What is Steem? Steem is a blockchain-based social platform. So when you create content, it is saved on the Steem network, and if you like the entry (it gets a lot of upvotes, although the mechanism is more complicated) - you can earn something.
However, Steem has a dark history - the so-called Ninja Mining, a classic element in crypto. The creators Ned Scott and Dan Larimer mine the cryptocurrency for a few days together with others (in the sense of the entry itself was announced, but without any documentation on how to run the PoW node, so they mine a lot of coins).
Dan Larimer left the project in 2016 and started developing EOS, and Ned Scott continued to work.
Steemit Inc, founded by Ned, provides the Steem node, hires programmers and Steemit.com interface.
About 3 weeks ago Justin Sun (the one from Tron) bought out Steemit.com (interface) thinking that he bought blockchain. The affair was quite big because the users were confronted with a fact that was done. Justin often announced that he would take over the network and it would be fun on Tron and all.
About 1 week ago, the Witnesses (such counterparts of miners, but selected by the community, Steem is DPoS) activated Soft Fork to block Justin's access to his funds, which he bought when he bought Steemit
Asian exchanges such as Binance, Huobi or Poloniex (this one belongs to Justin Sun himself) using client funds, closed them in the network (stake) and chose their witnesses, taking over the network.
What's the moral of it? Of course you should be careful when investing in this type of shitcoin - even with TOP 100 as you can see.
At the same time, you should watch out for the exchanges that hold your money. Not your keys, not your bitcoin. Keeping your money in the exchanges does not have to mean losing it, but also using it in quite controversial moves!
Three - it is quite possible that this does not only concern DPoS, but also Proof of Stake itself. Often the creators generate 100% of the tokens at once, and then sell them on the exchanges. How do you know that by the way they don't buy them back (or get them) and don't have a 51% share in the network?
Again - this is a great example of the risks of centralization. What's really crazy is that the exchanges were using client deposits to "stake" on the DPOS. Note also that with Ethereum looking to change to POS, that's another risk for centralized blockchain takeover.
I was asked a question one day on a forum - what's the difference between ZapRead and Steem. Well, it's the fact that ZapRead is working towards a Bitcoin driven and decentralized approach to social media (once sphinx/AMP payments are mainstream then this vision can be completed). There is no need for another cryptocurrency to be created just for the platform.
Steem sucks. I've got a big problem now, because some of the protest services have shut down.
I know one thing. Even if it takes a long time (I don't think so) I have big problems with my services now, although I haven't done anything.
~ https://steemauto.com/
That's why I'm trying to support Zapread, and although I realize it's not perfect, you can make something great out of it.
What does Steem have that Zapread doesn't have? I call it "free money". In 2017 I made a lot of Bitcoins (~0.5 BTC) on Steem. I earned so much that I paid out 0.1 BTC every few days or weeks (I don't remember exactly) at once. Crazy it was a speculative bubble.