The Steem cryptocurrency is created for Steemit social networking platform and is designed to reward authors of unique content. The amount of reward for content is determined by users, the total amount depends on the ratio of those who liked the material and those who did not like it. The award goes almost entirely to authors, not publishers or system owners, as on other platforms. Receiving an award on the cryptocurrency wallet takes a maximum of 24 hours from the moment the money is withdrawn. The transaction between Steem nodes takes no fee and a maximum of three seconds.
What are the tokens in the Steem network?
In the network, Steem has several types of tokens. Steem coins are the main cryptocurrency, these coins can be bought at cryptocurrency exchanges. The price of other tokens depends on the Steem coin price. On the platform, you can convert Steem coin to Steem Power – tokens that are used to amplify voice when voting for content. Steem Dollars is the equivalent of USD on the platform. They can be bought or sold for Steem coins. Steem Dollars can be either more expensive or cheaper than USD, depending on the market situation. There are also SMT (Smart Media Tokens) tokens, which are used to implement smart contracts. You can also create custom tokens based on SMT.
How does the Steem blockchain work?
The Proof of Work algorithm was initially used to confirm the transactions, which implied the need for mining. At present, cryptocurrency Steem has moved to the Delegated Proof of Stake algorithm to confirm transactions between free crypto nodes. There are 21 free public nodes that have the right to confirm transactions. 20 of the Steem nodes are selected by voting members of the network, and another 1 blockchain node provider is determined randomly. Unlike many other cryptocurrencies, Steem inflationary cryptocurrency, the number of tokens increases by several percent annually. Only 10% of the reward for a block goes to Steem nodes, confirming the transactions. The remaining 90% of the reward goes to the authors of the content. As a block reward, only Steem Power tokens that have no value outside the platform can be received. However, they can be exchanged for Steem coin or Steem Dollars tokens within the platform.
What free public nodes are on the Steem network?
Each installed software wallet turns the device into a lightweight (relay) Steem node. A transaction is transferred between the Steem nodes relayed until it reaches the full crypto node that has the right to confirm transactions and write them to the blockchain. For writing decentralized applications in this network, a common and popular among developers programming language C++ is used. Decentralized applications that interact with the Steem blockchain through an API can connect through public crypto nodes or run a separate private the Steem node. To run a private Steem node you need a computer with a stable Internet connection, at least 2 GB of RAM, and at least 140 GB of hard disk space to store a full copy of the blockchain. Steem nodes can only be started under Ubuntu Linux.
What are the technical features of Steem?
Since transactions between the Steem nodes occur without commission, attackers can cause network overload. To protect the network, Steem limits bandwidth for each user. Content viewing does not consume bandwidth while posting posts and comments, voting, sending coins between free blockchain nodes, and other actions in the Steem network require bandwidth. The more Steem Power a user has, the more bandwidth he needs. Various decentralized applications work in the Steem network. The developers regularly update the software for free blockchain nodes and Steem wallets.
