Steemit Bridges Blockchain and Social Media, But How Does It Work?

When an obscure cryptocurrency with a total market cap of approximately $14m skyrockets to over $400m, people take notice.

But, when that cryptocurrency forms the backbone of a social media entity rewarding people for creating content, sometimes with thousands or tens of thousands of dollars for single posts, excitement and skepticism ensues.

Launched in March and gaining prominence in July, Steemit, a self-described "blockchain-based social media platform", has seen this level of notoriety in just its first few months of operation. To date, it has polarized blockchain experts while winning scores of newcomers to the technology.

The brain-child of Daniel Larimer, founder of BitShares, and Ned Scott, a former financial analyst, Steemit aims to provide a place for individuals to create content, promote the content they believe is good and comment on stories — all while earning money.

But Steemit is more than just a website for earning spare change.

It’s an actual blockchain built on a piece of technology developed by Larimer called Graphene, which allows for the deployment of application-specific blockchains.

Scott, in interview with CoinDesk, explained that the team only had the idea for Steemit back in January and, because of the Graphene framework, they were able to quickly roll the project out.

The rest, like most things in the blockchain space, is a bit difficult to explain