Steem, Steem Power, and Steem Dollars, oh my!

This is how I felt seeing my wallet page for the first time:

For a new user to Steemit, one of the most confusing parts of the whole signup process is finally logging in, seeing your wallet page (profile picture at top right > wallet), and thinking "THREE currencies?! WTF is this?"

There are already some excellent guides which go into depth on the subject, but I haven't seen anything which sums it up easily in a way that a newcomer can easily digest, so here's my attempt at it.

When you look at your wallet page you will see three currency estimates, and one total value.

The currencies are:

Steem:
This is a cryptocurrency. If you've heard of Bitcoin, it's like that. Suffice to say that it's a cryptocurrency.
Pros:: May gain drastically in value. Flexible, easily traded.
Cons: May drop drastically in value. Not as well recognized as other currencies.

Steem power:
This is exactly the same as steem - in fact, it is steem - except it comes with both conditions and benefits
The conditions are that you cannot sell steem power immediately.
The benefits are you get more interest.
Think of this like a long term account: It pays better over time, but you can't just cash it out on a whim.
Pros: Earns good interest
Cons: Inflexible. If steem crashes, so does steem power

Steem dollars:
This is steem pegged to the dollar.
The value will always be the same in US dollars, regardless of steem value
Pros: Stable, value easily understood. Easily converted.
Cons: May be less profitable than holding steem or steem dollars.

I'm still fairly new here, so please let me know in the comments if I have anything wrong. This is just my understanding of everything I've seen so far, but I hope it's of help to some of the new users coming in

#help #steem #steemit #questions