As far as crypto investments go, or any investments for that matter, STEEM is definitely one of the most unique opportunities out there. Can you read your newspaper and then let them know that you liked a few articles, and be given a payment just for liking them. Or watch a TV show, click an upvote to not only reward the makers of that show, but also receive a roughly equal reward yourself.
Investing in STEEM gives you an opportunity to influence where newly created STEEM gets allocated. Simply put, once you have some STEEM power, all you have to do is read some posts, drop a vote on those posts. A reward will be allocated based on how much influence you have (How much STEEM you have staked) and in 7 days, the author of the post will get half that reward, and you will get the other half.
Lets look at some maths... Don't freak out about the numbers I use, they just made the math easier but it works for any level of STEEM
In this example, all you have done is invest, stake and vote 10 posts per day. It doesn't factor in any rewards you may get for comments you may make, (some may receive votes also) or posts you make. Nor does it include any increase in the price of STEEM (which I consider likely as it is historically cheap at the moment)
Now, more than ever, investors and curators are being handsomely rewarded for holding SP, and using their influence to direct the flow of rewards (half to themselves, half to the content creators). In the past, lots of people came to STEEM to try and make some money by creating content. Most struggled to gain ground and find an audience to make this dream a reality, and some learnt to game the system to benefit themselves from lower quality work.
The dynamics have changed, and after a major overhaul, it is more than possible to find interesting articles to read and earn just by curating others work, without having the pressure of regularly creating your own interesting blog posts. This is a game changer for STEEM, and creates a great opportunity.
The other game changer has been the introduction of tribes to STEEM. This is a new way of segmenting the posts into more specific topics, and communities can have their own reward system in addition to the STEEM rewards. Many of these have popped up in the last couple of months, making it easier than ever to find posts that will interest you.
There is heaps more, but this gives a small selection. All of these communities are on STEEM, and have additional tokens as well. This just adds to the ways you can earn from reading, and voting interesting and quality posts.
This post is not intended as financial advice, or a guarantee of earnings. The value of STEEM could go either way, do your own research.