Steem: A Value-Based Internet

The Internet is an integral part of most people's daily lives. It's made life and commerce more efficient. It's empowered and inspired young and old. It has given people solace and comfort. It's connected new people together and helped others remain close. The benefits of the Internet are too numerous to list and new online applications are created every day. The Internet is an incredible resource of stories, thoughts, sentiments, information and knowledge from people around the world. Since the advent of the Internet over 20 years ago there have been many advancements in the way people use the Internet. Since the late 90's, people are able to find relevant, important and specific information using Google search engines. In the past decade people have been able to discover new content from people they follow or through friends on social media. In the past few months many users have been interacting with Steem blockchain technology and its unique reward and value attribution system. Steem has enhanced online user experience, behavior and interaction in such a way that may revolutionize the entire Internet.

Value-Based Content

Companies on the Internet today measure the value of content based on popularity, authority and relevance.

• Google generates page rankings based on the relevance of keywords and the number and quality of backlinks.
• Facebook ranks content based on how much and how quickly a post is liked or shared.
• Youtube ranks videos based on the number of views and how long viewers watch.

All these methods may give some indication of the value of content, but these are all indirect measures. All likes or retweets are treated the same on Facebook and Twitter, regardless of if the content is a funny meme, a cute cat picture or a thought provoking essay. Hence most platforms are unable to measure the depth of content. In contrast, Steem allows users to vote in varying degrees of Steem power to determine the monetary value assigned to each post. Hence users and companies can organize and rank content much more efficiently using a direct measure of value.

Those who curate and vote on Steemit have a natural tendency to use more discretion when they know they can influence its reward value. Users appreciate thought provoking ideas in philosophy and life on the Steemit platform much more so than on other websites. There are additional factors that dictate value as well. Steemit curators favor homegrown original content that have more potential to attract backlinks and elevate search engine status compared to posts that just link to external sources. Steem business ideas, promotional activities, celebrity posts and tech projects that attract new users and provide more utility in the Steem ecosystem have incredible valuable and gain higher rewards than general content. Monetary rewards do seem to have a strong correlation with content that increases the business value of the ecosystem.

Content Organization & Discovery

A value-based reward system is well-suited for blogging websites such as Steemit, Medium & Tumblr. First of all, users should find value-based rankings much more intuitive. For example most people can more meaningfully compare $1000 to $100 than they can 1000 to 100 in votes, likes or retweets. Readers and organizations can sort content with their own thresholds based on value. Secondly, the distribution of rewards is exponentially skewed to favor the highest ranking posts using a Zipf's law algorithm that mimics distributions found in nature and industry. The uneven reward distribution is not only natural, it also helps users filter content more easily. For example, users can more easily compare top-ranked posts valued at $1000 and $500 under Zipf's law than compare top-ranked posts of $1000 and $990 using a more linear distribution. Lastly users and companies can use popularity (ie. # of votes) to complement their value rankings. Hence with Steem there are two dimensions that can be used to organize content. Value can be the measure of depth; popularity can be the measure of breadth.

Untapped Potential For New Quality Content

Those that want to gain publicity & attention for commerce, build a reputation to build self-esteem, or those who like sharing for altruistic reasons have been major contributors to online content. Not everyone has those motivations and financial incentives can bring an influx of new content providers. A greater number of hobbyists will contribute as well as those who are busy with work, family and other obligations, but have a desire for supplemental income.

Monetary incentives also encourage users to improve the quality of posts and become better writers. People become more conscious of quality when significant value is assigned to their content. Over time more users will enhance posts with better photos, get editors to check their grammar and spelling, focus on formatting and include references and sources. Just like everywhere else online people value originality, creativity and insightful content so people will focus on writing about unique and interesting topics they are most passionate about to get the most rewards.

Immediate Reward & Feedback Mechanism

Another benefit to the Steemit platform is that users earn immediate rewards. It usually takes time to build up a content website, generate traffic and monetize it with ad revenue. SEO strategies usually require a minimum of 3-6 months so that original content can gain enough organic backlinks to earn recognition from search engines. People sometimes need to invest in promotion and distribution to get their content discovered so monetizing content can be difficult without initial capital. Furthermore immediate feedback is good for content creators because they can easily understand what is working or not and adapt and iterate to meet consumer demand. Otherwise people would invest capital, wait many months before realizing their content is not getting enough traction to generate consistent traffic and be too late to make proper adjustments. Therefore the Steem platform creates a more sustainable system for content creators.

Reputation, Community & Culture

A value-based Internet not only encourages good content, but good culture and behavior. Authors who have a good track record are naturally more likely to attract votes compared to new users that have equally good content. Curators need to trust that content is original and will spend time doing research on the post history of the author. Hence authors need to establish a good posting history and develop a good reputation to gain trust from others. Authors that have a good track record and who have built a reputation are also more likely to generate good content in the future so curators will naturally follow them. Sometimes curating bots will vote for their content automatically and act as a sponsor. New users who build relationships with others in the community, comment on posts, and who write a good introductory post with a verified identity can establish themselves far more quickly than anonymous users who don't have any history. Because the platform is a potential source of income, people are less likely to post negative comments at the risk of being downvoted, losing goodwill and ultimately diminishing their earning potential. Therefore 'trolling' behavior is much less frequent on Steemit than in most websites. Users also don't want to diminish their ability to participate in the broader Steem dollar economy. The value-based incentive mechanisms promote positive interactions that strengthen the community.

Conclusion:

The Steem blockchain has economized the Internet and may revolutionize the online experience. Steemit's reward mechanism adds a unique and powerful value dimension to improve online content organization and discovery and should motivate many new creators to contribute. People now have a more sustainable and effective model to create content because of the potential for immediate monetary rewards. Finally the potential for financial rewards improves community behavior and general online interactions.

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You can check out my previous post about Steem here:

Steem: Where DOES the money come from?

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