Steem is a cryptocurrency that returns value to social media and other online communities, by rewarding people with virtual currency for their contributions. It was created as an open source and publicly accessible blockchain database. It declared itself the first cryptocurrency that attempts to reward an unbounded number of individuals accurately and transparently. Steem combines concepts learned from the role played by social media to the rise of cryptocurrencies. 
Collectively, user-generated content online has generated revenues in billions of dollars and is projected to grow by billions of dollars worth of value for social media stakeholders. In 2014, Reddit hypothesized the idea of rewarding their user for posting content, commenting and voting with their fair share of Reddit revenue. Steem created a currency that is designed to benefit people participating in the cryptocurrency market as well as those yet to participate in any cryptocurrency economy.
Steem provides source of current news and commentary, means to get quality answers to personalized questions, stable currency pegged to the U.S. dollar, free payments, and employment to its members. This purposeful realignment of economic incentives is designed to include everyone in the growth of social media. The actual distribution of rewards depends on the voting patterns recorded by users. The goal of this payout is to offer large bounties for good content posted online while recognizing small social media players for their contribution.
Steem is the fundamental unit of account on the Steem blockchain. Steem increases supply by 100% annually due to non-SMD incentives which dilutes it by 0.19% daily if it’s not converted into Steem Power (SP). Because Steem wants to promote long-term growth of start-ups, it is hardwired to allocate 9STEEM to Steem Power (SP) stakeholders for every 1 STEEM it generates to fund contribution. This derives the ratio of 9:1 of the total STEEM value of Steem Power balance to the STEEM balance.
Steem is set to replace advertising revenues with blockchain-based content rewards. The most common way content creators earned revenues for their contributions was by leveraged advertising under content monetization models. However, advertising has been diminishing the value of the work put in by content creators, yet they have to seek returns on their time by monetizing their contribution.
Steem is an experiment designed to address the challenges faced by cryptocurrency and social media industry players by combining the fundamental principles governing both. Content creators and internet raiders have been presented with earning opportunities that have never existed before. Under Steem, they earn real rewards online depending on their contributions. These rewards are given dollar value affected by the liquidity of Steem and the market price discovery.
