"At the peak of our confidence, we saw ourselves as the freest writers on the internet, beholden to no one but our readers. Gawker was an experiment in journalism free of commercial pressures and the need for respectability, constrained only by law."

This honorable mission for Gawker resulted in the company being put out of business from a lawsuit by Hulk Hogan (backed by Peter Thiel). Read Nick Denton's last Gawker post here.

The promise of an open, decentralized protocol like Steem is that writers can fulfill the mission that Nick Denton strived for, without actually fearing lawsuit. If Gawker started on a protocol like Steem, they may still be working toward their mission.