The update will encourage more account creation for the Steemit blog.

Steem (STEEM) tokens have shot up in value, breaking past the $1 barrier, as the decentralized media distribution platform, Steemit, gets ready to make account creation more accessible in an update tomorrow.

STEEM has floated in and around $0.80 for the past week. This all began to change at around 15:00 GMT on Monday afternoon, with the tokens surging sharply. The total value of STEEM tokens went up by nearly $70m in less than an hour so that by little after 16:30 they were individually trading at $1.12. This represents a near 25% increase since the beginning of the day.

STEEM tokens had fallen slightly back down but were still trading at $1.06 at the time of writing.

The STEEM Update

Steemit is a blog based on the Steem blockchain. It’s a decentralized open platform for writers to publish articles more or less without restrictions, with the help of curators who check quality and content. Steemit rewards content creators with STEEM tokens and reimburses readers and those who comment on articles with Steem Power: a native coin that cannot directly be traded on exchanges but can accrue interest over time.

The Chinese Government is strangely a fan of Steem, despite the fact the blockchain makes it impossible to censor any blog post effectively. The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology thought it was the second best project out there, after Ethereum (ETH).

Today’s price increase comes as the network gets ready for its next system update, Hard Fork 20 (HF20) on Tuesday afternoon. Steemit’s team of developers have previously said in an official blog postthat the primary purpose of the upgrade was to encourage more blog account creation.
New users have previously had to pay for a new account with STEEM and Steem Power but this is planned to change as of tomorrow. Before an update can be implemented, Steemit needs to reach a super-majority among its thirty popularly-elected delegates, or ‘witnesses’. If they give the go-ahead, the update will establish a Discount Creation Tokens pool which will enable a limited number of accounts to be created at a discounted rate every day.

A good idea is a good idea. Internet blogs like Medium have become wildly popular because of the wide variety of posted content and the loose editorial policy. Blockchain enable greater freedom for existing content creators. The lack of a centralized server or company that can simply be switched or warned off, means it can be accessed by people living under oppressive regimes.

Discount account sign-ups will encourage more new people to join the decentralized blog. More writers lead to more content creation, which will drive the price of STEEM up. Some people know this already.The promise of the new STEEM update has led to a surge in the value of tokens today.One could say it’s full [Editor’s note: No.] ahead… Disclaimer: The author is invested in ETH, which is mentioned in this article.