moderate content too.” Tron Foundation and Steemit Inc had announced their “strategic partnership” first on 14 February.
Ned Scott cited personal reasons for selling his shares to Justin Sun. He also admitted that Tron’s large ecosystem will be a plus for Steemit and its users. Justin Sun promised Steem community to consult Ned Scott on all future decisions that are important to Steem. It’s unclear if Scott still holds some shares of Steemit. There are no details of the actual acquisition apart from the AMA and tweets by Sun and Scott.
Sun said there are “new innovations and products” that will be part of the new version of Steemit. Although the joint AMA addressed many questions in the minds of both Steem and Tron community, many questions still linger on. There’s still no clarity on the timeline for the token swap. Crypto exchange Poloniex tweeted after the AMA that they will carry out token swaps on their exchange. There’s also no clarity on how many Steem tokens till be airdropped to Tron holders. The idea of airdropping Steem to Trx holders has caused concerns among Steem holders who worry about inflation and price decline of an already deflated Steem.
A day after the AMA, Justin Sun tweeted: “Steetmit to shift its proprietary blockchain and token to tron network”. Currently there are 695 Dapps on Tron network and once you move Steem-based dapps onto Tron blockchain, Tron can be a clear contender for the number 1 spot for gaming and media Dapps. Steemit is already a leading media Dapp for built on Steem blockchain and has over 500k on-chain users and 8 million monthly traffic. Steem network also has 90 plus Dapps on its network according to Dapp.com.
During the bull market, Steemit had started monetising its content through advertising. There’s not a lot of data out there on Steemit’s advertising revenue, but it cannot be negligent with 8 million users. Steemit community is waiting to see if Justin Sun would have plans in the pipeline to share advertising revenue with Steemit users.
