Interesting idea to build traffic – give away money.Well, at least in digital currency called Steem Dollars.Yesterday, a rapidly expanding social media site called Steemit (www.steemit.com) gave away digital currency worth approximately $1.3 million to its users. It wasn’t a hoax or a stunt – it is all part of the plan for Steemit, a Reddit-like, decentralized social media platform where users get paid for creating and curating content.Launched just two months ago, Steemit plugs into a robust blockchain called Steem and distributes rewards with real value to the users who bring the best articles, commentary, images and videos to the site.Steemit has exploded in popularity since launch, and on July 4 the blockchain automatically distributed 10% of Steem’s market cap (the value of all Steem currently in existence) to users who have been posting, voting, and contributing content to Steemit.In the 24 hours before the payout, Steem’s volume doubled to $26 million. In the same time period website traffic doubled, with votes per day increasing from 4,680 to 8,350, posts per day increasing from 1,200 to 2,300 and new account sign-ups tripling. With rising interest in the cryptocurrency, Steem trading volume peaked at an all-time high.More on Steemit and Steem Dollars can be seen in the following video. As well, the following press release (see below) was put out by Steemit providing more information.Social Media Blockchain Steem Issues $1.3 Million Payout To Steemit UsersReddit-like platform rewards content providers and curators with 10% of crypto market capNEW YORK, NY – July 5, 2016 – Steemit users had more than a million reasons to light the fireworks and celebrate this Independence Day weekend. On July 4, the rapid-growing social media site Steemit distributed digital currency payouts worth approximately $1.3 million, or 10% of Steem’s current market cap, to its user base. Early adopters and major contributors were rewarded for creating and improving a thriving, collaborative community of members interested in everything from gardening to politics to financial markets. The multimillion dollar payout marks a historic milestone in the phenomenal growth of Steemit, a decentralized social media platform, now in its third month of operation.Ned Scott, SteemitSteemit CEO Ned Scott said the distribution over the holiday weekend was the first of its kind in the cryptocurrency world and marked a pivotal moment for Steemit.
This was an opportunity for us to thank our growing community, to reward them for building a sustainable ecosystem that’s much more than the sum of its parts. Yesterday, more than $1.3 million worth of the Steem supply was distributed into the wallets of thousands of users across the world. From every corner, users have been drawn to Steemit because the system actually rewards thoughtful comments, unlike Reddit or Twitter. The community and the blockchain together power a system that gets better and better every day.
Half of the $1.3 million supply of Steem was handed out in Steem Dollars, which is a form of Steem worth roughly one US dollar, and half in Steem Power, a vesting currency that supercharges voting power on the platform. After recording a 1600% growth in its user base from May to June, Steemit doubled again in the month from June to July. In a matter of weeks since launch, Steemit contributions are already linked to and quoted by major, mainstream publications and news sites, providing cryptocurrency enthusiasts, tech savvy writers, and social media buffs a public and growing outlet to showcase their knowledge and talent. The open source and transparent nature of the Steem blockchain technology prevents any form of censorship, and it allows third party entrepreneurs to easily build powerful applications off it, like steemle.com (user tracking charts) and steemd.com (category specific threads).“Because it’s based entirely on a blockchain, Steemit shows what social media can look like without censorship. Everything we see on Steemit.com comes from the open source Steem blockchain, so the entire network is replicable on any front-end application. Attempts at censorship can be proven by anyone with a blockchain explorer or another front-end application built on the Steem, so users can feel free to post how they really feel. This freedom is what empowers the Steemit community, and it’s one of the major ways we’re different from centralized, controlling and manipulative social media networks,” said Scott.In the 24 hours proceeding the payout, Steem’s volume doubled to $26 million. In the same time period, website traffic doubled, with votes per day increasing from 4680 to 8350, posts per day increasing from 1200 to 2300 and new account sign-ups tripling. With rising interest in the cryptocurrency, Steem trading volume peaked at an all-time high.Steemit engineers continue to add new features to the platform on a regular. Plans are already underway to create an embeddable Steemit button that can be posted on blogs throughout the internet, allowing authors to post their articles and their fan’s comments to the blockchain and giving them eligibility for cryptocurrency rewards.“My co-founder and CTO, Dan Larimer, has a wealth of experience that can only come from building these systems from the ground up. In a year from now, there will be many bloggers using the platform to monetize their content without using advertisements. By the time we get there, we’d like to be much further along in our development of side chain plugins too, which will allow Steem to support a decentralized app-store, similar in appearance to Facebook or Google’s, but based on decentralized, provably-fair technologies and new business models,” added Scott.