A Straightforward Way Of Converting Fiat Currency Into Steem (and Steem Power)

Since the exchange Binance has completed wallet maintenance and has re-opened its Steem doors, it means that locked up Steem can now be withdrawn again! I'm drawing attention to the process I used to convert Fiat -> Steem because I struggled with the issue and it took me a long time to finally go ahead and do it. I was uncertain about what to do or how to go about it. I lacked experience or anyone to guide me in person. If you are in a similar position, I hope this may be of help in figuring it out.

I entered the crypto game a little over 6 months ago, purely through Steemit. Having spent some time here, seen some of the discussions and thought about it, I came to the conclusion that I'd like to purchase some Steem as and when I could. There are a number of Steemit posts discussing this process from various angles and I came across one by @mightypanda which helped me to figure out the steps to take. The post I link to suggests ways of avoiding fees - I didn't bother however and just paid the 4% Coinbase fee (£1.99 on a £50 purchase) as well as the minor miner's fee for the transfer of BTC to Binance.

I'm not really into gathering and hodling as much as I can as frantically as I can. There's no point chasing and draining my energy on the volatility of markets IMO, I'll just do what I can with the resources at my disposal and in the time-frame that I do it in. It's long-term for me - I'm into the whole Steemit thing. I subscribe to the notion of abundance - enough to go round for all, and I consider a modest hodling of a few hundred Steem to be splendid 🔆. The @barge account will grow organically anyway and it's onwards and upwards regardless of my SP relative to anyone else's - comparison is old hat and wealth is more than money. Besides, I consider a massive global financial collapse to be inevitable, possibly imminent. The habits which led to the 2008 crash seem to have become even more destructive, and the problem which in 2008 was escalated to global level, no longer has anywhere higher to be sent, yet is already too big to be tackled (assuming there is even a will to tackle it). It seems clear that the dominant days of Fiat are numbered, if not outright over. It is also clear to me that when Fiat plunges, crypto will rise exponentially - indeed the transition is already taking place! I think most people would agree with the bulk of this. Therefore what does it matter if my stash is 10 feet tall and yours is 10,000, when just an inch is all that's required? It becomes kinda meaningless after a certain point, doesn't it?

Anyhow, I felt the desire to act on the above thinking and purchase some Steem. Here's what I did (images are sized to a width of 1680 pixels, so you can 'view image' and zoom in):

Step 1: Account creation

I created an account on www.coinbase.com:



I created an account on www.binance.com:

Step 2: Coinbase

I added a payment method and bought £50 worth of Bitcoin (BTC). Note: Coinbase allows a maximum purchase of £50 per week from the payment option I selected (Visa debit). This suits me fine as I don't have funds for more than that. In fact, I borrowed £100 from a friend who is not yet on Steemit (or crypto in general) and will split it with him, giving him his share once he signs up.



I then sent my purchased BTC from Coinbase to the BTC address which I obtained from Binance:

Step 3: Binance

Once the BTC arrived in Binance, I traded it for Steem:



I had to wait a few weeks whilst Binance fixed their Steem wallet. Yesterday it was working and I transferred the Steem to barge on Steemit:

Step 4: Buy Bye Bye Fiat

Finally, I powered-up. Finito!

A few points to note:

• At certain stages you will be taken through a security process that involves a code being sent to your phone
• It can take some minutes for the crypto to travel from Coinbase to Binance, so be patient 😇
• Before sending the entire amount [(Coinbase -> Binance) and (Binance -> Steemit)] do a test transfer of the minimum amount possible in order to satisfy yourself that it works
• There are other ways of doing this, and other exchanges that provide these services. I'm just sharing the route I took
• If you are going for it and wish to create a Coinbase account, consider using this referral link (or someone else's :) - both parties get a $10 bonus once you've purchased $100 worth of crypto.

Thanks for reading 🔆

🚣