RE: On chainBB, eSteem, Busy.org, Ethereum and the Plethora of ICOs
That's one of the more compelling arguments I have seen, pointing to a bright future for Steemit/Steem. Unicorns notwithstanding.
We have some important differentiation here that a lot of alt coins just don't have. I'm a non-expert on the technical side, but I still think one of the best things we could see here is someone using the rewards splitting to build a full-featured Steem-based peer-to-peer marketplace for goods and services... like a combination of eBay (back in pre-corporate days when it was cool), Etsy for artists and Craigslist. Not just because it would be a cool feature, but because it would create a huge "economic reason for being" for the Steem token. So when a potential investor comes along... there's this huge existing infrastructure; an active economy.
With that in place... I might even become a believer in unicorns.
You are right about a marketplace not being (yet) operational in the Steemit ecosystem. I also think this will boost the growth very, very fast. There are relatively high entry costs for building such a marketplace, though. The biggest one being not the technical one, but marketing and PR. It's hard to get people off of their habitual places, where they build trust for years. But not impossible.
You might want to check out what @thisisbenbrick is up to with Steemsongs - an important step in the right direction for the ideas you're talking about