As you say. I think DLPs will be disruptive enough to potentially get us more freedom but we have to be there from the start to make sure all the power freaks don't get through the door first and grab all the goodies. There needs to be a non-judgemental way to provide some form of opportunity for everyone.

It could be that Steem is already lost but I'm not sure. it is certainly becoming more insular and autarky-like. Maybe even a proto-chaebol. Like you say, the tools are there but some people have already got hold of them and only let their friends/peer group use them.

I've been having a look at eosDAC as an alternative but their constitution is really, "whoa there buddy - are you sure you want to go there?". When I brought this up with governance the administrator didn't understand the implications.

Basically the DAC separates itself from the state systems in place throughout the world, makes all the members liable for the DACs actions and names all the members. That potentially puts all members at the risk of prosecution and deportation to unfriendly jurisdictions if the DAC does something dumb or naive.

It's a bit like being thrown to the lions. If Substratum was up and running with a fully decentralized net, Emericoin with its decentralized DNS and there was non-signing crypto signatures you could get away with it. The platform and its members would be like air - impossible to grasp. That will be a couple of years at the least. There are some Steem bigwigs already in eosDAC too.