This is the one question that stifles most new and even not-so-new people here. When I first came here, I thought this was just a pay-to-view kind of thing, just with cryptocurrency.

When I realised that even curation and comments earned money, I won't lie, I did think that this was a scam. One of the other things I thought was that they were spending venture capital to attract new people.

When I realised how it all works, only then was I ready to join the site. IMO, this should be one of the topmost answered questions in the FAQ. Otherwise people are just going glance through it, misunderstand the system, and yell to the world that Steemit is a scam.