To answer the question of 'Where does all the money come from"? It comes from investors in the platform. These investors do not currently have way of deriving an income from their investment. They are investing in the value of the token on the market.

The Steem token is a clever way of providing a gateway for people into the world of digital currency, whereby digital tokens can be placed in their possession without the need for them to buy them through exchanges or from local traders.

It is foreseen that the Steem token will develop economies of it's own, beyond the limited setting of the Steemit blogging platform and will become a digital currency of choice for people all over the world. It has technological advantages over other digital currencies, such as faster transactions, no fees between accounts and simple account names.