I am currently working on our steemit project which we are aiming to launch in about a month’s time. As we aim to attract users from outside of the steemit community, I talked to a few non-steemit friends, and found that one of the most asked question is: Where does the money come from. Saying the money is generated from the system of course would sound unconvincing. I realise that there must be a lot of posts out that that already talked about this, but I thought it’s better for me to try to understand how it works and then write it up with my own words, for me to better explain it to someone who is not familiar with the concept.
最近我在忙我们的steemit项目，希望可以在七月中旬上线。 因为我们想吸引不在steemit上的用户，我专门找了几个不在steemit上的朋友谈了一下。我发现最常听到的问题是:钱从哪里来？很明显，说钱从系统来不是一个能让人满意的答案。所以我确定自己写一篇我对STEEM经济系统的理解，让自己可以更好去回答这个很重要的问题。
So here is my take on the topic. If you have any comments or suggestions or spotted any part that is incorrect, please let me know, as hopefully this piece would be an important tool for us to attract non-steemit users onto the STEEM blockchain.
各位如果发现我的见解有什么错误，请留言告诉我。这篇文章将会是我们网站用于介绍STEEM系统的初稿。十分感谢！
The STEEM blockchain Economy – Where does the money come from?
The STEEM blockchain economy is based around three concepts. STEEM tokens (STEEM), STEEM Power (SP) and STEEM backed dollar (SBD).
STEEM token is the main thing that is generated by the STEEM blockchain. In the STEEM blockchain, each time something is recorded onto the blockchain, i.e. when a block is written, some STEEM is generated. So content creation generates STEEM. All the STEEM generated is added into the so call Reward pool, which is then shared between all the content creators (and curators), depending on the votes they receive. A user can only vote if they have SP, which can only be obtained by converting from STEEM. The more SP a user has, the more his/her vote is worth, and content that receive this user’s vote would take a larger chunk out of the reward pool. At Payout, STEEM is converted into SP and SBD before getting into the creator’s wallet. SBD is designed to be the liquid currency in the STEEM blockchain economy, something that people can use to make purchases, or convert to STEEM or SP.
So we can say that essentially, the STEEM blockchain generate money through generation of STEEM.
Then, where does the money come from? How can money be automatically generated? It sounds like we are making money out of thin air. That is, of course, not true. It is true that the blockchain generates STEEM, a virtual token, automatically. However, inherently, these virtual tokens are not worth anything. Its value is determined by the market. If the market thinks that STEEM is worth $10, then, the blockchain is essentially automatically generating $10 each block it produced (assuming 1 STEEM per block, which, in reality, is not the case). If, on the other end, the market decides that STEEM is worth $0.00001, then each block essentially is worth nothing. You can say that if STEEM is worth $10, that means that the market as a whole is happy to have the Steem blockchain generating that much money automatically.
So the STEEM Blockchain does not make money out of thin air. STEEM make tokens out of thin air, and it’s up to the free market to decide whether these tokens are worth anything.
Now, what affects the Market valuation of STEEM tokens? Same as everything in the world, the price of STEEM tokens is dependent on demand and supply. The supply of STEEM tokens mainly comes from two sources. The first one is the generation of tokens that was mentioned in the last paragraph. The second one is the amount of additional STEEM that users are putting out onto the market for sale. The demand of STEEM token is, on the other end, driven by how much people want to buy STEEM.
There can be three different types of demand for STEEM. First is investor speculation. Long term investors believing that STEEM will go up would want to buy and hold STEEM, and therefore the more bullish investors, the higher the demand of STEEM.
The second type of demand is from users wanting to influence what is being created and rewarded on the blockchain. For example, Green Peace may want to encourage people to create content that spread the message of environment protection on the STEEM blockchain. They can do so by purchasing STEEM, converting STEEM into SP, and then rewarding posts that they want to encourage through upvotes. By doing so, they attract people to create more content that they want by promising high payout, and as an added bonus, they increase the visibility of these posts by sending them to steemit’s trending page which ranks by the amount of payouts. This can apply to any business or community wanting to push their product, their social viewpoints or their political agenda on the STEEM blockchain.
The third type of demand is from people wanting to purchase something that can only be bought with STEEM. For example, if someone want to take part in the Steemmonsters card game, they would need to purchase STEEM to buy a pack. The catch, of course, is that the vendor who received the STEEM may then sell the STEEM they just received for profit taking, thereby cancelling out the initial demand. However, through the development of DApps, we may get to a point where the vendor above can in turn purchase what they want (food, entertainments, assets, services etc) within the STEEM blockchain, there will be no need to cash out, and a strong demand of STEEM will be maintained.
So looking at this, it is hopefully easier to understand where does the money come from:
STEEM “money” is printed by block generation, when people create content on the steem blockchain.
The value of this STEEM “money” is determined by the free market, governed by demand and supply of STEEM “money”
Supply is determined by: 1) The amount of STEEM “printed” ; 2) The amount of STEEM available for sale in the Market
Demand is determined by: 1) Speculators betting on the value of STEEM to go up; 2) People wanting to gain SP to advertise and encourage their product/ideas/viewpoint; 3) The ability of people to use STEEM to purchase everyday goods and services, as well as unique goods and services that is only available on the STEEM blockchain
So the money made by content creators and curators comes from the interaction of the STEEM blockchain economics as described above.
Note that this is in fact very similar to fiat currency. Take USD for example. It is in its nature, just a piece of printed paper. It is not inherently worth anything (Note that contrary to popular believe, governments do not have an equivalent worth of gold or other commodity to back up each dollar in the market, and as the US have shown during the financial crisis in 2008, they can just print more money if they wish to). However, it has a value as determined by the free market. Most of its value comes from the fact that you can buy goods and services with it. Some of its value comes from how investors interpret its value against other currencies. This is exactly the same as what STEEM is.
So from these arguments presented above, it is clear that STEEM is not a scam or a scheme to conjure money out of thin air. Its value is for everyone, i.e. the free market, to determine, and that is where the money comes from.
STEEM 区块链的经济系统—钱从哪里来？
STEEM区块链的经济系统围绕着三样东西:STEEM Token（STEEM）, STEEM Power（SP) 和 STEEM dollar (SBD).
STEEM token 是系统制造的代币。系统每创造一个区块，就会制造一些STEEM. 因为在STEEM区块链上，制造内容等于创造区块，所以每当用户创造内容，新的STEEM会被创造。这些新的STEEM构成了奖励池，而内容创造者能在奖励池中分享到的奖励跟他们的内容拿到的投票成正比。每一票的权重取决于投票者SP的数量。投票者SP越高，投票越值钱。最后内容结账时，奖励池的STEEM会被系统变成SP和SBD，分给内容创造者(和投票者）。SBD是STEEM链上的正式流通货币，主要用于日常应用。
所以，我们可以理解为，STEEM区块链的收益源自区块链自发创造的STEEM。
听上去好像在说STEEM区块链无中生有地把钱变去来。当然，这样理解是不对的。的确，STEEM Token代币可以被理解为系统无中生有地创造出来。可是每个代币的价值是自由市场决定的。如果STEEM的市价是十块钱，那么就是自由市场觉得STEEM链上每区块值十块钱不是问题（如果每区块出一个代币），也有人愿意用十块钱去买一个STEEM。这才是钱的来源。相反如果市场觉得STEEM区块不值钱，STEEM代币的价格就会下跌。
所以，钱来自于自由市场给STEEM区块链和代币的估价。
那么，STEEM的市价会受什么影响呢？和世界上所有的东西一样STEEM代币的价格取决于STEEM的供应和需求。STEEM的供应源于系统的生产和用户放在市场上卖的代币。而STEEM的需求最主要有三方面。
第一方面是投资者的需求。长线投资者觉得STEEM会升而去买STEEM所形成的需求。这样的投资者越多，STEEM的需求和价格就会越高。
第二方面是用户投票权重的需求。因为投票权重直接影响文章收益，用户可以用增加SP来点赞奖励对他/她有利的内容，从而吸引更多用户创造相应的内容。例如若果绿色和平想在STEEM平台上宣传环保意识，他们可以购买大量STEEM, 转换成SP, 然后点赞有关环保的文章以大量提高这些文章的收益，从而吸引其他作者继续提供环保内容。与此同时，提高了文章的收益更能让文章上Steemit首页, 增加了能见度。显然而见，商业机构，宗教社区，甚至政治団体都可以用这方法宣传他们的商品或观点。这会为STEEM带来十分可观的需求。
第三方面是以STEEM为货币的需求。这需求源于只能用STEEM才能购买的东西的存在。最近很火的Steemmonsters 就是一个很好的例子。想玩这个卡片游戏就一定需要用STEEM来购买，这就提高了STEEM的需求。当然，如果卖家马上就把赚到了的STEEM提现，那么就会把需求抵消了。可是如果我们继续发展不同的DApp, 那么有可能有一天这卖家根本不虽要提现，直接用STEEM就可以买到他/她所需要的日常物品，娱乐或服务。这种情况下，STEEM的需求就会有增无减。
所以，作为文章开头问题的回答，钱是这样来的:
STEEM区块链自动"打印"STEEM代币
STEEM代币值多少钱由自由市场决定，市价受STEEM代币的供需影响。
STEEM代币的供应取决于1. STEEM的打印数量; 2. 市场上被卖的STEEM的数量
STEEM代币需求取决于1.觉得币值会升而买入的投资者; 2.以SP权重来作为宣传工具的需求; 3. STEEM的货币功能，能不能用STEEM代币去购买日常物品，服务，或只能用STEEM才能买到的东西。
所以内容创建者和投票者所赚到了的钱就是以上不同经济系统的互动而成的。
想深一层，其实这是和传统货币是一模一样的。看一下美元，本质只是一张纸。而我们也在金融危机时看到，政府随时可以印更多。然而，美元的价值在于它能够用来购买商品和服务，也在于市场上的投资者觉得它比其他货币更值钱。这对商务用途和投资者的依赖不是和STEEM一模一样吗?
所以，STEEM只是传统货币的一种数字转化，而不是一种无中生有的戏法。系统的钱是自由市场和经济系统互动的自然结果。
Concluding Remark: Through writing the above I have come to the following conclusion: right now, most of the value of STEEM is governed by the first case, i.e. investor speculation. This is not sustainable as we will be at the mercy of corporation and profit takers. What we as the whole community need to do is to change to a (2) + (3) ecosystem, where people who buy STEEM truly value STEEM as a way to reach out to the population or as a currency for goods and services available on and off the blockchain. We can do this by supporting more DApp developments, and spreading the word of STEEM to the wider community.
最后结语:写完了，我发现现在STEEM最大的问题是STEEM的价值大部分只取决于投资者。我们需要把需求重心转移到2和3才能让STEEM发扬光大。作为STEEM社区的一份子，我们一定要大力支持新DApp的发展，积极的推广STEEM区块链，为STEEM的未来作出努力！