21 Ways to Use the Steem Blockchain for Business

Since March 2018, I've been very active on Steemit. In just four months, I've seen my reputation rise from 25 to 57, my Steem Power accumulate to over 100, and my account's value to surpass $200. It's fallen some since then because I've used some of my earnings to buy Steem Monsters cards.

Enterprising Steemians are using the Steem blockchain for more than just a place to hang out and make new friends. Some are creating businesses and expanding their existing businesses on the blockchain. Before I share 21 creative ways you too can use Steemit to build or expand your own business, let me give you a quick introduction to the blockchain.

What Is Steem, and Why Is It Important?

Steem was created in 2016 on a proof-of-brain concept designed to encourage the use of tokens to build a smart economy of content across the web. Its founders were @Ned Scott and Dan Larimer (@dantheman), who is also the chief technical mind behind BitShares and EOS.

Steemit is the social media platform built on Steem, the blockchain. As a platform, Steemit was created to showcase the capabilities of Steem and to illustrate the power and value of STEEM, the platform's iconic token, Steem Dollars (SBD), a cryptocurrency that can be traded on several exchanges, and Steem Power. Each of these crypto components have a different purpose. You can learn more about them from the Steem whitepaper, but the following explanation is a distilled version.

STEEM - STEEM is a liquid currency that can be used to transfer between users of the Steem blockchain as payment, or to power up a Steemit user's account to give it more voting power on the blockchain. STEEM can also be traded on several exchanges.
Steem Dollars (SBD) - Steem Blockchain Dollars are convertible notes that can be traded for STEEM, used as currency, or traded on the exchanges.
Steem Power (SP) - Steem power determines a Steemit user's voting power on the blockchain. Higher voting power determines the amount of curation rewards, so users with a high SP can earn high curation rewards by upvoting other users' content and interacting with it.

Understanding how these three cryptocurrencies affect the Steemit platform should make it obvious how users can earn from their blogging and curation efforts on the blockchain, but how about businesses? There are plenty of ways a business can use the Steem blockchain to market themselves, invest in the platform, or for non-obvious use cases. The following list is a list of ways a business can use the Steem blockchain and increase their brand image.

21 Ways to Use the Steem Blockchain for Business

1. Create a content and brand marketing channel - This one should be immediately obvious. Just as an individual can set up a Steemit account, a business can set up an account and use it as a content marketing channel in the same way that many businesses use Medium or Huffington Post. By the way, if you do this, you can use SteemPress and create your posts on your own business blog. They will automatically post to Steemit. SteemPress also frequently upvotes posts created using their WordPress plugin, so that's an added incentive.

2. Invest in Steem and Steem Power as appreciative assets - BookingTeam was a travel booking site that set up a Steemit account in November 2016. On October 31, 2017, they announced the business was closing. The sad thing is, their account now sits dormant with over 23,000 Steem Power. If they could accumulate that much value in one year, imagine how your business could fare after five or 10. And if you do go insolvent, be sure to power down your Steemit account before you do to liquidate your Steem assets.

The dormant BookingTeam wallet on Steemit

3. Build a Dapp - Dapps are decentralized applications. To understand how they work, you have to understand the difference between Steem, the blockchain, and Steemit, the social media platform. Steemit is built on top of Steem, which has APIs for developers to develop their own applications on top of the Steem blockchain. To date, several Dapps have been built on top of the Steem blockchain including DTube, DSound, and DLive. If you're a smart developer, you can create your own application that sits on top of the Steem blockchain, complete with its own business model.

4. Lend SBD or STEEM to other Steemians - @Neoxian is an enterprising Steemian who created his own bank, publishing smart contracts outlining the terms with borrowers on his blog.

5. Set up a witness - Witnesses are the engine that keeps the blockchain operating. Like miners on the Bitcoin blockchain, witnesses verify the blocks created when Steemit users create new content, upvote content, and participate in the blockchain in other meaningful ways. Witnesses receive a share of the rewards for blocks they find on the chain. While not all witnesses are profitable, the top 20 witnesses are doing quite well.

6. Invest in the blockchain - An enterprising business can drop a few thousand dollars into the Steemit blockchain and simply hold it in hopes that the currency will appreciate in value enough that it can be traded for capital gains later. You can also buy STEEM and SBD on several exchanges.

Create a collectible asset - Digital assets are a type of asset created on a blockchain that stores value in ways never imaginable, and they often appreciate in value due to scarcity, popularity, and other economic factors. Like Cryptokitties on the Ethereum blockchain, Steem Monsters is a collectible trading card game built on the Steem blockchain. Opened on July 14 2018, Monster Market, the secondary market for Steem Monsters trading cards, had done over $11,000 in total sales in just four days.

A collectible trading card from the @steemmonsters collectible trading card game

8. Sell items in the Steem Shop - If you have items you want to sell, no need to set up an eBay account. You can sell your items through @steemshop.

Taken from a blog post on the @steemshop account

9. Start a curation show on DTube or DSound - There are plenty of shows on DTube and DSound, many of them on specific topics. If you can turn your personality into a popular brand, you can attract sponsors.

10. Sell your services - Do you provide a valuable service? You can sell your services on Steemit and charge clients Steem or SBD. I purchased a unique divider for my posts from @Sjennon.

11. Get a job - If you have the right skills, why not just work for Steem directly? Find a job on their job board.

12. Start an employee incentivization program - If it aligns with your business goals, why not start an employee incentivization program? Have your employees blog about your company and/or products on Steemit and pay them with upvotes from your company account, with SBD or Steem, or through other perks at your company. Find ways to make it fun.

13. Collaborate on open source projects - Utopian.io is an open source community on the Steem blockchain that incentivizes voluntary project support. Investors, contributors, and project owners can support each other through a decentralized network using the Steem blockchain to partner in unique and powerful ways.

14. Invest in Steem blockchain projects - If you see a project on the Steem blockchain you'd like to support, reach out to the project developers and become an investor.

15. Build an engaged community - Got an exciting new blockchain or cryptocurrency project? oracle-D is a new enterprise that can help you build an engaged community that talks about your company in exchange for valuable upvotes. You won't even have to pay these enthusiastic workers to drive awareness of your project.

15. Delegate SBD or STEEM to a bidbot - This is controversial, but some enterprising Steemians have created bidbots that charge users a fee to upvote their posts for a higher value, creating a profitable way to increase exposure on the platform and increase one's SBD, Steem, and Steem Power holdings. Some of the bidbots take delegations in exchange for a percentage of the profits, creating an investment opportunity for Steemians in the process.

Steembot Tracker shows a running ticker of steembots, their prices, and when they are scheduled for upvoting

16. Sponsor contests - You don't have to be on Steemit long before you see contests for all sorts of things. There are writing contests, art contests, photography contests, curation contests, and more. Steem Monsters is outsourcing its art, writing, and other tasks by rewarding winning contestants with Steem Monsters trading cards. If you have a digital asset, you can offer it as an incentive for contests run by other Steemians, or you can sponsor those contests with STEEM or SBD. Your business will get exposure in the process.

17. Become a master curator - Curation is one of the most important aspects of the Steemit platform. One of the ways many Steemians support the platform itself and create new value is through curation. There are plenty of curation trails, but there is always room for more. @steemitbloggers is a community of bloggers on the Steemit platform started by @jaynie to curate excellent content on a daily basis. Another curation account is @curie. These have become a valuable part of the Steemit ecoystem.

Delegations allow curated accounts to earn more in curation rewards as they create new value on the blockchain. The number in parenthesis is how many delegations @curie has received as of this writing.

18. Airdrop - Early in July, Byteball announced an airdrop for Steemians. Want to promote your ICO or cryptocurrency project? Do something similar.

19. Become a coach or mentor - If you have a valuable skill, you can coach or mentor others through Steemit. Simply set your price and you can do your mentoring/coaching sessions through Discord, Skype, or another vehicle that allows you to interact with your customers. By the way, if you need writing help, you can find me on Discord at blockurator#7537 or through my website at Taylored Content.

20. Create a Steem store - Steempay is the PayPal of the Steem blockchain. You can create a store, take payments, and sell whatever you want (as long as its legal).

21. Raise funds for your business - Starting a business and need to raise funds? Use Steemit as your ICO platform. You can raise STEEM or SBD, take contributions on exchanges that trade these currencies as well as through your fundraising account.

Mention of these business practices does not necessarily mean I endorse them. I cannot vouch for the quality or technical competence of all of projects and websites mentioned in this post. I encourage you to do your own due diligence.

Images used in this post are screenshots unless otherwise noted.

Now it's your turn, what ways do you recommend using Steem and Steemit for business purposes?