Samsung bought Steemit
Last couple of weeks were interesting to see something going on about STEEM. The best thing that caught my attention was the so-called rumour of Samsung's takeover of Steemit Inc.
It was exciting to see some positive price and volume movement in STEEM in the market. Initially, it wasn't clear to me about the cause. Some attributed it to the launch of Hivemind & appbase utilization to make running of Steem nodes lighter, faster & cheaper (saving on some RAM). But I wasn't convinced that this development can bring in such a huge impact on its price.
But the Samsung-bought-Steemit rumour explained me the story better. Even if it was a rumour, I loved the knitting of the whole story. How much creative you need to get to make a rumour credible!
Restructuring of Steemit staff with 70% layoff, updated FAQ & intro pages, change in the top Management, power down by Ned, trading by the insiders and then binge buying by Koreans ...everything fit quite well with the story,
Why Steemit didn't fuel this rumour!
This rumour took place at a perfect time. What else could double the STEEM's market price in this bear market, if not this rumour? Had this rumour continued for some more time, it may have found some place in mainstream media too. This would have increased the attention, adoption and its prices further.
Many people and companies actually spend money to spread rumours to gain attention and take advantage from it. But here, Steemit's new MD was quick to state that rumours are false. Why!!!
Samsung hasn't said a word on it, so why should Steemit take the lead in clarifying this rumour as false?
Managing rumours
Fake news and rumours are not uncommon in the world of cryptocurrency and it seems to work out in favour of the smaller startups.
Do you remember last year in July when Coppay started the rumour that it has collaborated with Samsung for accepting STEEM along with 6 other cryptocurrencies at its retail stores in 3 Baltic States? When the news appeared in mainstream media, it was Samsung who stated that the rumours are false. And despite that, Coppay kept trying to make it appear that the partnership was genuine. Who gained out of it? Obviously Coppay. At least, I had never heard of Coppay before this incident.
Similar was the case with the cryptocurrency startup carVertical's announcement of its partnership with BMW. Despite BMW's denial, carVertical kept insisting on its partnership. Same happened with IOTA's partnership with Microsoft. It was Microsoft who denied entering into any partnership with IOTA.
So the question that comes to my mind is why Steemit is denying this rumour as true?
Couldn't Samaung really buy Steemit?
When Haejin first told about this news last month, he even told the time frame of it's official announcement to be in about one month or so. His indication of change in top management indeed came true. So why can't an announcement about the inking of deal is still a possibility?
Man, keep buying and hodling STEEM! Who knows, what's rumour and what's news!
Of course, buying Steemit Inc doesn't mean buying Steem blockchain. How can one buy a decentralized network? I came across the following tweet by Dallas Rushing today. Although it was in a different context, it applies to this situation as well:
In another news this week, news of leaked images of Samsung Galaxy S10 phone has surfaced. It's being said that Samsung's Galaxy S10 model will have it's own native cryptocurrency wallet for cold storage.
In July of last year, Samsung Insights reported that the most secure device to run a cryptocurrency wallet on is a mobile phone due to the presence of a Trusted Execution Environment (TEE).
Apart from that Samsung is very keen on blockchain technology. It is also exploring this tech to cut its distribution cost by 20%.
However, I've no idea what it can use Steemit for and what makes it interested in it. But yes, I'm definitely interested in someone buying Steemit. We do need some change, fresh ideas and new energy that can propel STEEM to the moon. 😉
Tip:
Always HODL STEEM!