Not all countries regulated virtual currencies yet, so run the operation from countries without regulations. Like in NL, no regulations around BTC and altcoins. In Germany some regulations around BTC, but not to difficult. I can even imagine the part that will work with the brands to be onboarded will be support in technical integration, process integration and may even get a service to handle the regulators and taxes for them wrt the altcoins. I truly believe propositions can be made that will attract the first innovative brands to eg Steemit. So far, none of the altcoins is creating these propositions. I would love to create and execute them, and now I'm in the process of finding out who is responsible for what and with whom I shall deal to bring eg Steemit to the next level through propositions and activities to bring brands (from small to large) to Steemit.

Spending coins could be spending it on promotion channels in Steemit. Spending could be re-distribution to the audience/followers through win games. Today Steemit is blogging service, so a marketing channel, hence 100% cost in terms of financials. On Steemit a brand can earn coins post/comments, and can burn them by promotion and/or give aways. Coins can also be used to pay a fee to be allowed to use Steemit as a channel, or at least to pay for the specific technology, features, interfaces, integration that will be different from segment to segment.