From their blurb in my post, content generates value. And it does have its own token: AETH
The token is used to reward the authors and curators much like steem and can be convertes to ETH or fiat currency.

The rest: Straight from their FAQ:

"When is the launch?

The alpha version is already available for Linux, MacOS, and Windows and currently runs on a private Ethereum testnet. The main Ethereum network launch (AKASHA 1.0) is expected to happen around Q3/Q4 2017.

Will there be a token crowdsale?

In the first phase AETH will be a token placeholder used inside the AKASHA ecosystem. We chose to focus first on building a working decentralized application and learning from the actual use what sorts of problems we should be solving with a custom token. Depending on our findings we might do a crowdsale, but most likely not by the time we launch the beta."