Steem's main application and interface for communicating with the underlying blockchain is Steemit, a decentralized blogging and content-sharing platform. Steemit users can get crypto by adding, sharing and voting in favor of content.
Steem uses three coins in total. The platform's main cryptocurrency is STEEM. This is the crypto commonly used to reward content creators. It acts as the main transactional currency in Steem and in applications like Steemit.
The second currency is Steem Power (SP), which can be purchased by STEEM. Ownership of SP gives you additional voting power on the platform. This has nothing to do with the governance voting power commonly considered when one hears the term “voting” in the blockchain context. Instead, the voting power obtained with the SP coins refers to the weight given to your vote with respect to content promotion. As an SP token holder, any content that you positively vote on has a greater chance of making it to the top of the popularity ladder. The more SP you have, the higher your content will be voted in the platform rankings.