Review of the STEEM cryptocurrency - a social network with new opportunities

Steem can be considered to have appeared on March 24, 2016, when a topic was created on Bitcointalk dedicated to the study and testing of a new project.

According to platform developers Ned Scott and Dan Larimer, the system was a decentralized social network, the operating principle of which was based on blockchain technology (all transfers, voting and publications are stored in transaction blocks).

Among its main features was complete freedom from censorship, which has now overwhelmed such popular resources as Reddit or Facebook. The site immediately gained enormous popularity, currently counting more than 50 thousand active users.

A little about Steem

Steem was created for everyday people, to reward everyday people for their contributions to online communities, with the goal of empowering people around the world.

Because the platform's technology is built on the ability to process thousands of actions per second, rewards are plentiful and can be quickly earned with digital tokens rewarded within 24 hours of content and votes being submitted.

Social media platforms such as Reddit, Facebook and Twitter have seen user-generated content posted by its members create billions of dollars of value for company shareholders.

However, Steem works differently. Much of the value created by people who contribute to social networks and online communities is rewarded with virtual currency.

Features of the Steemit platform

To start making money on the Steem platform, you need to register on the official website and start creating new content. The size of the reward directly depends on the ratings of community users.

The platform is not interesting for the content generated by members of the Steem social network. The key advantage of the platform is its original structure.

In addition, for most people who are far from cryptocurrency and blockchain technology, this is a great opportunity to earn their first tokens and better understand what the world of cryptocurrency is like.

Theoretically, to start earning a “local” token, you don’t need to invest anything other than your intellectual values. In fact, not everything is so simple, especially with the growing popularity of the social network.

How to earn tokens on Steemit:

• Any user can quickly register on the platform. To do this, you only need an email address, and registration will take no more time than in regular social media. networks;
• Immediately after registration, you can start publishing content. You can publish anything - test recordings, music, videos, pictures;
• Users do not receive any money immediately after publication; The reward is formed based on the votes of other users, the so-called “upvotes”. Something like analogues of “likes” in ordinary social networks. The more “upvotes”, the greater the reward;
• Remuneration in the form of internal tokens is paid after 7 days after the content is published.

At first glance, everything is very simple. But there are a number of some features:

• There is no censorship on the platform, and in fact you can publish anything you want. However, there is a plagiarism protection system in place. You can publish only original content, otherwise an anti-plagiarism bot will come under the name Cheetah. The first time he will give a warning, and the second time he will ban you;
• The platform operates an “upvote for upvote” system. You should not expect that other users will immediately “attack” your publications. Most often, no one reads the content, but simply “upvotes” in gratitude for your attention;
• Even if you managed to collect a large number of subscribers, this does not mean that your posts will now receive a large reward. Two people can vote for a post, and for this you can get a tidy sum, or maybe a hundred users - and get almost nothing. It all depends on the strength of the voice;
• Not all rewards go to the user who published the content. Part of the reward goes to the so-called curators, that is, those who “voted” for the post and thus promoted it.

That is, to really start making money, you need to either “promote” your account for a very long time, publishing at least 4 posts a day, both in Russian and English (because the majority of users are still English-speaking) and attract the attention of “whales”, or invest a tidy sum into your account and become a whale yourself.

As for whales, it’s like on a crypto exchange – large participants. Whales on the platform have “promoted” and strong accounts and their “upvote” can immediately reward them with a large amount, translated into dollars from 10 to 200 bucks, and even higher.

Another important point! You won’t be able to “upvote” everything. The power of the voice decreases with each subsequent post. In fact, in order to have normal voting power, you can only vote for 10 posts per day. In the case of a vote for the 11th, and so on, the reward for both the author and the curator will decrease.

By the way, Steemit also includes third-party applications such as D-tube. It is a decentralized video platform that is based on the Interplanetary File System (IPFS). The D-tube operating protocol has the same features as YouTube, however, there is no advertising, and, again, the internal cryptocurrency Steem is used for monetization. Users upvote the video and, together with the authors, receive a reward.

Features and differences of the Steam cryptocurrency

Here are some advantages of Steem.

1. This is a unique social network where you can get money for publishing posts or comments.
2. Every year the network becomes more and more popular.

Here are the disadvantages of this network.

1. The system is not entirely clear.
2. It is not clear how you can earn coins by posts and other things.

Steem cryptocurrency - at the time of updating this post, it is in the TOP 30 cryptocurrencies

Storing your Steem cryptocurrencies

The official Steemit website has a built-in wallet feature, so by subscribing to the site, you have also created your wallet for storage, Steam, Steam Dollars and Steam Power. There is also a command line wallet, as well as a mobile wallet known as eSteem, which acts as a mobile interface to the social network itself, allowing you to access all the main features of the site as well as transfer your funds.

Who can use Steem?

Without exception, all members of the Steem community are divided into 2 groups that are distinct in their capabilities.
This difference lies in the number of votes that determine the interest and significance of the posted post, and, consequently, the reward for it. Content evaluation is an integral part of the internal structure of the network. In addition, such a concept made it possible to significantly improve the quality and uniqueness of posted posts; a huge number of scenarios arose that helped increase profits from publishing articles.

Naturally, you won’t be able to make money by simply copying or using useless messages. Interesting and unique content written in impeccable English is valued here. The platform encourages you to post only something of high quality, so that interest in the post, as well as the reward for it, only grows.

There is no spam, since no one will ever pay for any mailings, and there are no bots involved in distributing advertising. Thus, Steem managed to get rid of bots, spam and ad blocks, while at the same time attracting new users with unique content.

As one of the security measures, real user identification has been introduced here. Only those who log in from their Facebook or Gmail account will be able to work on the site. This solution makes it possible to avoid the dominance of bots. On the right side of the network interface there is a list of the most interesting community topics.

Posts in the system are distributed by popularity, that is, by the degree of profitability for their authors.

If a post gets more than 10 thousand Steam dollars (which is not at all uncommon), you can get approximately 7 thousand US dollars. In addition, the network allows you to earn 700 Steam dollars just by writing a small comment.

Advantages of the project

Such a rapid growth in popularity of Steem is due to a number of positive features. These include:

1. An unparalleled concept of social and business relationships.
2. No commission fees.
3. Incredible enthusiasm from community members who saw the platform as a completely new direction in social media.
4. An opportunity to earn money for each participant who creates interesting and unique content.
5. Optimistic prospects for further development of the site.
6. Liquidity reward to achieve bootstrapping during various token transactions.
7. Bringing benefits to people who are not participants in the platform and do not invest in its development.
8. Natural promotion of a resource through content creation.
9. In addition, due to the relative youth and, therefore, low workload of the project, all transactions are carried out much faster.

What is Stemit?

The social network Steemit was founded in 2016 based on blockchain technology. Its authors are BitShares CEO Dan Larimer and Ned Scott. They outlined the concept of their project in a document published in March 2016.

Its goal is to create a social networking platform similar to Reddit, where textual content and metadata are stored on the blockchain. Using the capabilities of blockchain not only makes it easier to create such a system, but also allows you to reward for published materials and “likes” of posts and comments.

Steemit has a reputation system that is influenced by various factors, including the quality of content and the number of likes and comments on posts. This approach is aimed at stimulating the publication of quality materials and preventing the actions of spammers and trolls.

When creating accounts, alphanumeric user names (nicknames) are used, which is much simpler than cryptographic hashes. This brings Steamit even closer to traditional social networks.

Registering an account does not take much time and is free. But it is worth noting that, despite the fact that the platform has a section for content authors in Russian, its audience is too small.

You can hope to make real money if you speak English at least at an intermediate or slightly more than average level.

Flaws

As usual, there are also negative aspects in the Steem project:

1. Until now, an exact algorithm for obtaining electronic cash through comments, publications and voting has not been formed.
2. Despite the high level of protection, there is always a risk of losing your savings as a result of a hacker attack.
3. The platform is quite difficult to master.
4. The insecurity of cryptocurrency, as well as its ongoing development, makes it impossible to predict changes on digital asset exchanges.
5. Finally, it is worth remembering that there is always a chance of not making any profit at all.

Which exchange to buy Steem on

With the growing popularity of cryptocurrencies, the number of crypto exchanges is also growing. In order to choose the best exchange for selling your cryptocurrency savings or investing (investing) in crypto (buying coins), you should proceed from a number of criteria:

• reputation (read reviews about the exchange, study it inside and out);
• commissions (for exchange services you pay a commission, which can vary greatly, but on average it is 0.2%);
• number of trading pairs (which currencies do you mine or invest in? There are exchanges that trade only popular coins, and others with hundreds of less popular altcoins);
• liquidity (this indicator depends on the daily trading volume. If the platform is liquid, then buyers and sellers will appear in the order book every second);
• payment options (some exchanges support many payment methods (to card, Yandex, Qiwi...), others only in cryptocurrency);
• currency (see which currencies you can deposit/withdraw money in – RUR, USD, EUR)
• requirements for user verification (some exchanges have very strict requirements for beginners, while others are more loyal);
• deposit and withdrawal of funds (see what volumes the exchange allows for deposits and withdrawals. There are exchanges with a limit of only a couple of thousand dollars per month).

Cryptocurrency exchange	Couples	Russian support	Reg. domain
Binance	> 100	Yes	01.04.17
Poloniex	> 100	No	10.01.14
HitBTC	> 200	No	28.09.11
Bittrex	> 200	No	25.01.14

Steem, Steem Power and Steem Dollars - what's the difference?

There are three different types of currency units on Steamite:

• Steem;
• Steem Power;
• Steem Dollars.
• Steem

This token is publicly traded on exchanges, like any other cryptocurrency. Accumulating stims over a long period of time is dangerous due to the threat of inflation as the platform generates a large number of new coins daily. At the time of writing, the inflation rate is about 9.5% per year. However, the market rate of the token has more than tripled since May 2016.

Good articles on the topic: Which cryptocurrency to invest in, Cryptocurrency exchange, how to trade profitably

Steem Power Once Steem Power is purchased, it cannot be sold for 13 weeks. This restriction was initially in effect for two years and was intended to prevent a sudden and massive outflow of coins into the market, which could potentially lead to the collapse of the project.

This is a kind of long-term investment, since Steem Power gives its owners the right to proportionate ownership of a share of the network. Thus, as the network grows, the value of this digital capital will increase.

The more units of Steem Power a user has, the more influence he can have on the situation on the site. He also earns higher income by promoting ("liking") other people's posts and comments.

Steem Dollars It is designed to be the most stable of all three types of currencies, as it is pegged to the US dollar. After seven days after publishing the content, 25% goes to the curators who voted for it, and 75% goes to the author (of which 50% is awarded in Steem Dollars and 50% in Steem Power).

Steem Dollars can be used for a variety of purposes, allowing content creators to:

• convert them into Steem, withdraw them from the platform and sell them on the exchange for fiat money or exchange them for other tokens;
• accumulate and receive income in the amount of 10% per annum;
• trade on the internal exchange;
• convert into Steem Power to increase profits from published content (primarily suitable for beginners at the initial stage of development).

Many beginners have a question about how to withdraw earned tokens to the exchange. There is nothing complicated about this, but if you are doing this for the first time, it is better to practice with a small number of coins to understand this mechanism.

I advise you to study: Is it possible to buy cryptocurrency?

How can you earn digital tokens on Steemit

Steem has several types of tokens, Steem

,
Steem Dollars
(SBD) and
Steem Power
(name VESTS). Steem and steem dollars are liquid, while there is no outside power.

When you get paid on the Steemit website, you can pay 50% in Steam Power and 50% in Steam Dollars, or 100% in Power. Here's an example of a 50/50 payout: If you earn $200 in mail, you'll receive $100 Steam Dollars and 50 STEEM Power (assuming Steam Power costs $2 each, currently).

Steemit has three ways you can earn digital tokens as a community member, and it's easy and simple to get involved and start earning cryptocurrency rewards.

According to the Steemit website, as part of the community you can earn digital tokens:

• Wiring. By sharing your posts, you can earn advances from community members. Depending on what you receive, you will receive a portion of the current Steam rewards pool.
• Voting and curation. If you discover a post and promote it before it goes viral, you can earn a learning reward. The reward amount will depend on the amount of Steem Power you have.
• Purchase. Users can purchase Steam or Steam Dollar tokens directly through the Steemit wallet using Bitcoin, Ether or BitShares tokens. They are also available on other markets and exchanges.

Earning digital tokens is easy, and Steemit's policy is to rate all users fairly, no matter how often they participate and post. Digital tokens are constantly created by the Steem network. Some tokens are given to users who add real value to Steemit by posting content, commenting on other users' content and participating in voting on others' content, and the rest of the daily digital token is distributed to the holders of the Power of Power and Witnesses who govern the blockchain.

Steem mining in 2022

1. Download the latest version of the Steem wallet and miner for Windows from this link . The miner binary is compiled for Windows 64-bit and will not work under 32-bit OS.
2. Unpack the steem-win-x64-012.2.zip archive into a folder on your computer and run steemd.exe .
3. The first time after launching Steem Daemon witness_node_data_dir will be created , inside which some files and folders will be generated.
4. Go to the “ witness_node_data_dir ” folder and open the “ config.ini ” file using notepad or any other text editor.
5. Add several steem nodes to connect by simply inserting this list under the line “ P2P nodes to connect to on startup: ” seed-node = 52.38.66.234:2001 seed-node = 52.37.169.52:2001 seed-node = 52.26.78.244:2001 seed-node = 192.99.4.226:2001 seed-node = 46.252.27.1:1337 seed-node = 81.89.101.133:2001 seed-node = 52.4.250.181:39705 seed-node = steemd.pharesim.me:2001 seed-node = seed.steemed.net:2001 seed-node = steem.clawmap.com:2001 seed-node = seed.steemwitness.com:2001 seed-node = steem-seed1.abit-more.com:2001
6. Under the line “ name of witness ” enter your login on steemit.com (you must already be registered there), for example: witness = “your login” .
7. Under the line “ name of miner and its private key ” enter your seemit.com login and private key. It should look something like this: miner = ["your login","your private key"] .
8. When you change or add some parameters in the “ config.ini ” file, do not forget to remove the “ # ” in the lines that you changed, otherwise the miner will consider this line a comment and will not take it into account when parsing the config.
9. If you don't know where to get the “ private key ”, just go to your account on the website “ steemit.com ”, then go to the “ Permissions ” tab. Now you need to click on “ Show the private key ” opposite “ Active ” (You will have to enter your username and password again). Keep in mind that the key that is displayed by default is the public key. To display your private key, click “ Show the private key ”. It is this private key that you should use in your mining config. Instead of a private key, you can use “ Owner private key ”, which is also the password for your login, but this is not recommended due to security reasons.
10. Under the line “ Number of threads to use ” in your config, enter the number of threads for mining (depending on your processor and how much you want to load it in mining). For example: “ mining-threads = 1 ” or more. More threads = more hashrate.
11. Congratulations, you are now ready to start mining Steem. Just run steemd.exe and wait while the Blockchain syncs. This process may take you 15-60 minutes (depending on the speed of your Internet connection). At the moment, about 3.5 million blocks (about 1.5 GB) have already been generated. Make sure you have enough free hard drive space to sync with the blockchain.
12. Our test bench with an Intel Core i7 5820K (6 cores 12 threads), using 12 threads in config.ini , showed performance of about 44.39 KHS when mining Steem. It is worth noting that the mining process requires a certain amount of free RAM (about 3 GB for mining with 6 threads, for 12 threads 8+ GB of free RAM is recommended). With 6 threads, our processor produced 31-33 KHS .
13. Now you have to wait until your miner finds the first POW block, after which you can see your login in the block confirmation queue. ( Miner-witness queue ). After the block you found is confirmed by other nodes, you will receive your reward.
14. Mining rewards will be awarded in SteemPower tokens, not Steem. Steem power will affect the receipt of rewards over a long distance, for those who retain more energy for a long time. Steem power tokens can be cashed out in the future, however this process may take up to 2 years and 104 transactions for them to be converted into Steem.

There was already a detailed article, namely: Cryptocurrency mining on a home PC

Which wallet does Steem support?

Most users of the Steam system connected to it using the form on the resource of the official developer steemit.com. It should be understood that this resource and the STEEM network itself, which is based on blockchain technology, represent two separate branches, despite their close connection. They were developed by the same development team.

The STEEM blockchain network represents the basis of Steam, while the resource itself is just an outer shell that allows the user to conveniently enjoy all the benefits of the system.

If you look at the situation from the side of practical use, then to work on the network there is no need to use an external interface. The user can work directly with the protocol. And in some situations, such a direct connection to the blockchain is a necessity.

Let's look at a specific example of how to register a separate account on the Steam network. This can be done in as many as four ways. They differ in the degree of anonymity, that is, information about the user’s personal data is disclosed to varying degrees.

They are also distinguished by security, ease of use, and the level of computer literacy that you must have to register a new account.

It is likely that you will only need to register online using an official resource, but if you want to work completely anonymously, you should use one of the methods that we will talk about today.

So, let's start by registering on the official developer resource Steemit.com. This method is the simplest and fastest for connecting to the network. For this method, the user must have an account on the social network Facebook or Reddit. If you have a Reddit account, the user must have positive commenter karma.

After registration, an amount of seven STEEM will be available on your account. It is worth noting that the amount varies and depends on different settings. This account allows you to become a network member with all rights. You will have the opportunity to post posts, comment on them from other participants, and cast your vote without restrictions.

Despite all the accessibility and ease of registration using the form presented on the official resource, this method has two specific features.

To begin with, such accounts are not anonymous, since they are linked to a social network account. That is, developers in such a situation know your e-mail address. In addition, it is worth noting that account security rests entirely with the creators of the steemit.com resource.

However, they state that they do not have access to the provided management keys that are generated during the registration procedure. However, you are not the one who generates the key yourself. In addition, you cannot change the key without appropriate permission from the developers.

Continuing article: Cryptocurrency wallets 2018

The next way to create an account on Steam is to register using the cli_wallet console commands. To use this option, you should download the Steem source code and compile it, and then install the programs. Now the user needs to synchronize the program with the network. This procedure is not simple. You will have to have a fairly deep knowledge and skill in compiling programs.

In addition, you need a computer that runs on the Linux operating system, and, well, be able to understand how this system functions. Note that this method cannot be classified as a quick method. It will take a lot of time to set up the wallet, and it also needs to be synchronized with the functioning of the network.

If all actions are performed correctly, you will receive direct access to the Steam network blockchain. The wallet has a huge number of programs. To register an account, you will need the following programs:

• get_account – this command will help check the name for availability;
• suggest_brain_key – command for selecting keys intended for access;
• create_account – the command to actually create an account using the generated keys, which should be saved.

This registration option will ensure absolute security, since the user generates the keys himself, and no one will be able to recognize them. Please note that the network security system links the newly created account to the account you already have, and not to one of the developers.

This indicates absolute control over the actions that will be performed on the network. But this is where the disadvantage of this method manifests itself, which shows that after all it is not anonymous. The link to the main account is recorded in the blockchain.

After registering under this scheme, the user will also have seven STEEM on their account. The account owner can freely carry out any actions on the network.

The limitations on the degree of anonymity that exist when registering through the network developer’s source and using the cli_wallet console have necessitated the creation of services that make it possible to register newly created Steam accounts for a low fee.

The registration process is very simple; the user needs to choose a name for his future account and pay for registration. Traditional 7 STEEM will be awarded in the same way as in other registration cases. Payment is made in cryptocurrency, and there is no connection between the new and existing account, so we can talk about the anonymity of this registration method.

With security, with such a registration option, not everything is so simple. When paying, the user is given keys to manage a new account, while the authors of the service promise that they do not have duplicates, but no one will provide you with guarantees. Therefore, we cannot talk about the security of your data.

Well, the last option, which allows you to create an account on the network we are considering.

It is the most anonymous and harmless method that you should use if you want to open a new account.

The user has the opportunity to set up mining using a non-existent account. After the PoW block is found and confirmed, the account you created will be registered on the network.

This option is completely anonymous. The user of the created account has no connection with other users. A high degree of security is ensured by the fact that you independently generate the keys necessary to access your account.

Prospects and price forecast

Steem is a controversial project, both technically and financially.
On the one hand, there is a lag behind the market, i.e. the undervaluation of the “coin” on cryptocurrency exchanges, on the other hand, the lack of anonymity.

The dynamics of the exchange rate, capitalization, and average daily volume are very high, but the general trend is rather horizontal.

In addition, Steem belongs to the so-called “unsecured” cryptocurrencies, i.e. No traditional currency is reserved for Steem “coins,” but this also applies to many other cryptocurrencies.

Rate and capitalization

The currency first began trading in April 2016 and entered the market with a value of $0.64, and already in August it reached its historical maximum of $4.61. However, then a strong dump and a protracted flat occurred. The value of the cryptocurrency began to rise towards the end of 2017, along with other altcoins. In January 2022, a new historical high came, and the price crossed the $8 mark, and again there was a correction, and the price dropped to $1.61. Then there was a small pump again in May 2022.

Many STEEM price spikes are associated with various upgrades. Therefore, it is worth following the official Steemit community in order to sell cryptocurrency at the peak.

But as for the market capitalization, its maximum was recorded in August 2016 and amounted to more than $1 billion. Then investors began to lose interest in Steem, the level of capitalization decreased, and no more such surges were observed, even during the fork period. Now capitalization fluctuates in the range of $200 million - 300 million.

STEEM course

STEEM Dollars [S[SBD]p>

From the latest news about Steem

In a recent interview with Forklog, platform co-founder Ned Scott noted that, unlike other social networks on the blockchain, Steemit offers a fundamentally new solution. The platform uses the Steem token, which has a market value on cryptocurrency exchanges.

Using emission revenue similar to Bitcoin mining, the blockchain can distribute value between those who publish content and those who vote. The better a publication performs, the more its authors and voters can earn.

In addition, Ned Scott is convinced that when using blockchain solutions, content cannot be truly censored, which gives platforms like Steemit great advantages over “traditional” social networks like Facebook or Reddit.

On July 4th, US Independence Day, the Steemit platform generously rewarded active participants by distributing $1.3 million in its own tokens to early adopters.