Currently, Steem Power and Steem Dollars are rewarded for great blog posts on Steemit. But Steem is a protocol, similar to TCP/IP (protocol underlying the Internet) and SMTP (protocol underlying email), and it can be applied to much more than a blogging platform. At its core, Steem is a global point system that rewards users points for their contributions.
I believe we’ll see use cases beyond blogging emerge over the coming months as the GUI is built out and interest increases. Here’s some potential use cases for a global point system:
Q+A (Quora + Steem): Answer questions and earn Steem. Quora has offered bounties for answers in the past but can't do it at scale.
Product launches (Product Hunt + Steem): Launch new products and provide product feedback, earn Steem.
Livestreaming (Periscope + Steem): Stream live video, earn Steem.
Crowdfunding (Kickstarter + Steem): We’ve already seen some crowdfunding attempts on Steemit. A platform specific to crowdfunding is the next step.
