thanks for coming! ned owns steemit inc. steemit inc has total control over steemit.com. it's just a webpage. steemit.com does not own the blockchain itself. but here's what's important. other than steemit.com, nobody's competing to build the best interface for steem because it doesn't have enough attention. unless someone bigger than ned comes in and create their own SMTs, you can be pretty sure steemit.com will always be the only gateway (again, it's just a webpage). but he owns it, and unless something big comes up, he'll always own the only gateway.