<p>Steem is not just a social media platform, or a blogging platform, or merely just another cryptocurrency. It is actually more than all of these combined. Steem is a next-generation blockchain technology "designed to tokenize content web" and change how we assign value in the Internet.</p>
<p>First, it's important to understand what is Steem and what it isn't.&nbsp;</p>
<p>Steem is not Steemit.com, the blogging platform that most Steemians use to interact with the blockchain. It is not Steemit Inc., the privately held company founded by Ned Scott and Dan Larimer in 2016, which is also responsible for the launch of the Steemit.com blogging platform. And it is not STEEM, the cryptocurrency and one of the three tokens produced and used in the blockchain, the other two being the Steem Dollar (SBD) and STEEM Power.</p>
<p>On the contrary, Steem is more than just a social media platform, or blogging platform, or a content platform. You could even say that it's more than just a cryptocurrency the way that Bitcoin is a cryptocurrency. Steem is more than all those things.&nbsp;</p>
<p>So, what is Steem, then?&nbsp;</p>
<p>Steem is a next-generation "blockchain designed to tokenize the content web". Put simply, it is a decentralized, social platform that combines aspects of social media, cryptocurrency, and online communities. It's goal is to reward participation by sharing the economic benefits of user-generated content (a commodity worth billions of dollars) with those who contributed them, and not just keep them in the pockets of the big companies that control the content platforms they're published in like Facebook, Reddit, and Twitter.</p>
<p>Why is it more than just a social media, blogging, or content platform? While Steem offers the functionalities of a social media, blogging, or content platform, Steem is also more than just a place where you can go to write a blog post, make a comment, or like a meme.&nbsp;</p>
<p>Steem is actually an entire blockchain, and an advanced one at that. Being a blockchain brings with it certain benefits that you could never get with just another content platform. Here, every piece of content is immutable, free from censorship by authorities, and unhampered by annoying ads. And because of the growing number of DApps and services built on Steem, its content ecosystem actually offers more functions and services that no social media platform could rival.</p>
<p>But, more than that, what really sets Steem apart is the fact that in the blockchain content distribution does not endanger your copyright. Whereas attribution can be lost overnight in other social media platforms, the same will not happen in the Steem blockchain.&nbsp;</p>
<p>Since Steem was created around the use case of content publication, it uses the blockchain itself to validate all transactions, especially authoring content. So, every author will have an authenticated, public proof with a timestamp of when and where a piece of content first originated. This therefore gives authors undisputed proof of ownership of their content, which could potentially stand up in court, once our laws catch up with blockchain technology.</p>
<p>Steem is also more than just a crpytocurrency. This is because Steem is not just building an economy that rewards content. In a way, it is also realigning the economic incentives of the Internet.&nbsp;</p>
<p>In today's information age where people are constantly consuming and relying on information in almost all aspects of our lives, information has become an important economic commodity. There is no place that this is more true than in the Internet where every post, every like, and every comment (even the negative ones) brings unprecendented value to some of the biggest tech companies today. All well and good when the big companies benefiting from the content are also the ones who produced it.&nbsp;</p>
<p>But, for companies like Facebook, Twitter, and Reddit whose content is generated by the millions of users who voluntarily contribute to these platforms, the benefits of producing content doesn't actually go to the people who produced them. Instead, they go to the big companies that own the platform that the content was published on.&nbsp;</p>
<p>This is what Steem aims to change. Through its crypto economy, it aims to realign the profits generated by user-generated content toward all the people who contributed. This way, all contributors gets a share in the profits reaped from the content.&nbsp;</p>
<p>The idea is bigger than just the Steem blockchain, though. Once people realize they do not have to give away their content for free with these other platforms, other platforms will have to share their rewards with users if they want to keep their platforms active and their users happy. Eventually, other platforms will follow and the entire information economy will be forced to correct itself and realign how rewards are distributed in the web, thus creating an Internet where that rewards useful contributors with actual value.&nbsp;</p>
<p>So, would I classify Steem as a social media platform? Definitely not. Doing so is belittling what Steem actually is. Instead, I would call Steem something else...a revolutionary blockchain technology that is designed to tokenize the web and change how content is rewarded in the Internet.</p>
<p>Sources:</p>
<ol>
  <li>Steem Website. https://steem.io/</li>
  <li>Steem Whitepaper. https://steem.io/steem-whitepaper.pdf</li>
</ol>