To call Steemit a “scam” means every other blogging website, social media network, and content sharing platform is also a “scam”. This is a preposterous accusation without merit.
The unique elements Steemit utilizes that other social networks don't, is cryptocurrency financial incentives, and the blockchain technology behind it. This is something to be delighted about, not something to fear. Even if you have zero interest in cryptocurrencies, the network still serves the purpose of allowing you to publish your content for free. 100% risk-free. Without cost. Zip. Nada. No money down. Etc.
Why would anybody complain about using a 100% free service? If you don't like Steemit, close your account and ask for a refund.
The “intrinsic value” of Steemit comes from the value in the content people contribute, and the underlying user base that makes the entire network possible. This is no different than Facebook or Twitter being (over)valued to the tune of billions of dollars, while only existing because of the contributions by third party users that publish on their platforms.
As the adage goes, “If You're Not Paying For It, You Become The Product”. Hence, platforms that don't distribute generated earnings to their users, are using you as their content creators to add value to their company, while you're also the audience for the advertisements they serve up. This is in addition to the more nefarious acts, such as snooping and covertly collecting personal data and marketing profiles on users.
While theoretically anyone could buy publicly traded shares in a company, earnings are not directly proportional to the contribution of the shareholder and the value they add to the company. They're merely distributed from overall company profits. This is fine from an investor and capitalist standpoint, but doesn't offer any direct reward or incentive to the contributors.
As you gain more Steem, you become a "shareholder".
The transparency of Steemit should be welcomed by all, especially considering that content creators now have the opportunity to be directly rewarded for their efforts and become an important part of the network. Steemit users are merely doing what people are otherwise already doing, all over social media, billions of times a day. And they don't make a single penny or pence or fraction of a Bitcoin from it.
How many people have spent time composing a Facebook post, without ever receiving any compensation for it?
Facebook “Likes” don't convert into real bank notes or cyberpunk crypto. Steemit upvotes do.
Unless you use Facebook/Twitter to drive traffic to a website in hopes of getting sales or ad clicks, then you're not being rewarded for your time and effort. In some cases, you may even have to pay to play by paying Facebook or Twitter to boost your page reach, or pump up sponsored posts on people's newsfeeds. This may be useful for marketers and major brands, but eventually people are going to figure out they're just wasting their time continuously looking at ads — with little community input or control over their user experience.
While there's certainly value in building your own influential network and personal brand on social media, unless you're running a subscription service, your content isn't being monetized. Steemit allows you to do that.
Consider this: What value does a book have? It's just a stack of bound paper with a cover. It may serve a physical purpose to balance out the uneven leg of your coffee table, or be used as kindling to get your fireplace going. Yet somehow, people still manage to sell millions and millions of books every year. There's buildings functioning as repositories and libraries, with thousands of books, devoted to lending them out or allowing people to reference them for research purposes. Surely there's not this many uneven table legs in the world that need to be propped up?
People make careers as authors, publishers, or running the printing presses. What gives a book perceived value is the information, ideas, and knowledge contained within. Even the internet hasn't killed the book market. People still enjoy holding a physical book and reading. The multibillion dollar ebook market has merely taken physical books and allowed them to be read on computers, tablets, and e-readers.
Yet realistically, how much tangible value does a PDF file have, existing as nothing more than a few bytes written to a storage medium?
We're living in a new realm, a global digital matrix, and a new era of capitalism.
"The world’s largest taxi firm, Uber, owns no cars. The world’s most popular media company, Facebook, creates no content. The world’s most valuable retailer, Alibaba, carries no stock. And the world’s largest accommodation provider, Airbnb, owns no property. Something big is going on." — The Independent, May 2015