What is Steemit?
Steemit (STEEM) is a blogging platform that focuses on allowing writers to get paid for their content. Steemit is another one of Daniel Larimer’s projects, the brains behind Bitshares and EOS. Widely regarded to as one of the best innovators in crypto, all three of his major contributions have settled into the top 50 crypto projects by market cap. Steemit is a highly successful platform that allows readers to comment, subscribe, and give tips to authors in STEEM tokens.
The Steemit platform rewards engagement. Not only do authors have the chance to get paid, but so do the people who curate content by upvoting, and top commenters as well. These payments come from other users and the platform itself. Sounds amazing, right? It is, but…
Anything Dan Larimer makes is very confusing and complex, at first. There are three distinct types of STEEM tokens that do different things. You earn them differently, you spend them differently, and they are worth different amounts in value, defined by the open market at any given moment.
STEEM: This is the token that you can send to exchanges and trade for BTC or USDT and get paid real money from.
STEEM Dollars: This token gets you dividends of more STEEM Dollars. 10% of new coins created daily is distributed among holders of these coins. It was designed to be a stable coin that holds its value.
STEEM Power: This token gets you dividends of more Steem Power. 90% of new coins created daily is distributed among holders of these coins. It also makes your vote carry more weight. These tokens must be staked (locked away) for 2 years before you can sell or trade them. Half your content pay is in this currency.
The good news is, you don’t need all of them, or any of them, to actually use the platform. You can write, comment, and vote for free as well. Those who wish to be more engaged in the community can both contribute and be rewarded for it.
When you make money on Steemit, here are your options for what to do with it:
Convert the Steem Dollars to Steem and transfer it to an exchange to sell it, essentially cashing out.
Hang on to the Steem Dollars, keeping the money in the network and receive 10% interest. You can change your mind and convert them to Steem and sell them any time.Convert your Steem Dollars for Steem Power. To invest long-term and receive the biggest rewards, lock up your Steem Power and stake it.
Steemit launched in March 2016 and grew to over $150 million dollars in market cap by July. That’s a tremendous value for that time. Steemit has its own blockchain, built on Graphene technology (the same as EOS and Bitshares). Also, like EOS, it uses 21 block producers who are picked out and given assignments. 19 are voted in, a 20th acts as a witness, and the 21st performs all the Proof-of-Work mining, saving tremendously on energy costs compared to other blockchains which have thousands of miners.
Interesting Facts:
● An easy to follow guide on cashing out your Steem Dollars: https://steemit.com/steem/@blocktrades/-blocktrades-adds-support-for-directly-buyingselling-steem
● There is no special wallet needed to be downloaded. All currency is stored on the steemit.com website under your account there.
● Some people have made big money on this site. Here’s one blogger’s story of how he made over $100,000 USD. https://steemit.com/steemit/@clains/how-i-earned-usd100-000-with-steemit
Website: https://steemit.com/ (platform), https://steem.io/ (project’s website)
Whitepaper: https://steem.io/steem-whitepaper.pdf
Coinmarketcap: https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/steem/