In the last 100 years, almost all government or fiat currencies (Dollars, Euros, Yen, etc.) have decoupled from their original price backer gold or silver. In the past these were the currency, dollars were just a replacement that said you could exchange 1 dollar bill for x grams of gold at the bank. This meant that governments and central banks couldn't just print an endless number of dollars, they were limited by the amount of gold that they owned.
Not anymore, for over 50 years the last connection with gold or any limiting factor was severed. Now the only thing standing between the current value of the dollar and "0.00" is the federal reserve. The entire economy rests in the hands of a couple of bankers. They are the ones that run society from an economic standpoint. They control interest rates and money quantity. One group can make the value of all your savings in dollars vanish tomorrow if so they choose. This amount of centralized power in the hands of the bankers has corrupted them like power always does.
It is time now to roll out the alternatives. The invention of the blockchain is one of them. The best technology to produce "money" based on predefined rules that anyone can know and accept before they invest value in the system.
For example, Bitcoin is generated by solving complex equations using your computer, and there can be only 21 million bitcoins in existence. This means that people will have more trust in such a system that guarantees that no person or group of persons can destroy the value by making more of it.
In Steem you don't put your computer to solve complex equations to "mine" coins you do it by voting content. There are a lot of mechanisms to stop you from spamming votes like "voting power" you rewards get smaller and smaller when you vote 100 times in a day compared to voting only 10 times. You are also rewarded if you are the first to vote on popular content, smart!
Steem is more complex than bitcoin and you can read it in their own words: https://steem.io/SteemWhitePaper.pdf
The most important thing that you should understand is that the current economic system will fail and when it starts to fail people will desperately look for places to invest so that the federal reserve and other central banks don't steal the wealth they have saved up. They will go and buy properties or stock, and they will invest in blockchain currencies to make transactions. When that happens, the price will skyrocket as the panic will increase. Better be prepared.
Imagine a world where you could choose a currency that could not be inflated by the government. Imagine a world where the government could not borrow in your name. Imagine a world that your resources could not be taken by force, no blocked bank accounts. You could trade with anyone on this planet, you could move your money anywhere. This is the liberation of the economic blood. No central server to target, a system that runs on all devices, that can be anonymous and give us the economic power back. With the blockchain, there can be no war, who would pay for it? If you can't take taxes by force you don't have the economic power to wage war. The implications are incredible.