Steemit, a fast growing decentralized social media platform, has announced that it has completed a successful hardfork aimed at modifying the economic model and enhancing investor accessibility.

With the hardfork, the inflation rate of the Steem token reduced and the Steem Power holding requirements curtailed from an average of one year to an average of one and a half months. The move was executed on time and drew unanimous community approval as the top 19 Steemit witnesses all upgraded to Steemit version 16.0.

In a matter of days, the token’s trading value rose in parallel with increased demand from short and mid-term investors of Steem. At the time of announcement of the impending hardfork proposal, the total market cap valuation of Steem stood at $22 million USD. The price quickly rose thereafter and kept moving north. In the hours following the hard fork, the market cap valuation of Steem jumped to over $50 million USD, an over 200% increase in less than three weeks.

“Steem has hard forked successfully and now makes for an even greater blockchain currency. It is best in speed, scale and network growth, with a low and narrowing inflation over the next 20 years. Congratulations to the Steem community; all 19 of the top 19 witnesses and the majority of backups were upgraded well in advance”, CEO of Steemit Ned Scott said.

The platform is tested, verified, and functioning without issue, with more and more users creating and curating original content with the possibility of earning cryptocurrency rewards, Steemit said.  

“Since day one, the Steemit team has been on a mission to create the best possible social media platform, one that embraces everyone’s contributions and censors nothing. The feedback we’ve been receiving from our growing total of users and unique monthly visitors continues to be excellent. We've also aimed to continuously improve our blockchain currency, improving its network effect, usability, reducing the inflation rate, one that is now trending towards less than 1%,” said Scott.

According to the official release, all Steem holders will have increased liquidity following the hardfork, but the allocation of new Steem tokens to witnesses, content producers, and creators would not change – which still sits at 9.5%. Of the annual instantaneous inflation, Steem Power holders will receive 15%, with 10% allocated to witnesses and miners, and 75% to be given to authors and content creators.

Steemit also clarified that the hardfork did not impact the functionality of Steemit.com, Steem Backed Dollars, or Steem Power, nor was there a change in the general powering down schedule or the powering down rate of the Steemit founders and developers.

“The only way to properly grow a business that leverages cutting edge technology is to be open, honest, and transparent with the community. We have always made ourselves available to answer any questions, and constantly evolved with community feedback, suggestions and advice to ensure we keep refining the best forum for bloggers, artists, photographers, writers, comedians, foodies, travel bugs, sports fans and anything in between,” added Scott.