I had a sneak peek at the art work for a presentation on the economics of Steemit for her highschool class that @justaboutart is preparing and it is impressive.

As part of this project @justaboutart asked for an explanation of the process of converting rewards from steemit.com into cold hard cash for her presentation she is preparing for a school project on finance.

This is a great opportunity to spread the use of Steemit to the younger generation, so I'll do my best to explain this simply.

When you post to Steemit you gain rewards greater or lesser degree depending oon the popularity of the post.

You are rewarded in two ways...

1. Steem Based Dollars known by the shorthand SBD.

2. Steem Power known by the shorthand SP.

Steem Based Dollars

This is a cryptocurrency token that you can sell immediately for Bitcoin which I will explain after.

Steem Power

The Steem Power portion of your rewards goes into your account and the amount you have is equal to your voting power(how much money your vote is worth when you upvote a post) and should be saved until your account has a decent amount of Steem Power.
When you do want to cash out your Steem Power you go through a process called powering down. Powering down will give you Steem tokens ( Steem is another cryptocurrency token that you can exchange for Bitcoin) equal to one thirteenth of your Steem Power paid out weekly.

So by the end of thirteen weeks all of your Steem Power will be converted to Steem (warning taking all your Steem Power will make your account useless so never go below 50 SP) but you can stop the powering down any time you want.

Exchanging your Steem or Steem Based Dollars for Bitcoin.

Once you have your Steem or SBD their are two ways to exchange it for Bitcoin or any other coin you would like. The first way is easier all you will need is a Bitcoin wallet address since you will need this first I will start with getting a Bitcoin wallet.

Simple and fast way to get a Bitcoin wallet.

One of the easiest ways to get a wallet is to download a Bitcoin wallet App for your smartphone.

For Android I recommend Mycelium Wallet which you can download in the App Store.

For an IPhone Airbitz Wallet or Breadwallet, the Airbitz wallet seems to be the best choice.

After downloading the App carefully follow the instructions for backing up your wallet this is very important.

After you have downloaded and backed up your wallet Logout and sign back in to make sure you have access to your wallet. Once you have successfully signed back in find the receive Bitcoin button and click it.

A long string of numbers and letters will be displayed this is your Bitcoin address, copy it carefully, making sure to differentiate between Upper case and Lower case letters.

Now that you have a Bitcoin address you can exchange your Steem or SBD for Bitcoin.

The easy way is to use Blocktrades an instant exchange built right into steemit.com

Here is a step by step guide.

Go to your wallet page.

Click on the button that says "BUY STEEM OR STEEM POWER"

Choose token to Exchange

Add your Bitcoin address here

Click the button that says "Get Deposit Address"

Copy the memo

Leave this window open and open your wallet page. Click transfer.

Add the memo to the memo field, the amount and blocktrades to the to field.

Click "Next"

And sign in with your active key

The second way is more complicated but has added advantages.

For the second way you will need to sign up to a cryptocurrency exchange that lists Steem or SBD like Bittrex or Binance.
The advantages of joining an exchange are...

1. You can set your price.

2. You can learn about cryptocurrency trading, fun and profitable!

Explaining how to use an exchange is too much for this post maybe another time but it is not that hard to learn on your own.

So now I have Bitcoin how can I turn that into cash?

There are many ways to exchange Bitcoin for cash but here are a couple simple ways.

Bitcoin Bank Machines

You can find a Bitcoin ATM 's by searching online, in Vancouver BC there is a Bitcoin ATM at Wave's coffeehouse on Howe and Smythe.

You will open your wallet and click send Bitcoin on the ATM you will press the sell Bitcoin and follow the instructions.

The other option is to join an exchange that handles fiat currency commonly known as money.
In Canada I use quadrigacx.com other people use Coinbase. In order to use these exchanges you have to verify your identity to the exchange and then you can withdraw money to your bank account.

I hope this explains the process of cashing out the rewards you can receive by posting to the social media site steemit.com , if you have any questions ask away!