Steemit Unofficial FAQ

easy to understand, and possibly mostly wrong

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When first finding out about Steemit, I was overwhelmed with questions about mechanics an jargon. After reading several guides and the whitepaper, I gathered the information below in a newbie-friendly format. Are there mistakes? Please leave a comment. Thanks to @owdy for a first validation.

What is Steem? What about Steemit?

Steem is a blockchain-based cryptocurrency designed to support community build and reward social interaction. It reserves some of its mined rewards to award to subjective contributions as selected by other holders of the currency. Steemit is a social media platform that rewards authoring, commenting and curating from its users with Steem.

Is it true that people are receiving thousands of dollars from a post? Or getting paid just from upvoting posts?

Yes! Each post currently on the front page range from $1K to $8K worth of STEEM that will be distributed between the post author (plus commenters) and curators (aka upvoters).

Where does that money come from? How is Steem generated?

Similarly to Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies, new blocks are mined continuously adding more currency to circulation. By design, about 800 STEEM is generated per minute. Some of it are given as rewards to miners, some are reserved to be given as rewards to authors and curators, and a large part is distributed those that hold long-term investments in STEEM in the form of STEEM Power.

What is Steem? Steem Power? Steem Dollars?

• STEEM is the actual currency generated by miners. It's liquid, meaning it can be converted to actual money at any time, usually through trading to Bitcoin. It doesn't gain any interest and its value is constantly diluted by new STEEM being mined. Its price can only go up as the exchange rate changes positively.
• STEEM Power, or SP, is a two-year investment on STEEM. It is non-transferable but can be withdrawn in 104 equal pieces over 104 weeks. For each STEEM generated, 9 SP is created distributed proportionally between SP holders as interested. Half of the author rewards and all the curation rewards are given in SP, as well as mining rewards. SP is also the measure of influence in Steemit. The more SP one holds, the more his upvotes are worth and a bigger part of the curation distribution he gets.
• STEEM Dollars, refered as SMD or SD, is a US$1 equivalent of STEEM debt note. Think of it a IOU that says 'This is worth US$1 of STEEM', and it's good because Steemit backs it up and pays it. It can be converted into the equivalent amount of STEEM according to the exchange rate, but the conversion takes a week to take effect. I can be also traded in the internal market directly to other users.

What is Powering Up? Powering Down?

Power Up is the process of converting STEEM into STEEM Power, instantly. Power Down is the process of converting STEEM Power to STEEM over the course of 104 weeks.

How can I cash out Steem?

If you have STEEM you can transfer it to Bitcoin exchanges or sell it to other Steemit users. If you have SP or SD you have to convert it into STEEM first.

How can I buy Steem?

You can buy STEEM or SP directly on Steemit using Bitcoin.

Can I mine Steem directly?

Yes! Rewards are given in SP and are not transferable, only being able to cashed out over the course of 104 weeks.

How is Steem distributed to users?

During mining, the network rewards miners with SP and then reserves some SP for curation and content creation rewards. After that, for each SP created in this process, nine more is generated to be distributed to SP holders as interest.

The reward for each post is calculated based on the influence of each upvoter, given by the amount of SP he holds. Post rewards are split 75% for the authors (the original poster plus all the commenters) and 25% for the curators (anyone who upvoted the post or the comments). Author rewards are paid half in SP and half in SD. Curator rewards are paid fully in SP.
Curators rewards are distributed according to two factors: the influence of the voter, and the time the vote was cast. Early upvoters get a bigger piece of the curation pie for helping promote the post. There's an additional factor when considering the age of the vote: to prevent undiscriminated voting, votes in the first 30 minutes have split the curation reward with the original author, in a linear split from 0% to 100% as it reaches 30min. In other words, if a post is upvoted immediately after it was created, the curation reward from that upvote goes fully to the author. If it is upvoted after 5 minutes, the upvoter gets 16% of the usual curation reward, and author gets the rest. If it upvoted after 30mins or more, the upvoter gets his full share of curation reward according to his influence and the influence of the earlier upvoters.

When is the best time to upvote? What's the best curation strategy?

Given the penalty for upvoting during the first 30mins, there's an interesting balance on determining the ideal moment to upvote to get the greatest curation reward. Upvote to early and you'll split most of the reward with the author, and take too long and risk other users getting there first and claiming a large slice of the reward. General advice seems to be to wait closer to the 30 minutes to be elapsed unless you expect the post to become popular really fast.

When do I receive Steem from my posts? And from my upvotes?

Authors are rewarded after 24hrs, then again after four weeks. Curators are only rewarded after 24hrs.

What is Voting Power?

Voting Power is the measure of influence each user has when casting a vote, based on the amount of SP he currently has and the amount of votes he has cast recently. Giving away too many votes in a short period reduces the weight each vote has, up to a point each vote is worth very little. Voting Power regenerates over time, back to full on a few days. General consensus seems to recomend giving around 40 upvotes every 24hrs. You can check your current Voting Power in places such as SteemStats or Steemd

How much is upvote worth?

It depends on how much Voting Power one has, and how many other users voted before you. Users with a large amount of SP who cast few votes recently can affect the payout of a post from several cents to a few dollars, while new users without much SP will affect the payout by a negligible amount.

Can I simply upvote everything I see to receive maximum rewards? Or just submit as much content as possible?

When you vote for everything, each vote is worth almost nothing, so you won't get any rewards. Also the amount of posts per day dilutes the rewards for each one, to prevent spamming. The limit where the post penalty starts affecting significantly is four posts a day, but it is usually recommended to stick to one or two.

Which subjects are discussed in Steemit? Which languages are supported?

Steemit is open to any kind of content, which are categorized based on tags given to each post. Right now, technical and meta posts seem to be popular, along with photography, writing, music and travel, for example. Just as subjects, Steemit supports content in any language, also organized by tags, but the user base seems to be mostly english-speaking at the moment, with only niche posters using different languages.

Should I share links just like in Reddit?

Steemit favors original content and longer posts, with markdown formatting and images. Save your links and write about your opinion or your experiences and you should be more successful in your posts.

Are there bots? Are they allowed?

There seems to be voting bots, and they are tolerated, being fought against mostly by the design mechanics penalizing bots and collusion behaviour. Commenting bots have been seen but seem to be frowned upon the community by flagging and downvoting.

What are whales? What about dolphins and minnows?

Whales is a term used to refer to power users that posses a large amount of SP, having a large influence on the success and payouts of posts. Dolphins are medium users with good influence but not as much as whales, and Minnows are new users with little SP and consequently little influence. The amount of SP required for each level is usually based on this scale.

What are witnesses?

Witnesses are trusted community users, chosen by community vote, tasked with generating consensus for mined blocks, and adjusting the value of SD exchange.

Is Steemit open source?

Yes! Check out github for Steemit and also Steem

Is there an API?

All of Steemit content is in the blockchain, so it can be accessed directly. There are also unofficial API clients on github such as steem or steemjs

Are there third-party tools for Steemit?

Yes! There are many useful tools gathered at SteemTools

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Is anything wrong? Did you learn anything new? Leave a comment below, and follow @burnin if you enjoyed the content.