When purpose is not know, abuse is inevitable.
Myles Monroe

What is the purpose of the Steem Blockchain?

The purpose of the Steem Blockchain is:

• to be a publicly accessible database for immutably stored content in the form of plain text, along with an in-built incentivization mech-
  anism.

• to be a public publishing platform from which any Internet application may
  pull and share data while rewarding those who contribute the most valuable content.

• to be a tool for building perpetually growing communities, which encourage
  their members to add value to the community through the built in rewards structure.

• to reward content creators and curators.

• to decentralize social media.

• to create a gateway to the world of Cryptocurrencies for the average Joe who may not be interested in Cryptocurrency due to lack of funds, apathy, fear or ignorance.

• to incentivize Cryptocurrency education and adoption.

Now Steem is very different from Steemit.

So there is another question:

What is the purpose of Steemit?

Steemit is the visual representation of the Steem Blockchain. It is the first application built on Steem.
It is designed to be a social news sharing site. It is uncensored. To put it more accurately, the censorship comes from the users of the site. It pays users to post stuff and upvote stuff.

What Exactly is Steemit?

Is it a place where we exchange our goods and services with each other in a peer to peer system?

Yes!

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Is it a blogging platform?

Yes!

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Is it a place where you just buy upvotes, no matter what kind of post it is?

Yes!

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Is it a place where everything is for sale including Steem Power, Reputation, friendship and everything else that is sellable?

Yes!

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Is it a competitor for blogging platforms like Medium?

Nope!
It's an "ass-kicker" to blogging platforms like medium

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Is it a place where we learn how to build bots to automate our income?

Yes kinda.
I've seen that happen.

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Is it a place where we discover new ideas?

Yes! Yes!! Yes!!!

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Is it a place where we form smaller collectives, in order to have a sort of basic income model, where bare bones money for survival is mostly automated so that we can focus on building a better world?

Yes! I like the idea of building a better world.

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You probably still see Steemit as a place where quality content is rewarded.

Someone else sees it as school fees for his child.

Another person sees it a a source of food and livelihood.

Yet another sees it as a place to make friends and build social capital.

Scammers see it as a place to fulfill their purpose.

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A Holistic Description of Steemit for Newbies.

Sometimes I find it hard to describe Steemit to newbies. This is because I try to give them a holistic description. I use to describe Steemit as a social media but that is either a lie or a naive and narrow perspective. It's social media on steroids and marijuana and weed and hard drugs. It's more than a blogging platform. A more accurate explanation is a decentralized planet or a country.

So picture me telling someone.

"Hey, I want to invite you to a decentralised blockchain powered digital planet that is designed to reward digital content creators and curators based on proof of brain algorithms. It is biased by human emotions and wealthy robots. We have many delegated witnesses that run the full nodes of the network on their servers, and they print magical internet money called Steem from thin air. We have whales that can flag your sorry ass to oblivion if you are deemed unworthy. And we plan to launch smart media tokens and make things insanely complex and awesome and conquer the world next year."

Lol...

I'm sure the person will think I'm crazy and will probably say: "No thank you! You have successfully confused me."

So we give them (newbies) the shallow "money talk" axiom: "Steemit is a place where you can earn money when you post quality stuff and curate quality stuff"; and lure them into this ocean of auspicious and turbulent awesomeness.

What Steemit Means to Me

To me Steemit is a beacon of hope. Period!
I already wrote about it here.
In a world were almost everyone is basically trying to rip you off, finding a community that incentivizes collaborative partnership and rewards you for your time and value is priceless to me. Steemit gave me a chance to begin again more intelligently because I discovered Steemit when I was "down". It's not just money talks. It's an opportunity to sow seeds of kindness and create friendship with people based on shared values. Plus you get rewarded for it. This platform gives you an opportunity to own the future with your sweat. If you can look past the reward and see the education and network that is being built here you are mighty fortunate. @lukestrokes said that the real currency in Steemit is not SBD or Steem Power or Steem. It is the relationships.

Let's hear from some of the whales. The following videos were made for the Steemit in Nigeria Conference in OAU, Ile Ife, Nigeria, West Africa and I was excited to watch them during the conference.

What Steemit means to @andrarchy.

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What Steemit means to @lukestrokes.

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What Steemit means to @papa-pepper.

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I challenge you to do a video of yourself and share with us. Tell us. What does Steemit mean to you?

Is Steemit In An Economic and Social Death Spiral??

This is what I choose to believe. I do not fully understand why @stellabelle would ask this question and I know that she may have a broader and maybe different perspective.

I spoke about Steemit to some students at Obafemi Awolowo University, Nigeria, West Africa.
I told them that Steemit right now is still in beta. We do not know what Steemit will eventually become. We have the opportunity to create Steemit and shape it into whatever mould we want at this stage. In this foetal stage of development, anything is possible.

Someone said that you have to write long and witty posts to make it. It is true right? I want to disagree with this premise. Sure, right now there is lot of talk about "quality content" but sometimes I just want to watch some short clips or something funny or something stupid. If all you can do is comedy skits or fine photography you can create a niche and name for yourself here. If you have money you can accumulate Steem Power and reward whatever thing you like. Steemit is uncensored!

Steemit is not perfect but the imperfection is beautiful!

It's crazy and it's wild and I love it!

The more it grows the more complex it will become and the less some would be able to understand it. Perhaps in the future Steem would be a global social currency backed by social capital. A currency mined from the minds of men and their ability to maintain relationships.

I believe and I pray that as Steemit grows, it will continue to evolve and cope with the ever changing tides of human behavior and misbehavior.

Social media will never be the same again. No matter what happens, the Pandora's box has been open. The future is upon us.

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This post is a response to @stellabelles post titled
Is Steemit In An Economic and Social Death Spiral??

It started out as a simple comment that became too long. I decided to edit it but it became a too short (like a tweet or zappl). I finally decided to add more words and make it into a post.

The question "what is the purpose of the steem blockchain?" is very deep and a it can have a lot of answers beyond what is written in the white paper, bluepaper or wikipedia because the Steem blockchain is designed to be decentralised. Steem and Steemit could mean different things to different people.

I spent many hours thinking about this but I finally achieved inner peace when I went back to @stellabelles post and read what she feels is the purpose of the steem blockchain.

I discovered the answer I was looking for right there on same place where I found the question. This is it:

I can only share my own vision of what Steemit could be and why I'm still here. I would like there to be less suffering in the world. And if I can share my artistic visions and energies with people, helping others and in return get enough for basic sustenance to keep my child and parents alive and housed, then I am happy. If I could help thousands of people see that the answers lie inside of them......this would be a paradise.

I totally agree with @stellabelle. Steemit is a force for good.

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Thank you for spending your precious time to read this post.
I hope it was value for your time.

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References

• https://busy.org/deathspiral/@stellabelle/is-steemit-in-an-economic-and-social-suicide-death-spiral

• The Steem Bluepaper.

• Images were gotten from pixabay.com.

• Videos were gotten from YouTube and were made for Steemit in Nigeria Conference in OAU, Ile, Ife, Nigeria.

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Sundayselfies is a fantastic way to show love and give to the people you care about in Steemit.

It's a weekly selfie challenge that spans the entire week. It opens on Sunday and closes on Saturday.

https://steemit.com/busy/@tojukaka/sundayselfies-11-threesome