STEEM: A Blockchain-Based Social Network

STEEM is a social network forum that utilizes blockchain technology. Users are rewarded with cryptocurrency for their participation on the platform. The community's currency exists in three forms: Steem, Steem Power (SP), and Steem Dollars (SBD). Steem Dollars are pegged to the US dollar at an approximate 1:1 ratio. Think of them as short-term savings, convertible back to STEEM within 7 days, and earning interest during that time.

I. Project Introduction

Steem is the first public blockchain project in the blockchain field to implement content platform incentives. Its product architecture is mainly divided into three layers: the Steem blockchain, the Steemit application, and the SMT token issuance contract.

1. Steem Blockchain

Key Features:

• Incentives for users to publish content and engage in discussions.

• Rewards for users who answer questions and provide high-quality solutions.

• Offers a stable cryptocurrency pegged to the US dollar.

• Facilitates free and open payments.

2. Steemit Application

Steemit is the first blog platform application based on Steem, developed by the Steem team. Its navigation categories include "Trending," "New," "Hot," and "Promoted." Content formats include images, text, videos, and more. Steemit primarily serves as a showcase for developers, demonstrating Steem's application scenarios and inspiring them to develop new content applications based on the platform.

Steemit Features:

• All user information is recorded on the blockchain, and daily activities are publicly viewable on the blockchain explorer. This includes not only SP, reputation, and registration time, but also all related transactions, replies, likes, follows, comments, and other behavioral information since registration, displayed in chronological order.

• Users can only edit published content within 7 days of posting.

• Users cannot delete posts but can edit them to be blank.

• All edit records of user posts and comments are stored on the blockchain and viewable on the blockchain explorer.

• User posts have a size limit of approximately 64,000 characters, including formatting.

• A plagiarism penalty mechanism encourages original content creation. Users who plagiarize or copy original content may face legal repercussions for copyright infringement and be flagged or reported by community members.

• Users can choose to promote their posts using Steem Dollars. Clicking the "Promote" button at the bottom of each article allows users to input the desired amount of Steem Dollars to spend. The post will then appear in Steemit's "Promoted" tab, with the order determined by the promotion price; higher-priced posts appear above lower-priced ones. Users can promote their own posts or those they appreciate from others.

• Password recovery is not supported. Currently, Steemit does not offer password recovery, and losing one's password results in the loss of access to the corresponding account funds.

3. SMT Token Issuance Contract

1. SMT stands for Smart Media Tokens, a set of smart contracts that support token generation. This allows other content developers to issue tokens specific to their ecosystems. SMT aims to empower other content developers with Steemit's successful experience, including its consensus mechanism and incentive system, ultimately enriching the Steem content development ecosystem.

2. Steem boasts a comprehensive product matrix. The Steem blockchain primarily assists in developing content platform applications, SMT enables content platforms to issue their own tokens (similar to Ethereum's token issuance function), and Steemit provides an excellent case study for content developers. This product matrix provides a solid foundation for the ecological development of Steem.

Technical Overview

Steem employs a Delegated Proof of Stake (DPoS) consensus mechanism, where each round is processed by 21 witnesses in sequence. Of these 21 witnesses, 20 are elected through voting, and the last one is randomly generated from the remaining witnesses who did not rank in the top 20. The 21 formal witnesses are shuffled in each round to generate blocks sequentially. Since the active witnesses are known in advance, Steem can schedule them to generate blocks every 3 seconds.

Steem utilizes Graphene technology, maintaining over 1,000 transactions per second. With simple improvements to server capacity and communication protocols, Graphene can easily scale to 10,000 or more transactions per second.

Steem draws inspiration from the LMAX Exchange, which can process 6 million transactions per second. Key takeaways from LMAX include:

• Storing all transactions in memory.

• Maintaining core business logic within a single thread.

• Isolating cryptographic operations (hashing and signing) from the core business logic.

• Dividing validation into state-dependent and state-independent checks.

• Using an object-oriented data model.

Token Ecosystem

Steem's token ecosystem comprises three asset types: Steem (STEEM), Steem Power (SP), and Steem Dollars (SBD). These three asset types interact to maintain a stable and thriving Steem ecosystem.

• Steem (STEEM): The platform's native cryptocurrency, freely traded and subject to market fluctuations. In contrast to SBD, which maintains relative stability, STEEM serves as a bridge between SBD and SP. Converting SP to cash requires converting it to STEEM, then to SBD, before withdrawal, and vice versa.

• Steem Power (SP): Represents a user's influence within the Steem network, essentially their voting power. The more SP a user possesses, the more they can influence the value of posts and comments. SP is proportionally distributed by the platform; simply registering an account earns you SP daily, akin to earning interest on a bank account.

• Steem Dollars (SBD): Represents liquid cash flow within Steem, pegged to the US dollar at an approximate 1:1 ratio. This allows for direct purchases of SBD using fiat currency, which can then be used to purchase services on Steemit or exchanged for STEEM.

4. Steemit Content Incentive Mechanism

Steem incentivizes community content creation through posting, commenting, and voting. Posts and comments remain active for 7 days, after which users can claim their earned rewards. Clicking the "Claim Rewards" button in their wallets adds the tokens to their accounts.

1) Posting Rewards

Authors can choose to receive their rewards in one of three ways:

• 50% SP & 50% SBD

• 100% SP

• Decline Payment (no rewards are earned)

Voting influences a post's position on the trending leaderboard but does not award rewards from Steem's reward pool. Replies to posts are eligible for rewards. Downvoting (flagging) posts or comments does not earn curation rewards. As downvotes reduce the rewards for the content creator, no rewards are given to downvoters.

2) Voting Rewards

Users do not lose their STEEM or SP when voting. Voting rewards are distributed in the form of STEEM, SP, and SBD. When the rewards for a post or comment are redeemed, those who voted on it also receive a portion of the rewards.

3) Commenting Rewards

User comments can earn rewards like posts if they receive upvotes. There is a 20-second waiting period between comments to limit spamming.

4) Reward Pool Allocation Mechanism

75% of the rewards are allocated to the authors of posts, while the remaining 25% goes to curators (voters).

If a curator votes within the first 30 minutes of a post's creation, the 25% curator portion is split between the author and the curator based on a linear calculation of voting time. If a post receives upvotes immediately upon posting, 100% of the curation rewards go to the author. For upvotes within the first 3 minutes, the split is 90% to the author and 10% to the curator. This shifts to 10% to the author and 90% to the curator after 27 minutes.

If a post receives upvotes after the initial 30 minutes, 100% of the curation rewards are allocated to the curators.

II. Evaluation

Steemit is a decentralized social content platform built on the Steem blockchain that rewards content creators with native tokens. As the first decentralized application (DApp) on the Steem blockchain, users are rewarded for all actions on the platform, including commenting, posting, liking articles, and using various Steem DApps.

Reward amounts for posts vary depending on the user's influence within the Steem network. The more influential a Steemian is and the higher the quality of their content, the higher the potential rewards they can receive.

Steemit, along with other applications like Busy and Partiko, supports Markdown syntax, making it user-friendly for those with technical backgrounds.

Relevant Links:

• https://steem.com/

• http://www.genesisfor.com/life1/life11/2018-08-01/70.html

• https://www.chainnews.com/articles/243851547407.htm

• https://medium.com/@Alvinhong/steem%E9%A0%85%E7%9B%AE%E5%8F%8A%E7%94%9F%E6%85%8B%E4%BB%8B%E7%B4%B9-18ba5d19440b

• https://blog.csdn.net/kojhliang/article/details/80493338

• https://www.jianshu.com/p/19a4f4a5ac19