When an obscure cryptocurrency with an estimated total market cap of $14m skyrocketed to more than $400m, people took notice. However, when the cryptocurrency formed the basis of a social media entity, that rewards people for creating content, at times with thousands of dollars for one post, excitement and skepticism rose.

Steemit is a self-described blockchain-based social media platform which was started in March 2016 and gained prominence in July the same year. Platform realized its exceptional level of reputation in the first few months of operation and today; it has polarized blockchain professionals while winning scores of technology newcomers.

The brain-child of Daniel Larimer, and Ned Scott, founder of BitShares and former financial analyst respectively, aims to offer a great place for individuals to create, comment and upvote content which they believe is good while earning money.

Steemit is more than a blockchain developed of technology or a site to earn money since it permits utilization of application-specific blockchains. During an interview with CoinDesk, Ned Scott explained that the idea of Steemit existed all the way in January 2016, but because of the Graphene framework, they managed to roll out the project quickly.

The pop

In the first few months, there was not much talk about the platform. While there were people contributing content in addition to the early miners, the actual bang was not realized until 4th July when the “dam opened”, and a platform (stored-up blockchain-based currency) that was valued at $1.3m was released.

According to Scott, all the blog posts, upvotes and comments that took place before the launch were saved on the blockchain, and the rewards that users were promised for their contribution were not yet distributed. The underlying design was to allow the team to test the platform, and fix bugs before allowing more people to sign up.

Scott cautioned that despite the diligent team behind Steemit development, there would be bugs and it was good to ensure the Steemit was secure and safe for the use of everyone. Scott said, “What took place on 4th July was like a three-month-long day that at last came to an end and today, the rewards pool shares out continuously.” And following that pop, users who used to view their balances grow were instantly rewarded.