What Is Steemit?

Steemit is a blockchain project that started in March 2016. As of May 2017, the website had about 170,000 accounts. With Steemit, users earn financial rewards in the form of STEEM and Steem Dollars in correspondence for producing and curating content. It’s kind of like Reddit and other social media platforms, but users can earn received rewards for their work.

How Does Steemit Operate?

Steemit is based on a notion similar to Reddit.
The website features a wide range of content and its main page, and users can upvote or downvote that content based on the perceived value of that content.
What makes Steemit different is that the text content is saved in a blockchain. Using a blockchain allows Steemit to reward comments and posts with secure tokens and value. Steemit has two different digital tokens, including STEEM and Steem Dollars.
STEEM is a cryptocurrency token, while Steam Dollars are pegged to the US dollar. Steemit can also host images.
Users can upload images and other multimedia content. To format posts, Steemit uses a WYSIWYG editor, although users can also choose to use Markdown formatting with HTML elements.
Users are also rewarded for curating popular content. Curating content involves voting on comments and post submissions.
The more STEEM Power a voter holds, the more vote strength they have.
One final Steemit feature is the reputation system. New Steemit accounts start with a reputation of 25. As an account receives positive or negative votes, that reputation moves up or down.

The Steemit Blockchain

Steemit runs on a blockchain named Steem.
Steem’s blockchain is designed to transfer tokens in a frictionless way while also hosting text and multimedia. Apps can also be built upon the Steem blockchain.
Applications and websites can connect to the Steem blockchain. Because of its open and permissionless nature, it’s easy for third-party apps and websites to build on the Steem blockchain.

Steemit Digital Tokens

There are two digital tokens for Steemit, including

STEEM
Steem Dollars.

You manage these tokens through your Steemit wallet, which is hosted on Steemit.com.

STEEM

STEEM is Steemit’s base token. The token is currently available on multiple cryptocurrency exchanges. The market value of STEEM determines the value of the pool of rewards paid by Steemit. The value of STEEM is also connected to the value of Steem Dollars. One of the unique parts of the STEEM token is that it was launched with a highly-inflationary supply model that doubled every year. However, that changed as community demand increased. In December 2016, the inflation rate of Steem was dropped all the way down to 9.5% per year, with that inflation rate dropping by an additional 0.5% every year.

Steem Dollars

The Steem Dollar, or SBD, is a digital token pegged to the US dollar. You can trade Steem Dollars at cryptocurrency exchanges, or use them to buy goods and services online. You can also trade Steem Dollars for STEEM (and vice versa) using the internal marketplace on Steemit. Steem Dollars are an interest-generating asset. When you hold Steem Dollars, you’ll receive an interest rate. As of March 2017, the interest rate is set at 2% per year. That interest rate may rise if the value of Steem Dollars drops below the value of the US Dollar. It’s kind of like Steemit’s built-in monetary policy mechanism.

The Steemit Wallet

You control the digital tokens above from your Steemit wallet. The web-based wallet lets you easily transfer Steem Dollars and STEEM. Additionally, the wallet lets you transfer tokens to and from interest-generating accounts. If you deposit your cryptocurrency into a savings account, it will take three days to withdraw.

Conclusion

Finally, Steemit is a novel social media website that rewards content curators and content posters. It uses a reputation system, a cryptocurrency system, and a built-in marketplace to promote good content. It’s like Reddit – but with rewards for people who post good content or contribute to curation tasks. Steemit has gathered a lot of momentum since 2016, and Steemit’s cryptocurrencies have a surprisingly large market cap. With over 170,000 users at last count, Steemit is quickly becoming the next social media giant.