How Steemit could go from being a Social Network, to a Marketplace or even end up opening Pandora's Box

At the moment Steemit is seen mostly as a social network where people get paid for the unique content they share. But what if people could share research papers or any other kind of important documents and have a guarantee they would be paid for their work? What if people wanted to sell information or art or any other type of content via blockchain? People could choose how much they want to be paid first and only then the content would be revealed. 

Why? You may ask. Well, I'd say "Incentives". I think most of things in life are done based on incentives. Hence, why people make immoral actions sometimes. Simply because the incentive to commit them is bigger than the incentive not to.

This would be something extremely similar to how DarkLeaks works, without the need to go "dark".

We could have a completely decentralized, content based marketplace. People could sell anything like pictures, videos, documents, code, etc. People could be sure they would be compensated for their hard work, without having to worry someone would steal it from them first.

Imagine someone selling a painting they don't want to be stolen. Imagine someone who made a movie and would like their cut before it's online. Imagine someone developing code for a Steemit app or something else. Imagine someone developing and sharing the cure for some disease. Imagine someone selling the recipe for expensive pharmaceuticals that are the only way people with cancer who can' afford it, can survive. This way the incentive to do something like this could be bigger than the incentive not to share it.

How would this work? Well, I imagine it could be like DarkLeaks does:

 The software uses Bitcoin’s block chain to encrypt files which are  released when payment is claimed by the leaker. Files are split into  segments and encrypted. These segments are unlocked only when the leaker  reveals the key by claiming his Bitcoins. 

With the right incentives, Steemit could be used to expose corruption and reveal the truth in certain matters.

As we can see in the roadmap we have private messages and confidential transactions as future enhancements to the website and protocol. 

Now,  citing this blog

privacy is a concept describing activities that you keep entirely to yourself, or to a limited group of people. In contrast, anonymity is when you want people to see what you do, just not that it’s you doing it.  

If we could eventually go for anonymity, which we could given this is an open source project that provides the tools for anyone to build any kind of applications, we could achieve something that could have a strong impact in society and mainly politics. More than a social network, it could start new movements that seek to defend people's rights.

Basically, Steem can be a lot of things, other than a social network. It can be a simple app where friends hangout, where people earn a living selling their work or where people aim to seek the truth and expose corruption or share important findings that could benefit mankind.