The growth of the internet has led to a boom in new media and independent content creators. Legacy media institutions are losing power, market share, and audiences to this emerging class.

However, this growth is under threat. These creators rely on third-party platforms such as Twitter, Youtube, and Facebook to broadcast and disseminate their content. Recently we’ve seen these companies clamp down on creators they deem as unacceptable.

On top of this, it can be hard for creators to directly monetize their content through these sites. There are very few ways to directly send money across most social media platforms.

Many creators collect revenue by using services such as Patreon, which allow their audience to financially support them. The problem is that these companies can also shut down accounts should they choose to. We have seen this happen with several prominent producers recently.

All of this highlights the problem that creators have by depending on third-parties for broadcasting and revenue.

Fortunately, cryptocurrencies and blockchain projects can circumvent these limitations.

Steem: A Blockchain Content Solution

All of the above are solutions for bridging the non-crypto and crypto worlds. Another approach is to build everything in the crypto ecosystem with the hope that users will migrate to blockchain based social networks. The most famous case of this is the platform Steemit and its native cryptocurrency, Steem.

Somewhere between the experience of Facebook and Reddit, Steemit allows users to post content and, in turn, reward other users for their content with Steem.

The main challenge for Steemit is that it depends on users moving from the prevailing dominant social media sites to Steemit. Not only are Steemit’s features and UI more primitive, but aside from the tipping aspect, it currently offers little incentive for users to migrate. As such, it is struggling to overcome the network effects that Facebook and Twitter have already capitalized on.

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