@steembasicincome is an initiative by Joseph Savage. If you go to the account, there are detailed reports and posts on what it is. Basically, it takes one steem to sponsor a person into the program. And the person doing the sponsoring also gets a share.
If you go to the @freewritehouse right now, we are having a contest to give away a membership. Still open for maybe 10 more hours. And we do one every Tuesday.