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Nope, it was meant to be paid in Hive and HBD from the very beginning. However, I believe you experienced the time when Steem was worth like $0.1 and there was no SBD emitted. Since then, we increased the allowed dept ratio, so on Hive, the cap is 30% (I believe).

I don't know what the cap is I think 3% of inflation but not sure.

Nope, the cap is 30% and the current ratio is 7%, see here for further details: https://hbdstats.com