The Steemit Newbie's Comprehensive Guide To Understanding Your Wallet by @merej99
A Comprehensive Guide To Understanding Your Steemit Wallet
I have seen too many people getting frustrated because they love Steemit, but they absolutely do not understand their wallet. @karenb54 - I dedicate this to you. I hope it helps, love!
Trust me - I was one of those people because I do not come from any kind of cryptocurrency background. So I'm going to try and give you a step-by-step understanding of all the stuff in your wallet, what it means to you, and how it affects Steemit. (NOTE: If anyone with more knowledge sees any wrong information, kindly let me know so I can edit! Thanks.)
STEEM, STEEM POWER, and STEEM DOLLARS!
Power this shit up, Road to being a Whale, and You can cash this.
STEEM
STEEM can be exchanged in markets like Poloniex and Bittrex, but the last time I checked 1 STEEM is worth about 23 cents USD. In the markets it is listed as STEEM.
From what I understand, the reason why the value of STEEM keeps dropping is because there's too much liquid STEEM flooding the markets.
Remember that old lesson from school about
Supply and Demand?
Yeah, well there's too much STEEM floating around and not enough buyers... which is why Powering UP is important.
STEEM POWER (SP)
Your STEEM POWER (SP) directly affects your voting power and how many vests you have. I'll get to that in a moment.
Here are a few reasons why Powering Up your STEEM is important:
- It takes STEEM out of the supply chain (which, as I previously mentioned, is flooded.)
- It becomes a long-term investment into Steemit because once you're powered up, those "funds" are locked into a kind of escrow.
- Your SP directly affects your vests and vote power. The more you have the more powerful your vote.
- SP generates interest.
- The moment you select Power Down, the initial amount in your STEEM POWER account is then divided into 104 equal payments.
So, if you only have 100 SP in your account
and you decide to Power Down...
100/104 = .96
With the STEEM market at approximately 23 cents USD,
you would get a whopping WEEKLY payout
of about 22 cents USD.
Still not sure why STEEM POWER (SP) is important?
Let's talk VESTS for a moment
To see your account go to http://Steemd.com/@YOURUSERNAME
When I reached 1.00M vests, I got my vote slider.
IMHO - the vote slider is a royal pain in the ass and totally inappropriate to anyone beneath dolphin or whale status. This is why I vote 100% and attempt to upvote as close to 40 votes/comments a day... because as a minnow, it doesn't matter!
RANT OVER
I do not understand the conversion of STEEM POWER (SP) to vests. I do not know where they get these numbers or what the calculations are.
That being said...
For every $1 SBD (STEEM DOLLARS) created for payouts, there is also 9 STEEM being created.
SBD and STEEM separate and individual "currencies"/tokens.
In order for your STEEM POWER to generate interest your vests have been mapped to STEEM, otherwise your vote power would probably never increase without directly investing money into it.This is also why STEEM should not sit in your wallet for very long!
Either Power Up, Trade or Sell
because letting it sit there does absolutely nothing for you or the Steemit economy.
How do I know if I'm a minnow or a whale?
If you're reading this, you're probably somewhere between plankton and a minnow. Your "status" is directly correlated to how many vests you have.
I found a wonderful explanation by @beanz
- Plankton = up to 1M VESTS
- Minnow = >1 to 10M VESTS
- Dolphin = >10 to 100M VESTS
- Orca = >100 to 1,000M VESTS
- Whale = >1,000M VESTS
As you can see from my vests, I'm a mid-sized minnow almost half way to being a dolphin!
STEEM DOLLARS (SBD)
Your STEEM DOLLARS (SBD) are tradeable tokens on cryptocurrency markets such as Bittrex and Poloniex.
The last time I checked, 1 SBD was worth about 92 cents USD. Whatever amount you have in SBD in your wallet is easier to calculate into "real funds" aka fiat aka CASH.
- Your SBD accrues interest the longer you keep it in your wallet.
- While it has dropped in value, it is the more stable of the two Steemit currencies.
- It does not affect your vote power or vests
SAVINGS ACCOUNTS
With two tokens (STEEM and SBD), there must also be two savings accounts.
STEEM SAVINGS
SBD SAVINGS
I admit that I have not done a lot of reading about the savings accounts, but here is what I understand about them. The purpose of the savings account is to LOCK your funds in a safe, encrypted space for up to 3 days. In essence, this is an extra security measure in the event that your account is hacked. It gives you enough time to secure your account, cancel any pending transactions, and do everything in your power to recover your account.
For a deeper understanding of the Savings Account,
read @steemitguide's blog
Guide on Steemit Savings Account, Everything you need to know about this Feature that Helps Secure your STEEM & STEEM DOLLAR
read @steemitguide's blog
Guide on Steemit Savings Account, Everything you need to know about this Feature that Helps Secure your STEEM & STEEM DOLLAR
ESTIMATED ACCOUNT VALUE
Because most digital currency is tied to BTC, your estimated value is going to have its highs and lows, changing with a fairly volatile market. Your Estimated Account Value is the approximate value of your entire account.
More Newbie Educational Material
* Best Practices for Steemit Newbie Artists
* My 90 Days. Expectations. Thoughts on Curation and Setting Goals
* Strategy for following ENGAGED people on Steemit
* Optimize your Steemit Posts
* A very basic guide to understanding Cryptocurrency
| I created this 100% Steem Power badge. It's free to download and use Challenge accepted from @lukestokes |
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Your comments, upvotes and shares are always appreciated.
Thank you.
For older content, visit my Steemit blog page
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Thanks for this frank guide, as a noob would you suggest putting 100% into powering up?
If it was me (and I was a noob at one point), I would definitely put efforts into powering up as much as possible - unless you absolutely needed the funds. And I was also at a point when I used every penny earned to buy food too so consider your needs and goals. Welcome to Steemit! :)
Thanks for taking the time to field my query, appreciated 😀
please help I log on to steemit and my steam is not there. I bought 107.945 and it now says I have .5 steam.
Hi @silvermike2 - If you can tell me more information about your situation I might be able to direct you to someone who has better knowledge about it.
You say you bought 107.945...of what? STEEM or SBD? Was it from an exchange? Do you have a tx_ID of the transaction?
I just checked your account and you do have delegated power. Perhaps you may have sent the funds to an alternate account? Without the transaction history it's difficult to see what may have happened.
HI Merej00
I just read your post regarding understanding your wallet. Thanks for all the great explanation of each item. However, could you explain the Steempower. I have 2 lines of numbers listed. The second line is in parenthesis with a minus sign before it. What does that mean?
thanks,good hob.
Thanks a lot, very helpful to me and written easy to understand. Great job. Good luck!
This is very helpful especially for newbies like me. I now understand my wallet better, though still having a little confusion but with time i will get everything.
Thank you @merej99
Welcome to Steemit @ammynatural
One of the things that I really try to tell new people, especially if they're not used to blockchain-based platforms is to focus on your content creation. Trust me - you are not going to learn everything overnight and you'll go insane if you try to.
Post - COMMENT - Curate
You should be spending the bulk of your Steemit time leaving thoughtful comments on the platform. The real people will appreciate the feedback and eventually check you out.
Another note: When I first started here, my comments actually earned more than my posts, so don't be discouraged, okay? Good luck!
ps - you can also find me on Whaleshares ;)
Thank you
Warum nigs online mehr?
You should add a reference price on the price of steem in this previous last weeks down to 30% in almost a month (.45 > .15 today)... And add that prediction into the 104 week "payouts" that will never catch up (actually the devaluate faster every day) with those "interests".
It's a downard spiral, and every dev knows this (that is why you are forced to take STEEM now and not SBD, every second devaluating counts).
I have to admit that the maths, predictions, devaluations...those are still way out of my wheelhouse. I'm not entirely sure why so much STEEM is created but it doesn't really bother me because I came in with absolutely nothing. I know it sounds kind of "goody-two-shoes" but even when many of my posts didn't make a cent, I never feel like my time is wasted. It would be very disappointing if Steemit disappeared but I can honestly say I've made more here than on FB, Snapchat, Twitter, Hubpages, Bubbles, Tsu...
I know I'm still naive about a lot of things on Steemit, but I still consider it an investment - even if it's in harvesting wonderful people.
You're the perfect citizen for Greece 2015.
This is my first week here, and this was a good read. I actually learned something. Thanks for the other links, they were also informative.
Welcome to Steemit @oakleyshark!
We just finished up a massive Community Engagement Challenge implementing a lot of what those links hint at. I call them The Three Cs
Do those things, don't worry about the crypto or your earnings, have FUN, get over the learning curve and build your Steemit Tribe. There are lot of people who want to help. Don't be afraid to ask question.
Thanks for the explaination, definitely cleared up my confusion.
it is helpful for me as a newbie. although it still confuses but i will learn.
thanks a lot
Hi @pellokilay68 and welcome to Steemit! The best thing you can focus on is creating quality content, leaving thoughtful comments on posts that you like, and don't be shy about upvoting posts and comments. If you're not familiar with the crypto stuff don't even worry about it too much. That will eventually get easy. Good luck!
I like your 100%SP badge. I'll use that - thanks! :D
Sweet! The more the merrier :)
[edited] There are links to larger versions on luke's challenge post - but they don't have the gray background.
Vests get more expensive everyday. As of this writing it 1 vests is 405 steem. Last week it was 300 something.
Back in the day it was 1 vest = 1 steem.
Therefore Vests get more expensive everyday. And I really think that it is vests that that effect your voting power more.
Vests DON'T have interest. You only earn vests through posting and curating.
Yes, thank you @mctiller. I probably should have included the fact that vests do not get interest, but I was afraid their hair might catch fire. There is so much to learn and a steep learning curve for newbie bloggers and anyone, like me, who's never had to deal with cryptocurrency until now.
AND WOW! I think I was a month too late in joining when it was 1 vest per Steem. wahhhh! :( I'm even noticing the higher our reputation score goes, the harder it is to get to the next level. Kind of feels like a hamster wheel sometimes! LOL
You're correct about the rep. Getting from 60 to 70 is harder than going from 50 to 60.
And I'm still not sure if I understand Steem Power, but I really think it's the number of vests you have that is the important number.
This is a very well written post that helps people understand their wallet better, I sent it to a couple of friends that just started on Steemit. Thanks so much for putting this together.
Thank YOU, @luzcypher - I've got a few more coming based on the questions I've seen from new people. Stay tuned! :)
This BY FAR is the most helpful guide on this subject I've seen.
Can you do one on upvotes ? To this day I haven't a clue how much I'm getting taken out , where it's getting taken out and how do I know how much power I have w/ my upvotes. Thanks!
Edit: speaking of which I'm unable to upvote nor resteem this post :(
Edit 2: Got it to work! :)
Hi @steemitqa - I will definitely put that on my writing list. Thank you for the suggestion and the compliment! :) <3
Wow, merej99, what an awesome post! I'm replying here because I'm also befuddled by the votes. I just took you down 6 cents, although I'm not a-skeert of you slashing my tires - I don't have a car, lol! I was not on for a couple weeks, but that was happening before, too - some up, some down. And may I say, who wouldn't want to be a dolphin? They have language and names, and can create, w/ their language, spontaneous play/jokes with their humans. I bet you know that, living in FL. Plankton (lmao when I saw the steem food chain) is just as important, but, it's plankton. Great post, thanks!
That's it, man, you're on my list!
Ima find you! LOL
Seriously though - glad to see you back. Hope there are more ups than downs to finish the year right :)
HAHAHAHAHAHA! U funny. Is that lady throwing baby powder on herself? hilarious - best-smelling beeoch ever... that's what I want to be. Yes glad to be back - soon!