Yes, but there was no "exit" either with Basecamp. BC is still operational. I highlighted that case because they understand the needs of their users, their community, and don't force their desires upon those users. A vast majority of companies would have forced everyone to upgrade. BC is also privately funded (bootstrapped) and never accepted any VC.
I see I totally failed in my reply.. Community does not need to be engaged. It can be paying clients each in their own silo, who never engage among themselves. You used the correct term: userbase. That's the community. Communities like we on Hive are merely a subset in the nomer "community".
For companies the "exit to community" would be whether to open source the IP (at least the one used to operate the site/app) or to crowdfund the continuation of the platform and recruitment of a new team, an alt-acquisition so to say.
I don't think you failed in your communication. I learned something from your response for sure and I honestly know very few details about Basecamp.
But it seems we are going in circles. Engaged is important because Steemit did exactly what you just proposed. It's only from that engaged part of the community who were larger stakeholders that HIVE exists today.
It's true from a corporate perspective that "Exit to Community" means opening the source code to everyone. But the real success of the "Exit to Community" depends on an engaged Community.
From a corporate outlook, that's a scary proposition. On the other hand it gives HIVE the opportunity to become an online entity unlike anything ever seen before.
In our little world engagement is very important, yes. And engagement also leads to an increased sense of ownership. Here, thanks to stake, ownership is even an integral part of the game.
I totally agree there.
But I think the original concept referred to was in relation to startups (a startup is a product seeking for a replicable revenue model). I'm not sure anymore that blockchains are startups, especially not blockchains like ours (and ETH) which aim to build true alternative economy ecosystems. I know, I know... semantic pedantry lol. Guilty as charged. :D
In the decentralized world we have "Exit to community"... we fork our own continuation chain. Hive is one of the Exit to Community prototypes, albeit one initiated by the community and not a common venture process. Vitalik saw it happen when ETH Classic decided to continue the ETH chain complete with hijacked DAO funds.
!ENGAGE 50
Thanks for that. 😁
"You know what happened to the boy who suddenly got everything he ever wanted?
He lived happily ever after".
~ Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory
ENGAGEtokens.