if Steemit insists on maintaining control over blockchain development,

Do they insist?

Also, we can all see that there are many better skilled and more devoted teams doing great work on Steem platform. They could easily take over the blockchain part of the job ... With proper community governance and consensus, of course.

When you talk about the numbers - the part that bothers me is that steem as an asset is controlled by Steemit Inc. They do own we-don't-know-how-much steem ...

https://steemitboard.com/ranking/index.php?p=0&s=vests

Let's add SP of steemit and steem accounts. We get 56 million SP. Which is currently worth $19 million. More than enough to run a proper business without sacking people!!!

My guess is that Ned is not telling us something ...