Steemit, a decentralized social media platform, has announced the appointment of blockchain tech and marketing expert Mitchell Loureiro for spearheading a major step in its evolution as a crypto-enterprise.

According to the official release, Loureiro will pilot an entirely new kind of growth strategy – “Crowdsourcing the Future”. The new strategy will leverage Steem's unique “proof-of-stake” system, which distributes ownership in the Steem protocol to anyone who adds value to the blockchain, by crowdsourcing plans and proposals for expansion and combining approved projects with traditional marketing.

“The way Mitchell thinks about taking Steemit from a crypto-centric project to a household name is genius, and completely reflects the nature of our innovation; decentralization, empowering the people, and incentivized community interaction. Mitchell has an incredible background and has been entrenched in blockchain since 2012. He is savvy, has a significant network to leverage, and has deep knowledge of the Steemit community. He is a growth expert and is coming in at the right time as we prepare for dramatic growth”, CEO of Steemit Ned Scott said.

Loureiro has a proven track record in building business strategies and exposure for next generation technology. He built startups in Portugal’s largest incubator, StartupLX, before contributing to the successful launch of the Ardor token distribution with the Nxt Foundation. He took iLovePDF to the top of the PDF processing market, helping take it to over 5 million monthly visitors to the site, and is the marketing lead for Santiment, the first provider on sentiment data in the crypto-markets.

“My job is to provide marketing expertise, but the future of Steemit belongs to our users. We can’t play Facebook’s game. We don’t need to. We have a vibrant and engaged community dedicated to sharing Steemit with the world. That’s the beauty of Steemit; everyone has a voice, and everyone is rewarded for their contributions”, VP of Marketing Mitchell Loureiro said.

The initiative, publicized on Steemit.com, is expected to draw immense support from the 120,000 strong user base, the release said.  Loureiro will lead traditional digital and physical marketing campaigns, along with empowering every single Steemit user to participate by drafting proposals, and developing projects designed to attract audiences across the globe.

“By leveraging the wisdom of the crowd to amplify and multiply the impact of marketing efforts we’ll build out countless sub communities, each incentivized to grow until we join the ranks of the social media giants. The key difference is that the users really are the true owners of Steem and steemit.com”, Scott added.

Steemit’s foundational cryptocurrency, Steem, has been on the incline in Q1 in terms of price and demand. Its market cap is currently worth $40 million USD, up from $20 million USD in December 2016, and liquidity has been at an all time high.

“If two minds are better than one, what do you call thousands of minds dedicated to making content rewards on the net more fair? Innovation. This has never been done before, it comes after months of careful deliberation, and it's ambitious, but I truly believe this effort will propel Steemit to new heights”, Loureiro concluded.