The idea of creating a social network based on blockchain technology that could compete with Facebook or Reddit seems somewhat fantastic, however, the Steem project, in trying to implement it, managed to raise over a billion dollars and become one of the best startups in history.
Steem review
Steem's story began in 2016, when Denis Scott and No Larimer conducted a survey on the need to create a blockchain-based social network on one of the cryptocurrency forums. Soon the team was assembled, and Scott and Larimer became the founders of one of the most successful and ambitious blockchain projects – Steem.
The new generation social network allows you to store all user posts in a distributed register, which excludes the possibility of editing or deleting them. Furthermore, Steem creators are totally anti-censorship, which has been actively used recently on Facebook, which positively distinguishes the social network from existing ones.
The platform is currently in beta testing and has around 50,000 users. In other words, if the developers manage to solve some of the problems:
- Improve network security (know about a hack that allowed attackers to steal $ 100,000);
- Expand the toolset to earn money;
- Increase popularity among English-speaking audiences.
so, the capitalization and fee of the cryptocurrency Steem, the main asset of the network, can increase several times.
Blockchain social network with the possibility of winning
Another feature of Steem is that users can receive an award for interesting and high quality published material. Author profit depends on the number of views of a post or comment and is paid according to two schemes:
- The total amount of remuneration is paid in Steem Power – internal platform tokens that allow participants to perform certain actions;
- Half of the amount is paid in Steem Power, and the other half in Steem currency – a liquid cryptocurrency that can then be sold or exchanged on many popular platforms.
Whether a high-quality post is enough and whether it's worth adding to the blockchain is decided by the platform's audience, through voting, this has allowed developers to remove intrusive ads and bots, whose posts are simply not rewarded. However, even now, there is a relatively low quality of Steem materials.
Read too: Lisk Cryptocurrency – what is it, resources, mining, forecast for 2018
mining and storage
To mine cryptocurrency, the PoW algorithm is used, but the mining process is significantly different from mining other coins – each block can be mined here. only 21 network members… Of these, 19 are chosen by vote, 1 is determined randomly, and 1 is chosen by the system from among the owners of the most computing power. The block is formed every 2 seconds, while miners receive 90% from the reward, and the remaining 10% goes to the authors of the posts.
You can store Steem currency in an official cryptocurrency wallet. To access it, simply create an account on the site. Steemit and find the corresponding tab. A mobile wallet is also available, called esteemallowing you to manage tokens using your smartphone.
The social network policy is based on working with real and verified participants, so at this stage of existence only account owners can login to the platform Facebook, Reddit (with a positive track record) and Gmail… After authorization, the user receives 7 network tokens for the account to start.
Steem purchase and course
As the Steem cryptocurrency is one of the most funded on the market, it has been listed on many major exchanges, including:
- Huobi – allows you to buy Steem for USDT, BTC or ETH;
- Binance – here tokens are traded in pairs with BTC or ETH;
- Bittrex – offers Steem users for BTC only.
Almost immediately after Steem entered the market in July 2017, the rate rose to US $ 3.5, followed by a collapse and gradual recovery of positions. The peak value of the coin was observed in early 2018: some sites were trading Steem at US $ 7.1, and the total capitalization rose to US $ 1.3 billion. After that, following the general trend of the market, the token plummeted and for a long time failed to overcome the barrier of $ 1. At the time of writing, the average rate of Steem was 1.7 dollars and moves quite unpredictably.
Prospects for cryptocurrency development
Despite the availability of a finished product, many experts note a drop in interest in Steem from investors and users. In 2018, if the current trend continues, the value of the token will continue to fall and may return to less than $ 1.
However, if breeders manage to decide website security issues and taking steps to popularize it, the project can gain a second wind. Users are not satisfied either. complex web interface and some problems with the formation of the algorithm to accumulate tokens for views and “likes”, which requires clarification from the developers.
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