Coyne for like, or why STEEM currency is popular

A hot mid-July warmed up the blockchain community: the new STEEM cryptocurrency, which is not even half a year, became the third in terms of capitalization and popularity among 657 digital currencies. We, the developers of the Wirex hybrid blockchain-service, did not remain indifferent to the Steem phenomenon, having studied the reasons for such a rapid growth in the popularity of this currency.

A couple of weeks from the beginning of the month, the market value of the Steemit platform, which issues STEEM, Steem Dollar and Steem tokens, increased by 2,700% and reached a record $ 352 million on July 14 - which, incidentally, caused 260 Steemit accounts to be hacked that night. Then the attackers managed to kidnap $ 85 thousand.

However, this did not affect the popularity of cryptocurrency. The Steemit capitalization remained almost unchanged, and recently, on July 19, the Steem / BTC, Steem / ETH and SBD / BTC trading pairs were added to the popular Poloniex exchange.


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The incredible growth of STEEM caused a heated discussion in the press and on the forums. Particularly intent were looking for a trick in the Steemit platform itself: the project developers used the blockchain technology with a completely open code to create an “uncensored” social network, where everyone gets an equal reward in local currency - the one who creates the content, and the one who promotes it, or , simply put, “likes”. Public blockchain Steem stores the texts of publications, the voices of users and supports cryptocurrency to stimulate the actions of participants. At the same time, the project site offers to earn on everything - from posts and votes to stay in the new social network, storage in the wallets of the SBD platform - Steem dollars, mining and stock trading. Suspicious? Still would!



Opinions on the Internet are already divided: some say that the concept of social networks and content creation have gained new meaning and freedom from the supervision of corporations and government agencies, others that the Steemit phenomenon is temporary, meaningless, controlled centrally, and their CEO Ned Scott has conceived something unkind. And maybe it is even veiled under the innovation scam.

Contrary to the opinion of conspiracy theories, the growth of STEEM is a logical and obvious explanation. A modern person is absolutely free and voluntarily spends at least 2.5 hours on social networks - and most likely more. This is a modest figure. According to statistics, 9 out of 10 Russian Internet users actively post, upload selfies, leave likes and comments in countless social networks, take pictures of what they need, check in unexpected and indecent places. What motivates them? Psychologists mention, at a minimum, ambition, loneliness, adherence to fashion and a thirst for communication. Here you are - didn’t you post it today? And if you pay for it? Do you want money for likes? Wait, where are you - while on Steamit you have to communicate in English, wait for the influx of the Russian-speaking community.



User activity has long been the basis of the profits of the largest corporations. Google, Yandex and other digital giants initially live on other people's content. Ned Scott and his colleagues realized that the blockchain community was formed, and he needed to be given the right place. Someone had to figure out how to monetize “likes” and create an attractive environment for miners and geeks based on new rules: any work must be paid for, both the creation of values ​​and their support and development. And the content should belong to the creators, as well as financial power.



This is confirmed by active users of Steemit: according to a survey on steemit.com, they very much need freedom of speech, good profits from publications - this is what professionals, journalists and copywriters especially want; security from cyberwar and Big Brother; the opportunity to reward the worthy ones and make money on this in their native and benevolent community. And of course, besides financial hunger, they are driven by curiosity and a passion for innovation.

And since Steemit reminds Reddit, which is popular with geeks, it was easier to “sell”. The main thing remained: to confirm the trust of the community, and on July 4, the platform rewarded early users through their own tokens, dividing the $ 1.3 million equally. After the participants received bonuses and actively shared this news, a rapid influx of users began, the cost of the project and the popularity of the currency increased. Classic marketing reception of content aggregators and social networks. With only one difference: profits are hoping to get everything.



Well, the creators of the blockchain social networks masterfully played on human ambitions and did not lose. Perhaps a major investor who has not yet announced, but mentioned by Ned Scott, will win: he understands that STEEM and Steemit are a grandiose experiment that will change the landscape of digital activity and interaction of people. Continue to follow the news on the Wirex blog and stay up to date with the latest news on the cryptocurrency industry.