Steem is a blockchain social media platform which supports community building and social interaction by rewarding those that post, vote on, and look after cryptocurrency-related content.
Created by Ned Scott and Daniel Larime in 2016, Steem is a product that merges cryptocurrencies and social media. It was built on the principle that meaningful contribution to the community should be credited for the value it adds. The more valuable o piece of content is, the higher the reward will be for the creator.
This value will be determined by the members of the community who vote on the content they like or dislike. More upvotes translate into a greater payout.
Steem Tokens
Steem.io has three tokens: STEEM, Steem Power (SP) and Steem Dollars (SBD).
STEEM is the primary currency used on the platform, and it is the one you would purchase on an exchange. Due to its liquid character, it can be transacted between users. All of the other tokens have their value derived from the primary asset.
‘Powering up’ means that STEEM has entered in a smart contract that keeps the token locked up for 13 weeks, encouraging long-term engagement on the blockchain platform.
The amount of Steem Power a user has dictates how much influence he has on the platform. Votes of owners with high SP are worth more than votes from users who have very little.
Steem Power generates interest for those that hold such tokens, which is 15% of the newly minted STEEM.
SBD can be exchanged for an equal value of STEEM, being designed to bring stability to the platform, having a value which is dependent on that of the US dollar. It takes 3.5 days to convert Steem Dollars into the basic currency.
Steemit
Steemit is a social network platform that rewards content curators from all over the Internet. It gives rewards half in Steem Power and half in Steem Dollars.
How do you earn tokens on Steemit?
There are three ways in which you can earn currency as a community member, and these are:
Posting
You can earn upvotes by sharing your posts, and depending on the number of received upvotes, you will be rewarded with a part of the ongoing Steem Reward pool.
Purchasing
You can purchase STEEM or Steem Dollars from the Steemit Wallet by using Bitcoin, Ether or BitShares Tokens. They can also be bought from exchanges such as BlockTrades, Bittrex, Poloniex, Shapeshift.io, and Changelly.
Voting and curating
If you find a post which hasn’t been upvoted yet, you can get a curation reward. This reward depends on how much Steem Power you have accumulated at that time.
Scam or not?
Steem has got some market analysts who are concerned that the entire operation might be a pump and dump scam or a Ponzi scheme.
“My first impression is that it is a ‘pump and dump’ crypto where accumulators (founders, early adopters) will be looking to cash out on a major pump in price (distribution),” said Petar Zivkovski, director of operations for full-service bitcoin trading platform Whaleclub. “Whether it survives longer term remains to be proven.”
Conclusion
While Steem is a platform with an innovative approach, it also has some potential issues, and only time will tell if they will be overcome or not. However, in the meantime, market observers will be monitoring closely to see if Steem will be a sustainable business model.