Hi everyone!
This is my first post on PALNET, and I'm happy to see how fast ideas are developed on the STEEM blockchain. Actually, I was a little confused in the beginning, but now I got the idea behind this "new network". I used the quotation marks because in fact there's no new network, not a new blockchain, not a fork of STEEM, but an extra layer on top of STEEM.
Everything on the PALNET gets on the STEEM blockchain, and is visible on other frontends (Steemit, Busy, Partiko, and all the others), but not the other way around (only selective tags from STEEM are visible on PALNET).
Any interaction with the blockchain on PALNET is consuming STEEM resources (voting power and resource credits), and is rewarded by the STEEM blockchain (author rewards and curation rewards). In addition, content under the #palnet tag, can be awarded with PAL coins, based on the votes received from users (STEEM users) that also own staked PALCoins (staked PALCoins are similar to Steem Power). Distribution is slightly different from STEEM (50% curation, 50% author rewards), but everything else is similar.
Extras: powerdown for PALCoin is 4 weeks, every user will have one free PALNET downvote each day (still consumes STEEM voting power), there's a claim drop to active users (go to steem-engine for it), PALCoins can be traded them for upvotes from the 
As an overview, PALNET is an interesting idea and direct competitor to Steemit. It relies on the STEEM blockchain (which is distributed and open source), and offers the same kind of experience as Steem, but with the potential to be more dynamic (for example, Steemit needs a hardfork for a change in the distribution algorithm).
Only the time can tell if PALNET will be successful or not.
What is important is that all these initiatives are consolidating the power of blockchain itself, and this is a benefit for all of us.
PS: While documenting this article, I discovered a very similar project called SteemCoinpan. I will look also in this one, and I might come with an update.