Steemit announced Tuesday the release of a public beta version of its social media content aggregator developed to reward content creators and curators with cryptocurrency, said a press release sent to CoinReport.

Harnessing the power of blockchain technology, the New York-based company uses a new cryptocurrency called Steem to reward users who post content such as images, articles and commentary, as well as users who source and upvote popular content. The earlier a user upvotes content that becomes popular, the more the user is rewarded.

Steemit pays users half with “Steem Power,” a vesting currency that fuels voting power, and half with Steem Dollars, which can be exchanged for U.S. Dollars. Steem is now trading on Bittrex and OpenLedger.

The company’s peer-to-peer social economy is accessible to anyone in the world, according to the release. The technology Steemit uses is open source and available to be seen and expanded upon by others.

The company is led by CEO Ned Scott, who has a background in private equity, and CTO Dan Larimer, creator of BitShares.

Scott said in the press release he developed the system in order to foster a community, incentivize them to contribute and improve the quality of original content.

“Our vision is to not only build an empowered community but give content creators an avenue to make money online without needing to advertise,” said Scott. He said blockchain’s versatility has allowed him and Larimer “to create an incentivized social media platform to exchange conversation, creativity, empowerment, and value. We want to promote dynamic, creative dialogue and debate with an opportunity to earn.”

Larimer said in the release that “Steemit is easy and fun to use, and is the best opportunity for the regular consumer to earn and accumulate cryptocurrency.”

The company is planning its first major reward issuance on July 4, and until then expects significant user growth. Steemit will soon release a mobile app version of its platform.

Images courtesy of Steemit