The Rise of Steemit

Steemit was a kid on the online social block. But with time Steemit has seen a significant growth (~1000%) – rather impressive feat, to say the least. The site launched in May of last year, but it was only recently that contributor funding was released and the the platform paid equivalent of 1.3 billion of Steemit’s cryptocurrency (or “Steems“)

Hoes does Steemit work?
Is it paid?

Steemit is currently free to join.

What’s the idea?

It is simple in theory – give the power to Steemit users to create and curate content on the website and in return they receive a proportional cut of the digital currency, rather than the corporate stakeholders, like we’ve seen with other social sites.

How is it different to other social media platforms?

It’s all a popularity contest on Steemit, much like that of Reddit and Facebook. The more engagement you get on a post, the more likely you are to show up in trending feeds. But what makes this platform so unique is that audiences get a share of the cash prizes just by interacting through votes and comments. With cash benefits for writers and more importantly active interactors, there’s a great deal of incentive for audiences to consume content like we’ve never seen before.

Steemit CEO Ned Scott commented on the recent success of the social platform:

“People are recognising the vast potential of a community-operated social networking platform. The Steemit team has created an online hub where users can monetize their time and their energies and share in the profits like never before… With Steemit, the market forms around you.”

And what a fantastic opportunity this has created for the online content marketers among us.

What makes the system tick?

Steemit has developed an engagement system, whereby it isn’t just the users who vote or comment the most, who earn the most amount of currency. Remuneration through interaction is calculated by what posts go viral and who was the first to give these articles the tick of approval. The more popular a post is, the more its voters are rewarded.

Where does the Steem money come from to give away to the users?

The concept is fairly intricate and is propped by the blockchain based technology. If you are not familiar with the blockchain and the pinup currency BitCoins. Chances are you will be hearing more and more about blockcain tech.

In essence though:

The blockchain based tech behind Steem creates a virtual currency called Steem dollars.
The value of the currency is dependent on the popularity of the Steem network and hence all the digital assets it owns.
Steem is then able to distribute Steem dollars to the deserving platform users, who can swap it for BitCoin and    subsequently exchange into any major non-virtual currency.
No Steem dollars don’t grow on virtual trees, but are made from great content & enough reader consumption around it.
The value of Steem dollars will continue increasing as long as it remains useful and scarce.