Steemit, the decentralized social media platform where users get paid to post and vote, and it’s, has exploded in popularity in its first month with a 1600% increase in community size since launch. Thus far, the online Steemit community (Reddit-like website) has doubled in membership every week, and the cryptocurrency its users are rewarded in, Steem, has increased its market cap of $7 million to $17 million USD.

Steemit is powered by an open source Blockchain called Steem, and its users are rewarded when they submit their blog posts or vote on articles, images and commentary that become popular. Users are paid half in “Steem Power,” a token that supercharges voting power, and half with Steem Dollars, a token worth about one USD. Currently, there are over 100 posts valued at $2000 worth of Steem, and the top 20 posts have an average payout of a combined $8,500 for posters and voters.

Since Steemit’s launch, its most popular topics include politics, technology and cryptocurrency, as well as ‘introduceyourself’, news, art and comedy.

Across the entire site, there has been a ten-fold increase in posts per day, as well as a ten-fold increase in votes per day. Due to popular demand, Steemit has integrated with a cryptocurrency exchange, BlockTrades, to allow users to purchase Steem Power with Bitcoin directly from their online account.

“The Steem Blockchain will be rewarding all Steemit users for their contributions on July 4, distributing 10% of its total token supply,”

Scott said.