(in reply to the #bitcoinpizza conversation)
Once my friends and family found out about my $10,000 dollar article on steemit, the questions started rolling in.
One of the questions is "Where does the money on steemit come from?"
When a friend or family member ask me where the money comes from, my response is typically started with a variation of this:
The money comes from the value of Steem. Ultimately, that value is from demand which comes from trust, which, (according to my somewhat limited understanding of money) is the same thing the US dollar is backed by, or any dollar for that matter.
The dollar has value, because there is a demand for it. There is a demand for it, because it's trusted. It's trusted because we collectively trust that our centralized authority (the government) has something that substantiates it when in reality, they don't. Gold is a substantial form of trust when everyone agrees that it has value by us putting in demand. We have allowed our government to be the substantiator of our currency and we validate that by continuing to keep it in demand.
Steem, on the other hand, is trustworthy in and of itself. It's controlled by a decentralized authority. Anyone can set up their computer to start processing transactions and contribute to the network. Steem software runs secure and nerdy math problems that validate transactions as legitimate or not.
While I'm not sure if that's the best answer I can give and it's definitely not as creative as @lukestokes answer, it's the one I use currently. Maybe I can borrow Lukes answer to better explain where it comes from. I would love to here suggestions on how I can improve my answer and any critiques. Especially if I'm wrong on the economics behind my answer.