As I understand this direction, the goal is to introduce the Steem economy in other transactions. The most important part that is syndicated is not the content, which can also be created outside of the current web platform, but the currency and the economical model.

This creates a strategic challenge.

In this scenario, Steem becomes more of a currency and less of a community.

But what makes Steem a currency right now is the community on Steemit.com.

Without the people writing here, and without the curators, there won't be any market cap, nobody will buy Steem at all. IMHO, a currency exists only as long as the convention behind it exists. If the community around Steem is weakened, the currency will be weakened as well. Right now, Steem can be bought with real money and, at the moment of writing this comment, 1 Steem is worth 0.12 USD. What makes this possible is the current community and economic model (its size and its activity). Without this real economy going on, Steem will be just another loyalty rewards points plugins out there, just another gamification system.

As I see things right now, strategically, the focus should be on building the community here, which will result in strengthening of the currency, and only then attracting other communities by the "gravitational field" created by this real economy. They should ask us to include them. If this is already happening and I didn't see it in the article, well, it means it's ok, we're on the right path. But if not, well...

If the community here becomes less valuable, or too diluted, that will in turn affect Steem as the currency and that will spiral down the price until the whole economy collapses.

I'm just writing this here as food for thoughts. Would love your comments and, most of all, would love some real arguments that will contradict the above scenario.

And one more thing: with so many different communities that are using Steem, what's the role of witnesses and how the governance will be enforced? What they will govern, actually?

I'm not saying that this expansion shouldn't be made, as a matter of fact I'm looking forward to it, as I have a few projects involving the transfer of Steem outside Steemit.com. I'm just saying there are many, many, many variables and I wand to understand as many as I can.