Given the headline, I actually don't see what Ethereum and Steem are doing in that list. They are not businesses. There is no business case in Ethereum, nor is there in STEEM.
From an investement point of few, all you get in STEEM is capital gains.
Ethereum pays all the fees to the miners .. no business for investors.
To my knowledge StorJ and MaidSafe may have an actually business for their shareholders by using transaction fees and paying it to 'storage providers'. Not sure if that makes anything for the investors.
Augur, I don't know much about.
The only platform I am aware of that radically implements a business on the blockchain is BitShares. There, transaction fees are profits of a DAC and shareholders collectively own those profits through a reserve pool, that can be used to pay for development. BitShares also has products, such as assets, transactions, the DEX or withdrawal permissions. All those radically follow a business proposition and not just hope for capital appreciation.
maybe "business model" should be replaced in that case with "economy model"?
Title might be a bit misleading, but all those cryptocurrencies do have unique features that help them succeed. While they aren't exactly business models, those features are part of the cryptos whitepapers which detail their plan of action. Unlike Bitcoin which only allows for P2P transactons, these other coins have alternative models setup to facilitate their growth.
I agree. I just have a different interpretation of what a "business model" actually is. Thanks for writing the article anyways!