CONCEPT
The project was founded by Ned Scott and Dan Larimer, creator of Bitshares
The idea was described in March 2016 in the Whitepaper [1]
The way it works is similar to web pages like Reddit. The only difference is that all text content is forever recorded on a Blockchain.
Users or members can upvote the content they want and depending on how many votes are obtained, a reward will be obtained in the form of Steem, Steem power or Steem dollars.
The fact of voting content also earns rewards in the form of Steem. This is what is called Curation Rewards. Even comments can be voted on and thus become monetized.
MONETARY Steem
It is the cryptocurrency on which Steemit is based. It is quite similar to Bitcoin although a big difference is that the rewards go more to the authors and curators than to the coin creators or miners themselves.
The Steem Blockchain is also the basis of other tokens: an asset called Steem dollars that is intended to always have the value of one US dollar and that is used as part of the payment to authors and curators. The steem and the dollar steem can be bought and sold in the cryptocurrency market.
Steem Power: represents the influence that a user has on the social network compared to the rest of the users in the community and is measured in Steem. It cannot be bought or sold but it can be transformed into Steem in a process that lasts 104 weeks. This method is called Power down. When a new user signs up, the platform gives away a small amount of Steem power to each member. You can always get more Steem Power through a process called Power up where the Steem is transformed into Steem power. The more Steem power a user has, the greater the impact their votes have. If the content is voted on by someone with a considerable amount of Steem Power, then the post will be rewarded with Steem, Steem Power, or Steem Dollars.
Steem Dollars: The Steem Dollar is an asset that is always intended to be worth the same as a US dollar. It can be bought and sold on the crypto market just like Steem. On the same platform there is an integrated exchange value allowing the change from Steem dollars to Steem. This process usually takes a week. The Steem Dollars will give an interest of 10% per year if they are kept on the platform, but if the Steem Dollars increase in value exceeding the dollar the interest may be stopped. On the contrary, if the Steem Dollars are exchanged at a lower value than the US dollar and the amount of them is not very high, then the interest will increase. If the person chooses to convert the Steem Dollars to Steem, there will be three things they can do with the Steem: sell it, use it as a cryptocurrency, or convert it to Steem Power...