Steem Guide | Learn Everything About STEEM
Everyone is aware of the number of hours we spend online, browsing social media. Reddit alone generates billions of dollars of business every year from its users. Users are the sole content creators. Users are the content viewers. But it is Reddit that makes money out of it! Now imagine getting paid for the Reddit answers or Quora posts that you publish online. No, you will not get paid by brands for promoting stuff, but you will be paid for whatever you write or post. It just has to meet the standards of quality set by SteemIt platform. Exciting, isn’t it? That is what Steem is.
Recommended places to trade Steem
About Steem Coin
Steem Coin is a cryptocurrency that powers and fuels SteemIt platform. SteemIt is a social network, where users can create content and post it, just like other social network websites. The only difference being – SteemIt will reward their users for content they post. Steem Dollars and Steem Power are units of Steem cryptocurrency. Where Steem Dollar is equivalent to one US dollar, while Steem power is a token that displays the power you have inside your SteemIt account. As you grow your Steem Power, you are able to vote, and they count more. Increasing or decreasing your Steem Power is known as Powering Up or Powering Down – just like in some online game.
Steem started in mid-2016 and currently has over 300 thousand users, who post and curate interesting feed. Unlike Reddit, SteemIt has no strict guidelines, however if a commnity inside SteemIt wishes to impose guidelines, they are free to do that. The reward system works with proper moderation, where users will only get the pay for the premium quality content they write. But unlike Reddit where users contribute heavily for free, SteemIt aims to value their efforts and allow them to gain rewards that benefit them financially.
Noteworthy Points in Steem Coin
Steem Coin works differently than all other cryptocurrencies out there. Some coins provide platform to develop decentralized applications, while some of them work on new-age technology like Tangle. But what makes Steem different from all other cryptocurrencies? Here are some key points to note –
- Easy to Mine – You do not need expensive hardware or high processing systems to mine Steem Coins. You can mine Steem Coins easily by just voting, creating content and contributing on the SteemIt platform.
- No transaction fee – Unlike Bitcoin, Ethereum and many others, Steem Coin has no fees at all, which means the transactions from one network to another happen dynamically and free of charges.
- Easy to Remember addresses – Unlike complex and tough addresses used in Bitcoin and Ethereum platforms, Steem Coins use simple and memorable addresses. An example of Bitcoin address is – ’19dkwhs012373mslznw12394xx0192m00′, while in Steem Coin, addresses look somewhat like this – ‘steemcryptofriend’.
- Scalability Issues Solved – Bitcoin has been struggling with scaling its operations to complete and verify more transactions per minute, while Steem is already capable of conducting thousands of transactions per minute.
- High Speed Transactions – Unlike Bitcoin where you have to wait for hours for one transaction to confirm, Steem Cryptocurrency works almost instantly with lightning fast speed.
Other Steem Applications
Apart from SteemIt, there are some other applications too, that support Steem Coin, and some of the popular ones are – Esteem (a mobile app), Busy (a social media app like Facebook), SteepShot (a photo sharing app like Instagram, but it is currently under development) etc. You can create account on any of the applications that support and reward you in Steem coin, and enjoy the benefits.
Buy Steem Coin
You can buy Steem coin at any popular exchange that supports it. Coinbase is a common name, that has a global reach and world wide popularity, when it comes to purchasing cryptocurrencies. Some other ones are – Bittrex and OpenLedger. OpenLedger is difficult and complex for newbies, hence Bittrex is better to use as it has an easy interface. Started at half a dollar, back in 2016, Steem Coin Price is around $5 to $7 now.
Storing Steem Coin
Storing Steem Coin is easy as investors have an array of options available. From online exchanges like OpenLedger and Bittrex itself, to offline Steem wallets, you can store your Steem coins anywhere. For long term storage, Steem coins should not stay in online Steem wallets because of the vulnerability. Exchanges and online wallets are prone to hacking and malware attacks, that is why offline and paper wallets are better. SteemIt and Busy itself are the social media platform that are capable of storing your Steem Coins.
The applications that support Steem coin like eSteem also have in-built Steem coin wallets to store Steem cryptocurrency. Vessel is a desktop wallet that enables the investors to store and manage Steem coins. Hardware wallets like KeepKey, Trezor and Ledger Nano S are also some popular choices of investors. Hardware wallets are perfect for long-term storage. As they come with a secure private key that stays with the investor himself. It is not known to anyone else, hence it is completely secure and safe. 
Conclusion: Steem Coin
Steem Cryptocurrency is a revolutionary idea where user engagement is coupled with monetary benefits. It makes sense in a way that users, who create and curate most of the content online, get nothing in return. Some users create better content than paid writers, yet they remain unpaid. To fill this gap and to encourage more quality users to contribute to social media platforms, Steem Coin is a fresh perspective. It is an amazing idea that is sure to bring about a revolution in the way people have been using social media so far.
Right now, the users on platform are somewhere around 300 thousand, out of which not many are active. As the number of active users and user profiles will increase on Steem platform, so will the number of votes. Hence, the money that the users can earn too will rise. Steem coin price prediction as of now is unpredictable, due to ever-changing trends. But chances are that it will experience an upward trend in coming years.