Help the Minnows! Answers on STEEM/STD/SP difference & STEEMIT account building strategy!

Today I get comment on one of my posts with good questions for Steemit beginners. @creativista asked for explanations about STEEM, Steem dollars and Steem power difference. And also asked what is best strategy for successful building Steemit account.

With my experience on Steemit I can provide correct answers, but keep in mind that I am minnow too just with several months experience of this network.

You should know that Minnows, Dolphins, and Whales exist in every financial market. It is also case in cryptocurrency. On Steemit this is divided on how much Steem power user have, for example Whales are ones who have 50 000 and above Steem power.

The Steem blockchain produces Steem and Steem Dollars which are tradeable tokens users obtain for posting, discovering, and commenting on interesting content. (Source: Wikipedia)

STEEM

Is base currency token in this platform. It can be:

• Powered up into STEEM Power (1 Steem = 1 SP)
• Exchanged for Steem Dollars (Rarely)
• Sent to other accounts (Paying bid bots, send as contest reward, send as gift to someone etc.)
• Used to trading platforms (Bittrex, Poloniex...)

STEEM Power

Influence measurement of user in the Steem network. The more STEEM Power a user have, the more value they can influence the posts and comments. User could "Power Down" SP (convert SP to STEEM), and they will receive distributions of the STEEM every week over a 13 week period.

The best advice is to accumulate SP and not power down. This is good for both, for user and for the network, because user will have more influence and network will be stronger.

STEEM Dollars

Steem Dollars (SBD) can be:

• Converted for STEEM (In a process that takes 3.5 days)
• Transferred to other accounts (Paying bid bots, send as contest reward, send as gift to someone etc.)
• Used to trading platforms (Bittrex, Poloniex...)

About post rewards

One of the most important thing about post rewards is that you know how it's calculated. When you create post spot the 3 options (50/50 rewards, 100% power up, and Decline payout):

• 50/50 rewards, usually used and it means that 75% of post payout go to author (25% go to curators 'upvoters'). Now, this 75% you get as author is divided as 50/50 %, half goes to your Steem dollars (STD) and other half goes to Steem power (SP).
• 100% power up means that all post payout go to your Steem power
• Decline payout mean you will not get any rewards

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@creativista asked following questions:

"I was wondering what is the best strategy to build more Steem?"

Easiest would be to simply buy Steem and hold it until price goes up. But you can be active on Steemit network claim rewards as author and convert STD to STEEM when you think it's best moment for that. This is what many users do.

"Should I not claim rewards?"

Everyone claim their rewards, however there are cases when someone want to give their reward to community, it's all on you.

"How do I convert steem power into steem?"

Answered above. User could "Power Down" SP (convert SP to STEEM), and they will receive distributions of the STEEM every week over a 13 week period. But the best advice is to accumulate SP and not power down. This is good for both, for user and for the network, because user will have more influence and network will be stronger.

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I hope this basic answers could help newbies to easy understand differences and start their Steemit journey successful.

Thanks for reading. Have fun!

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@mightymicke
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