Steemit cypto-currency sees huge boost in market cap

Digital currency is getting popular in its  many varieties, whether it be bitcoin, ethereum, ripple or litecoin. As  of this week, steem is being ranked with the rest of them. The digital currency behind social media platform Steemit, which rewards users for posting content online, peaked at 1,000 percent growth. Since July 4, the value of steem currency surged from $13 million to a height of $130 million. 

There  had been smaller spikes, but this was the first time steem passed the  DAO, the blockchain-based fund built around the digital currency  Ethereum, according to Steemit CEO Ned Scott. It is now the world’s fifth most valuable cryptocurrency. T he New York Business Journal reached out to Scott to find out what this means for his social network  and the crypto currency space as a whole. Scott compared the phenomenon  to "internet points" and how the business model of customer rewards has  evolved into viable sources of revenue. "  Take Reddit for instance, which has Karma — Karma is just a points  system, but those points don’t have real market value," he said. "Steem  is the same thing but the points have real value." This  could ultimately lead to the gamification of social networking  platforms and integrating them with the blockchain industry, he  explained. Scott co-founded Steemit with blockchain innovator and BitShares founder Dan Larimer. By  comparison, bitcoin's market cap currently hovers $10.5 billion, while  ethereum is at approximately $860 million. Still, the hike in steem's  value could mean Steemit is on its way to becoming a hit in ways other  social networks haven't. Scott  added, “When people began to see that Steem was real and people were  paying their bills and buying things like cell phones and washing  machines with their earnings, that increased confidence and the rate at  which users were bringing in their friends.” While talks have begun at Facebook  to allow users to monetize, but they're in the very early stages, it  hasn't developed to the extent that New York-based Steemit has. The same  can be said for other publishing platforms such as Twitter, Medium and  Odyssey — none of which pay users for uploading content.
"I believe this is the beginning of a very big movement," Scott said.
 

Anthony  Noto is a multimedia journalist focused on venture capital and Silicon  Alley startups. Based in New York for the Business Journals, he  previously was a reporter at SourceMedia and The Deal LLC. He is a  graduate of Rutgers University.