I think we can all agree, Steemit is vastly different from Reddit.

The main difference being: Steemit doesn't suck.

When you compare the two there are some similarities beyond the name, but they end rather quickly. One main difference is that upvotes and downvotes are recorded and viewable to everyone. This is actually a great feature, allowing users to verify where their votes are coming from and review the profiles of other users and upvote them too. I find this creates a virtuous cycle where people discover content by upvoting and curating eachother. It also allows flag wars where whales can flag eachother down to the depths of the ocean.

Radical transparency is a great experiment unto itself!

Lots of users are surprised and even worried at the idea of a wallet that's viewable to the public. It took a bit for me to get my head wrapped around this as well but in fact, it's actually a great innovation. In the world of Bitcoin and other cryptos, it's possible to see how much is in a person's wallet but not their identity. In Steemit you can see both. This allows you to know who is rich, who is poor, who is powering down and who is a hardcore Steem gambler. That being said, the only drawback is that if you have a ton of STEEM in your wallet, maybe hackers could target you. My advice: don't keep a ton of STEEM in your wallet! Use the savings feature or POWER UP 100%. Then it will take 13 weeks for the hackers to get your savings. Who the hell wants to wait that long?

If only the government was as transparent as Steemit

You can tell who votes for who, when, with how much SP, who's doing the flagging and whatnot. This allows the community to work together to defeat bad actors like @asshole or other trolls, by tracking their downvotes and countering with an upvote, or in the case of spam - flag content for downvotes. When I give someone steem (with no transfer fee mind you - that's god damn miraculous) I can see whether they use it to power up, transfer to an exchange or pay it forward to someone else. It allows a simple trust mechanism to evolve where people put their money where their mouth is. No whales with 100,000 STEEM begging for donations by hiding their wallet here.

Final thoughts on STEEM

STEEM as a currency is great for micro-payments and even larger sums. I think the $1-$100 range could easily be worthwhile for paying for lots of online services like comissioned artwork (see @klye, master MSPAINT artist) or prizes for contests (see @digicrypt , bringing cryptography to the masses with interesting challenges). The possibilities are endless and having them all on a public blockhain allows building of trust. You can see people getting paid for their work, donating to others and others cashing out or powering down. There's no shame in it, and it fosters a community that's more open and accountable to eachother.

Summary:

• Open wallet is transparent, for everyone from the Steemit founders to new users

• Upvotes and downvotes being recorded publicly lets you know who is a bot and who's real

• Reddit makes shit up like posts getting 70k upvotes which is laughably ridiculous