Woah that is a lot of responses. I think pruning the chain is a necessity in order to keep costs down. Might be a good but potentially incendiary to have a server archive cluster that sat completely off the blockchain. fill this full of ads etc
For the blochain itself sell corporate accounts with the option to buy into capped levels.
Consider a dapp token that functions as introduction to steemit that totally holds the hands of newbies before they go on the chain itself. It needs to be totally gamified. Once people "pass" this baby chain they then go onto Steemit.
Don't quit. This is firesale time .....ok quit playing guitar :D