What better way to attract more visitors to a site than by giving money away, which is exactly what blockchain-based Steemit did over the Independence Day weekend to its users.On July 4, Steemit users were rewarded with around $1.3 million worth of the digital currency, Steem Dollars, or 10% of Steemit’s current market cap, to users who have been uploading content and voting on Steemit.Since its launch two months ago the fast growing social media site has grown at a phenomenal rate with its popularity increasing day by day. By plugging into a blockchain called Steem, the decentralized social media platform rewards those who deliver the best commentary, images, videos, and articles to the site.Before the reward payout over the holiday weekend, Steem’s volume doubled to $26 million. Furthermore, website traffic doubled with votes increasing from 4,680 per day to 8,350. Posts also rose from 1,200 to 2,300 each day, in addition to new account sign-ups tripling.Steemit CEO, Ned Scott, said that the reward distribution was the first of its kind in the world of cryptocurrency and was the ideal way for the company to say thank you to Steemit’s growing community by rewarding its users in a system that is continually improving.
Yesterday, more than $1.3 million worth of the Steem supply was distributed into the wallets of thousands of users across the world.From every corner, users have been drawn to Steemit because the system actually rewards thoughtful comments, unlike Reddit or Twitter.
Worth around one U.S. dollar, half of the $1.3 million reward was given to users in Steem Dollars, while the remaining half was in Steem Power. Steemit also announced that they recorded a user growth rate of 1600% from May to June and from June to July it doubled again.Scott said that as Steemit is built on the blockchain it demonstrates what social media can look like without the worry of censorship.
Everything we see on Steemit.com comes from the open source Steem blockchain, so the entire network is replicable on any front-end application. Attempts at censorship can be proven by anyone with a blockchain explorer or another front-end application built on the Steem, so users can feel free to post how they really feel.
According to Scott, it is this freedom that empowers the community of Steemit and is one of the ways that differentiates the company from social media networks that are centralized and controlling.