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indeed they are.

In this use case - the token could be named a Z or something and the setup configured to encourage the kind of user behavior expected on a twitter-clone that rewards.

Did you make your point because you don't think it could work?

I think that Zappl (or any other app running on the blockchain) should consider using their own token. So yes it could work as long as they market themelves outside of the current steem user base.