Interesting observations and article @trafalgar. I for one had a very similar question from day one when discovering Steemit: How is Steemit Inc financed and how this can be a sustainable business?
But before diving into this aspect, first my response to the interest paid on Steem Dollars and Savings. Although the interest is there with good intentions, I also think that the interest payments is relative unimportant for someone who has funds in Steem, Steem Power or SBD; The volatility of the underlying currencies is factors more than the interest itself. Since the budget for interest payments is a substantial part of the daily minted Steem, I agree we can find a different purpose for this budget, ie remove the interest payments and use it for something else.
Now back to Steemit Inc and other developments to the benefit of Steem blockchain and how they are and can be financed. Steemit Inc owns a lot of Steem, but indeed, they do not have a recurring income. And it also seems Steemit Inc is not using its account and Steem Power to generate income by posts and curation. Since Steemit Inc is more or less the owner of the Steemit software (at least that is what I think is the case), and it cost considerable amount of money to develop the roadmap as well as to maintain this software, it makes very much sense to allow Steemit Inc some recurring income.
Also the community is creating software, from simple to more complex tools, some of them very relevant, some of them that you would expect to be part of the core software eg Steemit. I don't know how these developments is paid for, and how the developers and owners are looking at monetising their efforts. To me it seems logical to allow for funding '3rd party' developments. Question is though: Who shall pay for what, and what developments shall be funded and what not? Who decides on what is funded and what not, is also a very good question.
Steemit Inc started a program to the developers community to come up with their project ideas and stated they will select some of the promising projects and intend to help by some funding, I suppose these funds will come from the Steemit Inc owned capital. Although it is not clear to me what the rules of the game are; At least it is a good initiative.
I would for sure like to understand better the ownership of Steemit and 3rd party developed software. I also would like to understand better the ownership of Steem Blockchain and the API's build on top of it.
Why do I like to understand that better? Well, because I created several concepts to onboard businesses and brands. I do know these businesses and brands require first of all integration of their technical systems with Steemit, and very likely they also require some additional features. When there is a party that will help these businesses and brands to be on-boarded, then this party will lead the way to bring more users to Steemit, and by doing so this party will have to spend considerable time, effort and funds. Investments need to be made not only in technology but also in integration, operational activities, sales activities, marketing activities and so on. If I would invest to make all of this happen, and I'm a 3rd party to Steem and Steemit and an outsider to Steemit Inc, I for sure need to know who owns what and how to make sure any investments will not be thrown away, and what service I can deliver with what certainties (eg API changes shall not lead to problems in delivering the end-2-end service, API's shall always be backwards compatible, uptime of the service shall be high and so on).
But, I go a bit too much of topic here, since the question was to re-distribute the interest budget to Steemit Inc and a fund to sponsor 3rd party developments. I think this is for sure something that we can consider. Obviously this will require some re-adjustment of current way of work and maybe even ownership and power. When for instance the community will fund Steemit Inc, the community will logically want to have more ownership/stake in the value and software produced by Steemit Inc. Also, when the community fund 3rd party developments, the same applies.
Since I do not know how ownership and all is implemented, I for one needs to get a better understanding of that first. Maybe you or others who read this comments have the answers and can explain. When ownership is not clear within the community at large, my suggestion is first to get that cleared up before discussing the topic you address in your post.
Looking forward to a better understanding of ownership, as well as discussions how we can support each other to create the future for Steemit, how maybe even some of us can create commercial businesses (the only way to allow for sustainability) around the Steem Blockchain and Steemit software.
yes I agree with everything you said
where the 15% goes should be up for debate
paying a paltry 1.5% interest of steem power is not an efficient use of this money
For sure agree regarding the interest being useless. I think it was the idea to give incentive to power up and to keep Steem Dollars, but it does not serve its purpose in reality.
You may be interested in a post I wrote today, regarding ownership https://steemit.com/steemit/@edje/question-who-owns-the-steem-blockchain-and-steemit-service-and-api-s-the-steemit-steem-business-opportunity