Yes, indirectly. So whenever a new block is generated on a STEEM blockchain, some amount of STEEM is added to the reward pool. The way I understand it is like this:
The witnesses keep the blockchain updated by producing new blocks, and every time a block is created, new STEEM goes into the reward pool. So for reward pool, STEEM automatically gets added.
I'm trying to be clear as your question could be interpreted as reward pool taking witnesses' tokens. We don't take witnesses' reward, witnesses get paid for producing new blocks, new blocks automatically create new STEEM to fund reward pool. Reward pool then distributes STEEM to author/curator.
So if you get elected as a Witness you need to be able to stand up a server platform to host a node to maintain a block chain and price feed?
I'm still a little confused about the difference between 'creating a new block' and computing a cryptographic token (STEEM).
But thanks for being so patient and offering an explanation. I'm sure it'll make more sense with time.
Yes, I think that's how to be a witness.
So I can only explain it the way I understand it, if you can see it differently and it makes sense, then that's good, too. In general, you can say that "creating a new block" and "computing a cryptographic token" are the same since in the end, you get token as compensation.
However, in more detail, miner/witness are NOT token creator. The blockchain creates tokens automatically to pay miner/witness to keep the blockchain up-to-date. The energy from hardware/computer/server goes into solving transaction hash so that the entire network is aware of what is happening.
I see it like this: you and I are running a store called "SteemChain" and our job is to keep track of how many STEEM goes in and out of "SteemChain" a day. As long as we can agree on the final amount at the end of the day, the store uses that as their transaction history. The store then pays us in STEEM for our work and allocates a new amount of STEEM for the next day. All of our effort goes into keeping track of STEEM transaction. We're not actively printing new STEEM. Only the store can actually create new STEEM.