The POWER of Powering Down--You can Power Down, earn more Steem Power, and still be very Bullish on Steem
I Powered Down for the Third Week in a Row--Here is what I learned
I posted last week about powering down for the second week in a row. Click here to see that post.
And thanks to @bombastic for commenting on the first post, he gave some very helpful answers.
It is possible to Power Down Every Week and Still Not Run Out of Steem Power
Below is a grab of my wallet, exactly 49 seconds before the Power Down this morning.
So take note before the Power Down I had:
- 4,923.369 in Steem Power
- $83.242 Steem Dollars
Next is a shot after the power down.
Take note:
- I now have 46.775 Steem
- My Steem Power is at 4,876.625
- Steem Dollars still at $83.242
Remember Powering Down is actually removal of Vests.
Below is the amount of Vests I was withdrawing before the Power Down.
(The image is from last weeks post)
So last week I began a power down of 18,560,043 vests. And today was the first payment of that power down. And I received the 46.775 Steem for the first payment.
But today I did two things:
- I stopped the Power Down
- I immediately started a NEW Power Down.
Below is a shot of my new Power Down
It's only a 0.2% increase from last week. But it is still an increase.
Getting the most for my Steem
As we all probably know the price of Steem has been slowly declining over the last few weeks. I'm not in a panic, because I started on Steemit in late June when the price was 20 cents a Steem.
But still.
I checked after the Power Down and the price of Steem was right at $2. So I would have gotten about $90 (US dollars that is, and probably a little less with fees.)
But on a whim I checked the Internal Market
And boy am I glad I did that.
I got a lot better price from Steem to Steem Dollars.
I got $2.29 for Steem on the internal market. So I got $107.128 (Steem Dollars)
I know that Steem Dollars aren't exactly $1 to $1 Us.
After I made the trade Steemdollar.com said I could get 88 cents for every Steem Dollar.
So for the 107 (SD) I would have gotten $94 (US)
That's a $4 difference. Or a 4.4% increase in price than I had gone straight from Steem to Bitcoin to Dollars.
How is this Powerful
I received 45 Steem today from my Steem Power. But even without doing anything over the next week, I will earn MORE than 45 Steem Power in interest alone.
To check that I calculated how much Steem Power I was earning in a minute.
At the start of the minute I had 4,880.716 Steem Power:
So I waited 60 seconds later.
And then I had.
That's a difference of 0.023 Steem Power.
So let's multiply that out:
- Multiply that by 60 minutes and I get 1.38 Steem Power per hour.
- Multiply that by 24 hours and I get 33.12 Steem Power per day.
- Multiply by that by 7 days and I get 231.84 Steem Power per week.
So even if I don't post, comment, or upvote anything, I will earn more Steem Power in the upcoming week than I will cash out.
But of course, I will post, comment, and upvote. I can receive cash and still earn more Steem Power as time goes along. Add in Steem Dollars I earn from posting, it really gets interesting.
Why Do This?
I could use the extra cash. I am a public school teacher by trade so a few extra hundred bucks a month makes a noticable difference the budget.
Diversifying my wealth. I have high hopes that Steemit will be around and take off. And if and when it does I will still have a larger amount of Steem Power and the value of my account will take off, even with the cash I am taking out.
Hedging my bets. Let's say the worse happens and Steemit tanks and Steem becomes nearly worthless, I still will have deposited several thousand in cash into my checking account, and I won't be left holding worthless digital coins.
Still Very Bullish on Steem
Despite Powering Down I am still very bullish on Steem. And I show that by spending time here posting, commenting, and upvoting. If I didn't think Steem was worthwhile I wouldn't be posting here, it's pretty much that simple.
I know that not everyone will do this. I know that a lot of people won't Power Down just to hold the Steem off the market in order to help create demand. I don't disagree with that approach, or think that it is wrong. I started this experiment a few weeks ago to learn, and possibly show a different opinion to Powering Down. And for me, right now, this works.
I think this shows just how powerful of a life changing economic engine that Steemit can be.
Questions I still have:
Do the amount of vests to Steem change?
Vests don't earn interest, am I correct on that?
(If you know the answer to those questions, please leave a comment.)
I power down just so I can think of it as a weekly paycheck and plan around the income more easily. I power up all the SBD that comes to me the moment it lands so I'm always replenishing and adding to whatever is lossed in the power-down. Seems to work well.
Interesting idea. I didn't mention it in the post, but I Powered Up the interest I earned on my Steem Dollars. Just to experiment.
There just wasn't a lot of writing about Powering Down. Most seemed to only say POWER UP! So I wanted to learn and Powering Down doesn't seem to be the end of the world.
Yup. Good stuff. Would be cool to talk about the whales that are all powering down now and why it isn't really anything to worry about. They don't need the money so they aren't rushed into selling at too low a price. Once you have a good enough amount of steem power, the interest is obscene so powering down is pretty painless. I'm just a dolphin but even I'm pulling 25 bucks per hour in interest, even at this low $2 steem price.
I was going to write a post about the insane interest as well. Most people here are thinking in old terms of getting a few percentage points on an investment, when this is more like several HUNDRED points for the year. I obviously don't make as much as you, but as time moves along I'll be a whale in a couple of years just on interest alone. I make over $60 bucks a day on interest at current prices. THAT'S MIND-BLOWING.
thanks Martin. this is insightful. though I'm still a bit far away from powering down, I'm sure this is helpful for other big influencers on the platform.
If this goes as I think it will. I will stop the power downs as I will have saved up enough cash.
I think if you continue to write, you continue to earn vests and you continually top up the well.
It definitely makes sense to cash out a little to diversify.
A post which provides the definition of terms you used for newbies like myself would be SOOO apprecaited. Vests, Powering Down, etc. I only half understand how to do them, or what they mean or are. Thanks for this post tho!
There's a glossary here
Completely agree
Here's one I wrote a few weeks ago. I don't address what a vest is, but maybe it will be helpful.
https://steemit.com/steem/@mctiller/cds-savings-accounts-checking-accounts-a-financial-analogy-to-explain-steem-to-others-so-they-will-join-us
Still figuring out this platform but it feels like you have to defeat Sheng Long to stand a chance.
I agree.
I did power down, and my steempower is increasing beacuse of my curation and author rewards.
If I want I can still decide to power up (immediate effect), or even convert my SBD into steem as weel.
Before you powerdown you have to make sure that :
I didn't start this until I had a few thousand in SteemPower. In fact when I posted this post, I was paid 9 cents just for posting it. So I still have power to help with upvotes.
Thanks for sharing. Interesting case study :-)
I have already figured that is what I want to do. Make enough steem power in interest and power down each week with less than the gain in steem power for that week, so I can still grow. :D
I joined Steemit yesterday and still confused but this post cleared a few things up. I'm still trying to workout how you go about transferring to market places such as Coinbase. Any ideas?
Here's a post I wrote a month ago when I was new to this. This shows going from Blocktrades to Bitcoin to Coinbase.
Blocktrades doesn't get you the best price. BUT it is the simplest way to get your money.
https://steemit.com/steem/@mctiller/step-by-step-guide-sending-steem-dollars-to-bitcoin-to-ususd-via-blocktrades-and-coinbase
I just wanted to know one thing only , if i power my steem power down can i really withdraw them or i have to wait for 2 year before i can exchange sp back to Sd ?
Your Steem Power is withdrawn over two years at 104 weekly withdrawals. That help stabilize the price of steem.
When you do what I did in the post, where you stop the power down, and then start up again, the NEW power down starts over again at 104 withdrawals to go.