The purpose of this post is to explain about steem blockchain to those who are unknown who are mostly new comers but I will not be surprised even if some dolphins or whales don't know exactly what steem is. Steem blockchain is not steemit, forget about steemit for now, we will get back to steemit and other apps of steem in a while, we are talking just about steem blockchain!

Why do we need to know?

You may not know what steem blockchain is and just be fine using steemit. But it will always good to know what you are spending your time and money on. Knowing what steem is will give you confidence to either be here or leave the platform. You will have more understanding on your role here as a user.

What is steem blockchain?

Steem blockchain is what all apps related to steem run on top of, it is the definition most posts give you, but it is not clear for most people and creates more confusion. So what it means? It will be super confusing to use the word blockchain for non technical people, so we will use word ledger (register).

Steem is a shared ledger, which copy can be viewed and downloaded by everyone.

How this explains?

In the fundamental level everything you are doing here is pushing data into blockchain (ledger). When you do any transaction, you are just changing the data stored in blockchain.

For example, if I am sending 10 steem to @steemcurator01, that means I am requesting steem ledger (blockchain) to remove balance from my account and add 10 steem to @steemcurator01. You need to sign your transaction with your active key which will be automatically done for you when you enter active key to login on steem.

What is upvoting?

A block is created every 3 seconds. A block is collection of transaction which happened in that 3 seconds. With a block there is production of new steem, the steem is produced automatically and came into existence out of thin air. 15% of the steem which came into existence will go to miners. Rest 85% will be divided through upvotes.

The value you can give while upvoting depends upon how much share you have in steem, that is steem power. This is why we should power up!

What witnesses do?

Steem is not in control of anyone, there is Steem company but they can not take decision on their own. For example if we want to change the curation reward from 20% to 60% more than 50% witness should agree for the change. Witnesses are like leaders and we should choose leaders wisely.

What is delegated proof of stake?

We hear steem consensus algorithm is Delegated proof of stake, but what exactly is it. To understand this we need to understand Proof of work, which is the oldest consensus algorithm in blockchain. To create a block in bitcoin blockchain, a miner should have the highest computing power, because of which bitcoin uses too much of electricity.

Proof of stake is where those who have most stake will have most power. But it makes system more centralized since 99% stake will be controlled by 1% users. That is where delegated proof of stake comes in. We can delegate our power to others and they will be taking decision on behave of us. To be earning money in Delegated proof of stake, a miner (witness) have incentive to do good for the community to maintain their position.

What is steemit?

Steemit is an app built on top of steem blockchain, using all the functions mentioned above of the steem blockchain anyone can develop any app and get connected to steem blockchain and use the resources. You can make a program which connects to the wallet of steem, post of steem, upvote of steem but have completely different function than steemit.

Steemit can be taken down by steem foundation (they won't but can) but steem blockchain can't, you can still view, send, receive and withdraw from your wallet even if steemit goes down.

Why do you need to login with posting key?

When your account is created you will get all of your keys but nobody except you knows what your keys are, not even steem. Entering your master password will be vulnerable as you should never enter your master key online and only use it to generate other keys.

Summary:

In summary steem is a blockchain and steemit is an app built on top of it. A blockchain is just a list of records about who owns what. You should power up to have more influence in the platform and always use posting key to post.

Spud4steem

Take part in spud4steem organized by @kiwiscanfly and sponsored by @xpilar, @reflektor, @hingsten, @bippe, @steemcurator01, @ciska, @kiwi-crypto, @steem-supporter and @stephenkendal. This is a first of it's kind to encourage users to power up!

Gif source: Giphy, Tenor