user80534: I did some reading on the Steem currency, and as i understand it there is no mining of Steem. New coins are created automatically and distributed to the social media contributors.. 
What i don't understand is who's maintaining the public ledger (the blockchain)? In Bitcoin, miners get new bitcoins as a reward for mining, and maintaining the public ledger by verifying transactions. So if there are no miners in Steem, who is varifying the transactions on the ledger?

user80557: The Steem blockchain is verified by witnesses.
From the Steemit faq: The Steem blockchain requires a set of people to create blocks and uses a consensus mechanism called delegated proof of stake, or DPOS. The community elects 'witnesses' to act as the network's block producers and governance body. There are 20 full-time witnesses, producing a block every 63-second round. A 21st position is shared by the backup witnesses, who are scheduled proportionally to the amount of stake-weighted community approval they have. Witnesses are compensated with Steem Power for each block they create.
Each Steemit account can vote for up to 30 witnesses.

80534: <p>I did some reading on the Steem currency, and as i understand it there is no mining of Steem. New coins are created automatically and distributed to the social media contributors.. </p>

<p>What i don't understand is who's maintaining the public ledger (the blockchain)? In Bitcoin, miners get new bitcoins as a reward for mining, and maintaining the public ledger by <strong>verifying transactions</strong>. So if there are no miners in Steem, who is varifying the transactions on the ledger?</p>
 80557: <p>The Steem blockchain is verified by witnesses.</p>

<p>From the Steemit faq: The Steem blockchain requires a set of people to create blocks and uses a consensus mechanism called delegated proof of stake, or DPOS. The community elects 'witnesses' to act as the network's block producers and governance body. There are 20 full-time witnesses, producing a block every 63-second round. A 21st position is shared by the backup witnesses, who are scheduled proportionally to the amount of stake-weighted community approval they have. Witnesses are compensated with Steem Power for each block they create.</p>

<p>Each Steemit account can vote for up to 30 witnesses.</p>
