I'm very surprised that no one took the account @buidl
Now it's mine.
I also took the accounts @glod and @pogchamp,
which are terms people use on https://twitch.tv
Unfortunately, @kappa was already taken.
Will these accounts ever be worth something
simply because of the name of their account?
Quite possibly.
This is a variant of cybersquatting.
Traditionally, cybersquatting occurs with domain names. Someone will snipe a website for businesses that haven't made one yet. For example, I might take www.abc123.com if a company/product exists called abc123.
The same thing is happening with Steem accounts.
There are a ton of accounts out there being created but not used.
I still use my old gmail address simply because I got in before everyone else did.
We've all seen how out of control it gets when everyone's name has to be unique.
"abbazabba@hotmail.com is taken,
how about abbazabba28147239@hotmail.com instead?"
lol
Will the same thing happen with Steem? Probably.
We've got less than 2 million accounts created right now.
What happens when we have 50 million? 100 million?
People will be running around with account names like "@edicted123" and "@nedscott284"
I just now typed in random account names 3 characters long, and all twenty of them are already taken. Unlike an email address or a domain name, transference of Steem accounts is as easy sharing the owner key. Will these premium accounts sell for actual money in the future? It's quite possible.
It's also quite possible that these accounts are lost forever as the owners no longer have the keys or they just aren't interested in Steem anymore. I myself created the account @irate but something went wrong and I lost the master key. Still kinda mad about that.
Unlike traditional cybersquatting I'll actually be using all the accounts I make. The value of an account has already proven itself with botnets and alternate accounts for games on the Steem blockchain.
Even if these accounts won't be worth anything to anyone else in the future, they'll still be worth something to me.
Now that I have the SP, combined with HF20, I can still make 9 more accounts for free. Also, two of the accounts I've created I've actually made for my friends, and because I still control the master key I know that they won't lose it like the other people I've told to make accounts.
Conclusion
Three years in and we are still clearly in the early early game. History repeats itself. The days of domain-name squatting are largely a thing of the past, but crypto account squatting hasn't even yet begun. Perhaps accounts like @amazon, @microsoft, and @bitcoin will actually have real value simply from leeching from the original brand. I won't be surprised when a dapp comes out for the sole purpose of selling Steem accounts on the free-market.