it aims to link the blockchain to social media, but what is steem (STEEM)? Let’s see what we can find out, and see about some of the steem price predictions that were being made as of 5 October 2022, too.

Steem explained

One of the biggest developments of what has been dubbed Web 2.0 is social media. Pretty much every internet user is aware of sites like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, online spaces where people can, in effect, create their own content and share it with others. There are, however, some potential drawbacks. This includes concerns about how online social media giants treat people’s data, with privacy worries a pretty large issue.

The much-heralded, and possibly already happening, Web 3.0 aims to change things. Since this next stage of the internet is based around the blockchain, then it can, at least in theory, mean that people will become able to share content and create their own social spaces online without having to worry about who exactly holds or could access their information. Since Web 3.0 appears to be largely about giving people back control over their data, it might well mean there is the potential for a social media platform that can give people more control over how their personal information is used.

Steem is one such Web 3.0 social media network, based on its own blockchain. One key way in which Steem differs from regular social media giants is that people are able to use the system to build and share decentralised applications (DApps). Whereas traditional social media apps, ultimately, have a centralised authority they share information with, DApps are decentralised and, at least in theory more private.

Perhaps the biggest difference for those who use the Steem blockchain social network is that they are, in theory, able to make money from it. Since Steem is, at its very core, a blockchain, then it is, perhaps, inevitable that it would have its own native cryptocurrency. The steem coin is used to reward people on the network. “Steem is designed from the ground up to address the major barriers to adoption and monetisation of a social media based economy.

“Our thesis is that the same techniques used to grow major social media platforms can be used to bootstrap a successful cryptocurrency. Economic incentives enabled by cryptocurrency can dramatically facilitate the growth of a new social media platform. It is the synergy between cryptocurrency and social media that we believe may give Steem a powerful advantage in the market.”

In terms of the basic Steem economy, people can upvote posts on the Steemit social network and DApps and, when a certain amount of approval is reached, the creators are paid rewards in STEEM. Users can then turn STEEM into Steem Power (SP), where one SP is one vote. So, in much the same way that a traditional governance token allocates votes on a platform’s future based on how much of that token a voter holds, people with a lot of STEEM have a lot more power behind their votes.

Steem was founded in 2016 by two Americans, business operation and financial analyst Ned Scott and blockchain developer Dan Larimer.