The human being is naturally social. Throughout the years of its existence, it has evolved not only physically, but also the way it communicates. In the same way, his intellectual abilities have allowed him to devise and build tools that facilitate communication with his peers, even breaking down the language and geographical barriers.
Technological advances have given rise to a wide variety of media, from radio and television to smartphones and social networks. These last ones are of special mention as a result of the great acceptance that they have received during more than 10 years, and they continue causing furor by their influence in the daily life of those who use them.
And it is that its usefulness transcends the simple fact of sharing travel photos with our friends and family. In view of the large presence of users in the networks, large companies have begun to move their marketing strategies to wealthy platforms such as Facebook and Instagram, in order to present promotions and information about their products and services.
However, social networks have also led to alternative ways to earn money, which go beyond selling products. The creation of content and the valuation of it within a community has allowed many Internet users to obtain income through writing, social media management, advertising and others.
At this point it is convenient to ask ourselves first what we use social networks for. In general, we share states, photographs, extensive notes and videos completely free of charge. In fact, we implement a high level of altruism with it, without knowing it, because although few know it, the huge amounts of content that is published and shared every second on these platforms generates profits to the owners of them. Let's understand why.
All the information we provide when registering and using our already indispensable social networks is used by its developers in order to know their users in depth. With this, they will be able to present to you, in a very strategic way, the advertisements most adapted to their tastes and interests, which generates important income of which most of the users have no idea.
Now, at this time perhaps our readers have begun to wonder why we talk about social networks in our cryptocurrency blog. Well, the human intellect has managed to mix the benefits of these websites and the crypto-core in a new social network known as Steemit. Next, we present all the details.
What is Steemit?
In order to explain what Steemit is, it is convenient to return about 10 years ago, to the birth of Bitcoin. At the end of 2009, Satoshi Nakamoto published an article explaining a new P2P protocol that described the operation of a digital currency based on blockchain technology. Since then, this has been considered very useful in the field of economics, as an efficient alternative, an accounting book in which to record all transactions in a given network. However, over the years it has been shown that its usefulness transcends these limits, having different applications in many other areas.
Steemit was created by Ned Scott and Dan Larimer, the creator of the renowned Bitshares exchange. It is a social network built on the top of the block chain of the Steem cryptocurrency, which seeks to reward its users as bloggers and critics, maintaining the basic principle of decentralization, fairly and, of course, self-sustainable.
That said, we have that Steemit differs from other similar social networks in the way in which the information generated within it is stored. In general, these platforms protect all content on their own servers, while Steemit records it in its own chain of Steem blocks on a permanent basis. Here is its important relationship with the crypto-world.
How does Steemit work?
Steemit works as a social network, within which, registered users can upload and share content visible to other members of the network, who can vote, good or bad for that publication. Similarly, make comments and receive rewards from them by the vote of their counterparts within the platform.
When a Steemit user publishes certain content and receives a vote, it acquires a value that is shared equally among the tokens of the network. 50% corresponds to consumable money, which is represented by Steem Dollar, while the other 50% corresponds to voting power in Steem Power, which can be used to value other publications. With this, the developers try to promote the participation of their users in the creation of content and, in this way, keep the community active.
As we said, Steemit stores all the information generated within it. In general, these platforms protect all content on their own servers, while Steemit records it in its own chain of Steem blocks on a permanent basis. Here is its important relationship with the crypto-world.
How does Steemit work?
Steemit works as a social network, within which, registered users can upload and share content visible to other members of the network, who can vote, good or bad for that publication. Similarly, make comments and receive rewards from them by the vote of their counterparts within the platform.
When a Steemit user publishes certain content and receives a vote, it acquires a value that is shared equally among the tokens of the network. 50% corresponds to consumable money, which is represented by Steem Dollar, while the other 50% corresponds to voting power in Steem Power, which can be used to value other publications. With this, the developers try to promote the participation of their users in the creation of content and, in this way, keep the community active.
As we said, Steemit stores all the information generated within its platform in its chain of blocks, with the slight exception that they have a separate server for the images that accompany their content.
However, within the operation it is also worth mentioning the way in which Steemit users can interact with the publications to fulfill the purposes described above.
Upvote:, which is very similar to the famous Facebook "Like". With the Upvote, users express their liking for the published content and, in this way, it acquires value.
Flag: In counterpart with the previous function, it is equivalent to "Dislike" or "I do not like it". As expected, it is an option that prevents certain content from gaining value and limits its visibility to other users. In general, Flag is used to qualify Spam content, which may include plagiarism, offensive language, incitement to violence, among others. Given its influence if applied, it is necessary that the users of Steemit make an appropriate use of it, because otherwise, they could lose reputation.
Reply. With this option, registered users can comment on the publications and, likewise, respond to others in the process.
Resteem. Again, another similarity with another social network, such as Twitter. With Resteem you can share the content that we consider to be of better quality or of our particular pleasure.
Steem controls the content published not on the basis of rules premeditated by the developers, but on what in this medium is known as "community moderation". This means that, although there are no guidelines that indicate which post is appropriate or not, the voting process carried out by the same members of the community have served as a filter and reference to stipulate them implicitly.
In this regard, at this point it is appropriate to mention the "curators". With this name, Steemit users are known who have the task of verifying the information of a certain publication. They review the sources to avoid rating plagiarized articles, and evaluate the content of them in terms of quality and relevance, to later give their vote, leaving aside the personal criteria.
How to register in Steemit?
Registering in Steemit is very simple, and for that it will be enough to follow the typical steps of entering the platform of a social network. We must specify an email and, of course, a username with which we can identify ourselves within the network. In addition to this, there is verification of two steps, it is necessary to add a phone number.
Once this information is provided, Steemit will proceed to evaluate the entry of the new user to its platform. Then, they will send an email to the specified address, and here comes one of the most peculiar and outstanding points of this matter. Steemit will assign the password to the user and send it in the message in question, without the possibility of personalizing it or changing it ever.
Once the process is finished, we can enter the network with our username and password, and start sharing and commenting content in exchange for Steems.
Never forget your password
The rule of thumb when registering and start using Steemit is: Do not lose your password. This platform, unlike its counterparts, does not have the options of Recover password, which means that, in case of losing it, there will be no possibility of changing it or recovering it.
Remember that this network generates the password of each user, in a random way, which implies that it is probably very difficult to remember mentally. To avoid bad times due to the loss of our assets and reputation within Steemit, we recommend that you copy the password in a safe place that we can consult if you have forgotten it.
How is Steemit made up?
Once the operation of Steemit was described in detail, it was time to explain its three main components. These are represented by the Steem, Steem Dollar and Steem Power, of which we will speak next.
Steem
Steem is the official cryptocurrency on which the Steemit community is based. This can be obtained through the purchase of an Exchange, or from the performance and work dedicated to Steemit, and for the latter, Steem Power is necessary. The Steem can be exchanged for other digital coins by Bitcoin and others.
It is important to note that, unlike other cryptocurrencies, the Steem does not have a limitation control in terms of unit generation. The amount of Steems increases by 100% annually, so there is no fixed amount, but it increases every year.
Steem Dollar
The Steem Dollar is presented as an asset that should have more or less the same value as the US dollar, as do the stablecoins. They understand a form of gain by interacting with Steemit's content. Once obtained, users can make use of them as they do with a cryptocurrency, or turn it into Steem Power.
As we have said, the Steem Dollars maintain a 1: 1 ratio with the US dollar. They generate 10% annual interest as long as they stay within the platform and their value does not exceed that of 1 USD; if so, the generation of interest stops. On the other hand, in case the value of the Steem Dollars is below 1 USD, and if the amount of them is small too, then the generation of interest increases.
Steem Power
Steem Power is the way in which the Steemit platform gives its users the possibility to vote and comment on existing publications and, in this process, they manage to improve their "reputation" or influence within it.
When a user registers with the Steemit community, it provides an amount of Steem Power so that they can begin to interact with the content. This is spent as comments are made and voted, but as we said before, it is possible to get Steem to Steem Power. The process is called Powering Up.
Having said that, it is worth mentioning that as a user possesses a greater Steem Power, he will have greater influence in the publications he votes. In fact, if a content is well voted by someone with a high Steem Power, it will be rewarded with Steem, Steem Dollar or Steem Power cryptocurrencies.
With this, we have that Steemit is a merely meritocratic platform, because the vote with the greatest influence is given by those users who have the greatest amount of money. Payment for the creation of content is at the discretion of the owner thereof. This can receive 50% in Steem tokens and 50% in Steem dollars, or if you wish, get the full payment in Steem Power.
How much can you earn in Steemit?
Although a well-known user in Steemit managed to make $ 100,000 in just one week, this is more of a case. The expectation of a new user is very few dollars, and these become constant, should be around $ 500 a month, getting followers.
Here it is worth clarifying that despite appearing so practical, Steemit does not enter between the websites anymore we recommend to make a lot of money in a short time. In fact, remember that to publish the content, it must be original and meet certain intrinsic criteria of the curators and, if those who vote for it have a high Steem Power, then the profits for the creator will be better. However, we must keep in mind that this is not a constant.
Does Steemit have a disadvantage?
So far, Steemit seems the ideal place to take advantage of our love of social networks, however, not everything is rosy. There are some points not so favorable that should be mentioned, and then explained.
Imbalance in voting power
We already explained that Steem can be exchanged for money or voting power, but the latter can be applied as a masked disadvantage. And the fact is that as a person accumulates more Steem Power, their votes and comments will have a lot of value within the platform compared to other users.
This situation, despite being very profitable from a certain point, has managed to generate harassment by vote. Also, do not rule out the possibility that certain users with a high voting power may damage the publications of others and prevent their promotion in the network, even when they meet the quality requirements.
High risk of hacking
Although practically everything exposed so far seems to be in favor of this social network, there is an undeniable reality that is the high risk of hacking. This represents one of the greatest fears for those who feel interested in joining the community, since cyber attacks have already been raised on several occasions that have cost millions of dollars to users.
In fact, in 2016, Steemit precisely suffered a hack in which 260 accounts were affected and around 80,000 were stolen. And although the network closed momentarily and was responsible for the damage, reimbursing the money to each of its affected users, this risk remains a latent concern.
High risk of losing your account when losing your password
Another disadvantage that we can mention is related precisely to an intrinsic security measure of the platform. And is that Steemit does not have the option to recover password if you forget or lose it. So, if we have not fulfilled the important foresight to write it down or keep it in a safe place, we can give up all our money and influence in the network.
Inflation
A very important point that we should not overlook is the fact of inflation. Unlike other cryptocurrencies, Steem does not have a finite number of units, but they are continually generating more of them, which are distributed among the members of the network.
With this, we know that there could be for all, however, we have an imminent risk of inflation, which could confer an absurdity for experts in the subject. For this reason, many recommend changing Steem to Steem Dollar, which, as we said, generates an annual interest rate that can be useful.
We have then that Steemit is an innovative social network that seeks to take advantage of the benefits of Blockchain technology to reward its users for contributions of quality content. In this way, the continuity of its members and the frequent updating of the block chain are guaranteed.
For those who like the new, who are exhausted from the routine of Twitter, Instagram or Facebook, Steemit is an excellent alternative for obtaining writings and other content of guaranteed quality. With this they manage to not only clarify doubts or satisfy their leisure, but also obtain profits and learn about the interesting world of cryptocurrencies.