Summary: Ways to Contribute This section outlines the ideas behind Steem and its rewards for people who provide meaningful and measurable contributions to the Steem community. Capital Contributions There are two items a community can offer to attract capital: debt and ownership. Those who buy ownership profit when the community grows but lose if the community shrinks. Those who buy debt are guaranteed a certain amount of interest but do not get to participate in any profits realized by the growth of the community. Both types of capital contributions are valuable to the growth of the community and value of its currency. Additionally there are two ways ownership can be held: liquid and vesting. Vesting ownership makes a long-term commitment and cannot be sold for a minimum period of time. The Steem network calls these different asset classes Steem (STEEM), Steem Power (SP), and Steem Dollars (SMD). Steem (STEEM) Steem is the fundamental unit of account on the Steem blockchain. All other tokens derive their value from the value of STEEM. Generally speaking STEEM should be held for short periods of time when liquidity is needed. Someone looking to enter or exit the Steem platform will have to buy or sell STEEM. Once STEEM has been purchased it should beconverted into SP or SMD to mitigate the impact of dilution over the long-term. STEEM is constantly increasing in supply by 100% per year due to non-SMD incentives. Someone who holds STEEM without converting it to SP is diluted by approximately 0.19% per day. While the rate may appear high, for transactions that take less than 10 days, it is still cheaper than credit card processing fees. Furthermore, the daily token creation is insignificant next to the daily volatility. Read the full whitepaper at: https://steem.io/SteemWhitePaper.pdf
