Steemit Review - Social Media Blockchain Crypto currency
What Is Steemit?
Steemit was founded by Dan Larimer and Ned Scott, two individuals that have been highly active in the cryptocurrency industry for quite some time. Larimer in particular was instrumental in developing the Bitshares digital currency as well as Graphene, an open-source blockchain database that both Bitshares and Steemit use for their blockchain.
Both Scott and Larimer are avowed libertarians, embracing the concept of decentralized approaches to governing. This inspired them to create a social media platform that would be censorship-resistant and that facilitates the spread of independent digital currencies that aren't tied to any government.
"Steemit Product"
There's nothing to sell or buy when it comes to Steemit. Much like Reddit, you sign up for an account and you can then begin filling your feed with content of all types (written content, images, videos, etc.) while voting on and/or commenting on content created by others with an eye towards creating a community.
"Steemit Opportunity"
There is a unique opportunity presented by Steemit in that users can earn digital tokens for both posting content valued by the community and for upvoting content.
These digital tokens are called Steem, a cryptocurrency that is supported by the Steemit blockchain. While Steem is able to be mined, it can also be earned by content creators and voters.
A set pool of Steem is created every day by the blockchain, which is used to reward Steemit users.
The more upvotes a particular piece of content receives, a larger piece of this pool is awarded to the post; the author of the post is awarded a majority of the reward, while the remainder is split between everyone who upvoted the post, with early voters receiving larger awards for pointing out good content.
These votes accrue over a week before being tallied and paid out. Content includes not just your own posts, but any comments left on other people's posts as well, as comments can also be upvoted.
"Steemit Verdict"
Steemit has been around since late spring of 2016, and has seen constant, steady growth in that time.
Part of that is due to the popularity of digital currencies. Steem, for example, is a relatively well-respected cryptocurrency, is listed on major exchanges, and is easily tradeable for other digital currencies like Bitcoin or Ethereum.
Additionally, the income earning system Steemit uses encourages long-term growth. Half of your reward for posting or upvoting content is provided in something Steemit calls Steem Power, which is vested Steem that increases the weight of your upvote.
While you can divest your Steem Power completely over 13 weeks, individuals with high Steem Power totals can award content creators much more with their vote than someone with little to no Steem Power; this encourages individuals to accumulate Steem Power if they want to aid the community.
Steemit isn't a get-rich-quick scheme by any stretch of the imagination. In essence, it's a blogging platform that encourages long-term growth and community building, and it does so through awarding digital currencies that are tradeable into other cryptocurrencies or fiat currency like the US Dollar.
As the digital currency exchanges fluctuate all the time, the amount of money you can objectively earn from Steemit will depend on market conditions. a single Steem has been valued as high as $4 and as low as $0.09; at the time of this writing, Steem is valued at about $0.70 and is rising.
If you like using social media platforms like Reddit or if you enjoy blogging, Steemit is an excellent alternative based on the amount of money you can accumulate. However, be aware that it is offering you long-term growth and that it is not going to be a way to receive vast amounts of wealth overnight.