What is and how does Steemit work?

in whatissteemit •  8 years ago 

This publication is addressed to all those people who, like me, feel overwhelmed and confused about how the Steemit network works. The intention is that at the end of the reading of this "post" we will be able to incorporate with a good understanding of the operation of this revolutionary way of conceiving social networks and generating income on the internet.
Steemit can be very confusing even for a person like me who for several years is dedicated to the mining of criptomonedas; And is that its conception and form of operation, although extremely simple, is really revolutionary.
Steemit is an innovative mix between three fundamental pillars of the internet today:

Social networks
The generation of income working on the internet and,
The new technological revolution of the criptomonedas that use the chain of blocks or "blockchain".
In order to grasp what Steemit is and how it works you must have at least very basic notions of each of these pillars. Therefore, I will highlight below the most important aspects that we have to be clear about each of these pillars. Above all, I will try to explain in more detail, in a clear and concise way with regard to the cryptones, which in the end are the means used to monetize our work in this social network and is precisely what people are not usually familiar with .
Social networks:

Social networks are large communities that group people who have many common interests, which can be so infinitely varied as: videos of kittens, cake recipes, nuclear physics, cinema, music, games, obsession with the hind legs of flies Fruit, etc., etc., etc. ... The social networks by their way of functioning create one of the essential elements for the creation of great markets, and therefore for the generation of enormous income, that are its enormous captive public, where All are potential customers or consumers.
The larger the community or social network the greater the income that can be generated from that network. For example, the social network Facebook takes advantage of the millions of people who are enrolled in its platform to show advertising, which generates billions of dollars over the years.
The main characteristic in which we must focus is that social networks are created around groups that have the same interests of consumption, that consumption in the internet means contents, ie videos, recipes, photos, games, etc. Typically people enter their social networks to read news, search for recipes and all kinds of content that is usually being created by other members of that community. If people liked the video, the game, or just the thoughts, reflections or comments made by a member of the community, you let them know with a simple "like" or with a vote. Each time you do that, it is a demonstration that you reviewed that person's work and considered it good enough for the community to review and read, because you think it was funny, interesting, or fulfilling Which was generated that content. The detail is that all that content and the work involved is done in an altruistic way, is simply "worked" without receiving any kind of economic benefit.
The steemit social network is not different from any other social network, that is, communities must be created around a variety of particular interests. In this network people create their content, which can be videos, photos, articles, etc., and publish it with a label or within a particular topic for the rest of the community to read as it is in any other community Or social network. The difference is that when a person who has read or consumed the content, and has seemed to have been of quality or very good, this person issues a vote equivalent to a "like". For each vote that receives the content its author will begin to win some criptomonedas called STEEM. Likewise, the person who took the trouble to review the content and announce to the rest of the community about that topic that he / she considers it good, also receives a payment in the form of the STEP Cryptomonedas. Later on I will describe how these STEEM Cryptoneses work and are converted to normal dollars or as it is known in fiat financial jargon.
How do you earn money online working on the internet?

Traditionally, the most effective way to earn money through the internet is to build a web page or blog where people publish quality content on topics or specialized topics that they usually know very well, in a way that generate a huge traffic of user visits Of the internet that are interested in that content. But content in itself does not generate income, the money usually comes from advertising that must be placed on the website, and depending on the service or advertising provider the author will earn for every click that users make in advertising, or the number of times shown, or commissions Sales, etc.
This way of generating income, which is the most widespread of all, involves having to place a lot of advertising on the website or blog, and even prioritize this advertising about the content to be able to have visitors to our blog or website interact In the most efficient way with that advertising. This is known as the CTR factor or "click through rate" that determines the profits of the site.
As we see, the important factor in the generation of income is the number of visits that our website receives and that a certain percentage of those visitors interact with the publicity generating our income. In order to achieve such a large number of visits you must produce very high quality content so that search engines direct visitors to our website. Unfortunately, today, more than content quality, what usually weighs when a search engine directs traffic to your website has to do with many technical specifications, such as the famous SEO, (its initials in English Search Engine Optimization Which means search engine optimization), the speed of the server where the website is located, and the skills and abilities of the site programmer. In the end only the great websites that have been optimized and which are very popular on the internet are the ones that can draw great benefits from internet traffic. Most publications or high quality content are buried in the internet where search engines do not find them because they are considered to be of poor technical quality, or they show them at the end of the thousands of results they usually throw for a search.
Steemit changes this reality because creating communities around particular topics and topics creates the captive audience that we mentioned in the social media section. Now the income of the people who create the content does not depend on publicity of any kind, but the votes that each reader gives or not to the publication according to whether or not it considers it as a quality publication. In this way, any generation of content published in the Steemit network will generate income, obviously the amount generated will only depend on the quality of the content and not on the author's programming skills, or whether or not he owns a high-speed server, Or other technical factors. In short, everyone is competing in the same conditions to win STEEM and the only difference is the quality of the content. This in itself is already quite revolutionary in the production of knowledge for the internet.

The technological revolution of the criptomonedas and the chain of blocks or "blockchain"

Cryptomonedas can be considered as a form of digital money, although strictly speaking they are not, and their denomination and classification depends on the legal resolutions that have taken each country. Take into account that today there are dozens of different cryptones, and new cryptones are being constantly created as the specific case of STEEM.
In any case, a cryptomoneda can be exchanged for its equivalent in fiat (fiat is any legal currency such as the dollar) in the various exchanges that exist for this type of exchange between all types of criptomonedas and fiat.
In short, you can in the exchanges change from one type of criptomoneda to another, or change from criptomoneda to dollars, euros, yens, etc. That is why, when you receive a Cryptomoneda, you can be considered to be receiving cash.
Cryptomonedas are received and sent between wallets and the balance of coins only exist in wallets. The wallets are identified by a very long string of characters, for example this is a wallet address bitcoin: 19qnQJ4CC9KvNiNZVqK46sShgR9kHr3AsY
If you are going to work with the criptomoneda bitcoin which is the most recognized of all, you will need a wallet of bitcoins. If you plan to use the criptomoneda litecoin you need a wallet of litecoin, and so on. That is to say, each type of criptomoneda needs a specific wallet for that criptomoneda.
When a person receives a payment in the form of a criptomoneda means that a value has been assigned, for example, suppose that it is 10 bitcoins, in his bitcoins wallet. That represents a transaction and means that someone from some other bitcoins wallet has sent a bitcoins payment to his bitcoins wallet. These transactions are registered by computers or servers that are called miners.

Minimers are responsible for recording all transactions that occur between all wallets at any given time, creating an encrypted digital record called "a block". In that block all the information about the transactions is encrypted and constructed in such a way that it can not be modified by anyone once the block has occurred.
The information in this block is propagated throughout the network of miners and from now on all new transactions between wallets must be registered in the next block, which when encrypted contains the information of the previous blocks. That is to say, a chain of blocks is constructed in which are registered each and every one of the transfers of criptomonedas that have happened since the cryptonion was created. This block of information has a very special feature and is that the encryption has a strong dependence on the previous blocks. This means that if any previous block is modified it is no longer possible to reconstruct the block chain and therefore it is known that there has been an alteration.
If, yes, it sounds very complicated, but the important thing is that every time the miners create a block is when they create the new criptomonedas. That is, every time transactions in the block chain are recorded, they create new cryptomonedas literally out of thin air, and are used to pay the miners and spread among the general public.

And here is where the most important question of all comes: If you literally create a criptomoneda out of nothing every time you mine a block why it has any monetary value in fiat?
And the answer is very simple: because all members of the community of that cryptomoneda decide to trust and accept that it has an equivalent in fiat (dollars) and use it as a value interchange system. This is really the important thing, "the strength of a cryptomoneda depends exclusively on the size of the community that supports it and the number of transactions they perform with their cryptomoneda." This is exactly what has happened with the bitcoin that enjoys a huge community and the value of the cryptonion has been increasing and is currently quoted at around $ 650 per bitcoin.

The revolutionary proposal of Steemit.

As I mentioned at the beginning of this post, Steemit is a mix of a social network with an internet revenue generation system that has created its own cryptonnet to pay for the work of all participants within that community. The key question is: Will it work?
Social networks have proven to be extremely successful in generating wealth and knowledge; The production of high quality or at least high consumption content has proven to be an effective means of achieving economic growth and knowledge generation; The criptomonedas that have broken into the financial world in the last five years, especially the chain of blocks that soon the big banks will end up adopting, have been very successful and have generated a system of exchange and preservation of monetary value. Therefore, it is logical to think that if all these systems succeed in integrating properly, they should generate a whole new way of conceiving the exchange of information, work and wealth on the internet. That's Steemit's big bet.
Steemit is definitely something new in the world of social networking, internet revenue generation and the application of new emerging technologies.
Personally, this experiment called Steemit I consider it the first prototype in operation that indicates at least one of the possible paths for the future of a true web 3.0.

Conclusions:

To join Steemit just register. Then you start to generate income, either because you write and generate knowledge, or because you like to read and review the articles that interest you and give a simple vote. In both cases you will earn money (criptomonedas), when people give you a vote because you think your publication is very good, or when you give a vote when evaluating a publication.
All this experiment will only result if the real communities begin to be created around topics and specialized topics of any nature, there must be a community around, that I, for example, specialized methods of wedding makeup, ants, desserts, Wigs, semiconductors, computers, etc. Above all, the most important thing is that the participating members of those communities begin to vote consciously for articles and publications that generate knowledge and truly strengthen the community.

If you really liked it, Thanks for your vote !!!

Authors get paid when people like you upvote their post.
If you enjoyed what you read here, create your account today and start earning FREE STEEM!