What is Steemit?!? (& Some Lovely Witnessy Stuffs)
Good Question
If you are simply reading this portion of my 'blog' post and are completely new to cryptocurrency, you've come to the right place. Welcome to Steemit. What is it? Good question. Let's say you like Facebook or Instagram and just enjoy sharing thoughts and pictures on there, or maybe you're a Tumblr or Wordpress familiar. That being said, you understand what 'social media' websites are. You share your ideas,
likes, fears, emotions, snapshots, videos, whatever you can think of, with your audience. Steemit is just another avenue to do that.
What's So Special About Steemit?
Let me ask you a question. Did those 100 likes on Facebook earn you any money? Did you feel accomplished? Any of those hearts on Instagram pay you for your photography? How many of the comments people made actually resonated with you? Steemit is unlike any social media platform you've ever known.
Wait, Did You Say Earn Money?
Let's look at a definition of money. The Google dictionary states money is: the assets, property, and resources owned by someone or something; wealth. Therefore, anything you can trade for another thing would be technically considered money as it would be your resource or asset. Cryptocurrencies are loosely similar to stocks and can be considered assets. So yes, I said earn money. The money you earn is in the form of 2 cryptocurrencies or digital coins. One is called the Steem Backed Dollar (SBD) and the other is called STEEM. Upon immersing yourself in these here Steemit waters, you can earn both.
Giphy Rocks
Well How?
Let me keep this as simple as possible as to not confuse anyone. You know how on Facebook you can like somebody's picture or story? It's the same here. Except, there are two major differences. On Facebook, they use algorithms (complex math equations) to COLLECT YOUR INFORMATION from the CONTENT you provide and feed you with bullshit ads all day. Here, YOU ARE THE CONTENT PRODUCER and add INFORMATION to our database - known as the STEEM Blockchain. The second difference should be obvious. Facebook won't pay you a single dime of their rewards pool whereas here, it is shared amongst the users based on people's 'influence'. Something you'll come to know as Steem Power or SP.
Facebook Sounds Lame Now, How Do I Join Steemit?
Same thing I told myself, but yes, you're almost there. Somewhere on this page, usually in the top corner or at the bottom of this post, it'll say become a member. Click on that and all you really have to do is supply a valid email and verify you are you. It typically takes about 72 hours to get fully registered.
You Said SBD and STEEM?
Yes, that's what you will earn. Now, this can be traded for other cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin or Litecoin or Ethereum or even fiat currencies like the U.S. Dollar or EURO. To do this, you will need to utilize what we call an exchange and a wallet. I live in America, so, I will cover the more popular ones. There are two pictures and links below, one is your new wallet - Coinbase, and the other is an exchange - Poloniex. For now, just join them and we can explain the rest later.
| Get your Coinbase Wallet | Get a Poloniex account |
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Once You Are Confirmed
Let me be the first to say - WELCOME TO STEEMIT!!! Now you get to come and see for yourself what it's all about. You're brand new. A plankton or minnow. They have classified accounts here based on their Steem Power with an ocean animal hierarchy. Kind of cute really. I have a few suggestions to help you become successful and start earning real money you can spend. But let's face it, you're new, it's going to take some 'work'. So please, pay attention to this next part.
- Browse some of the tabs up there, or even go as far as looking for a specific tag you are interested in. Find some posts and MAKE COMMENTS IN ALL SINCERITY. Why you liked the post, maybe quote their words. This is how you gain REAL followers and make friends. They will most likely be the ones that come see you and your works.
- Throw some upvotes out there! You'll see a little arrow near the bottom where the author of the post is. Tap that and it will start spinning. Once it is filled in, you have successfully upvoted a post (or comment). This is called curation.
- Near that arrow is another more sophisticated circle of arrows. This is called resteeming. If you really like a post, tap that button and once it 'goes green', you'll have published it to your blog's 'feed'.
- My final piece of beginner's advice is SEARCH OUT A GROUP OR COMMUNITY. Obviously, I'm going to say join #thealliance because it's my family here. But there are many good ones like @thewritersblock, @thesteemengine, #steemsilvergold and #steemusa.
Giphy Rocks
Now You're Diving In!
It really is that simple. Don't overthink it. Now all you have to do is start making posts of your own. If you like being on a laptop or PC, I highly suggest staying right here where you are comfortable. If you are reading this on a mobile device, I would suggest downloading the app that @good-karma created called eSteem. It can be found on both Google Play and the iOS stores and yes it's free. This is all free. Your only real to life investment is time. Can you do that?
Well, How Do I know How Much I've Made?
If you notice where the upvote button and resteem arrows are, you'll see a value. Take a look at the value of this post down there. Is that sufficient? That amount is in SBD. Keep in mind that **ONE SBD** right now is worth roughly $5.50 USD. So if that amount says $10, that's a reward of $55.00 USD to the authors (75% TO YOU) and curators (25% SPLIT BETWEEN VOTERS) of this post. If it says $20.00, that's $110.00 USD. I'll let you figure the math on whatever it says.
Is That Sufficient?
Hopefully this is all easy enough to understand for you and you are already waiting on your confirmation email. Some terms are foreign, but if you have read this far down the post, I feel you have the capacity and motivation to learn it quite easily. That concludes my basic crash course on What is Steemit, and now for the people that have been here a while:
Witness Report
To be honest, there's not a lot to tell. I had a hang up with the new update from @someguy123, but nothing major. For some reason, my feed did not want to pull the permissions from the exchanges and I know I wasn't the only one. In the midst of attempting to adjust it, I did miss a block. With the patient help of @jatinhota, we got it situated again. Love that guy. Should go write him in as a witness.
You Have a Vote Left?
You're reading this and you haven't written me in? How dare you! I demand, no, I decree that you now must pay @youarehope 100 SBD in punitive damages. You are also subject to pay the new 'delinquient voter tax', which obligates you to vote for me AND send me 1000 STEEM a month until you have been deemed reconciled. Failure to do so will result in some @grumpycat coming and flagging you because you bought a vote from @sneaky-ninja within the first 12 hours of your high quality post. Ninjas never say die.
In Conclusion
I hope everyone out there in the Steemit ocean has a fantastic weekend and a bright new week unfold for you. Just because somebody may piss in your Cheerios or spit on your sandwich, doesn't mean you have to take that shit and eat it. Maybe I'm tired and on a bit of a sleep deprived rant, but I just assume throw it back at the waiter and say, you eat it. Don't forget to be YOU. That is all.
I haven't listened to Gravel Pit in a loooong time. That was on a mix I had in my snowboarding days. Don't do much rap or hip hop anymore, but this will always make me think of surfing mountains, so thanks for that.
Nice intro to Steemit! I've been thinking about writing one to share with my friends on FB and Twitter, but .... there's a lot to write about. You covered a lot of bases.
I will drop these two resources here, for newbies:
There's a lot to learn. But I think if you get on Steemit and learn something every day, it all falls into place. And, @enginewitty, you nailed it at the end: "Don't forget to be YOU." :)
Suuuu!
Thanks hun. I wanted to throw Steepshot and Discord and Zappl and all that jazz in there but trying to get people over here is the focus on the first part. OMG I am falling in love with SteemWorld btw. I've almost abandoned steemnow because of it except it loads slower out here in the boonz.
Excellent write up I must share in on FB
Thanks bro, and by all means, share away :)
I did 😎
What a great intro to Steemit! I wish it had been around when I joined. LOL! Perhaps you should mention that joining an exchange is not an automatic thing, though. I have not been able to join Coinbase. It set me into an endless loop asking for my phone number. Each time it asks, I enter it, and it tells me I have already added it, but won't let me progress further, saying i have to enter my phone number!
I gave up on Coinbase and am currently waiting for Tier 3 approval from Kraken. I was approved quickly for Tiers 1 and 2, but in order to convert to USD, because I live in the US I have to have Tier 3 approval. I have been waiting for about three weeks while my ETH sits on their exchange! I think it was easy enough for those who had all this set up a year ago, but now it is not so easy. :-(
Just what I'm most familiar with. Some people prefer Bittrex over Poloniex too. I USED to, until they changed all the verifications, made me a 'new user' after trading there for over a year, and refused to accept my passport/license verification 6 TIMES. I have a Kraken account though. Just very rarely use it. I have a good chunk of STEEM and a small wad of BTC on Bittrex so trust me, I know the feeling hun.
LOL! Bittrex was not accepting any new users either, so they were out! I did not try Poloniex. Maybe that will be the next step. I wanted to set something up so that I could get something out when I needed it, so transferred some STEEM via Blocktrades and then to my mobile ETH wallet before deciding where to go from there. Now I'm just waiting for Kraken to give me the OK!
Just checked and I am still waiting!
I wonder if anyone from the USA has RECENTLY signed up with an exchange and had success! I would love to know!
Shit son, ima have to give you a vote. I didn't know u were a witness until now. I'm not paying the tax tho 😝
Mandatory. I will expect remittance within the hour. Or I'll come cane you. With like a...stick...or something. BWAHAHAHAHA really though thanks for the vote of confidence Uncle GA.
That is really a very good beginners manual, and I have read a lot of them!
Well thank you sweets! Means a lot coming from you :)
Way to go man! Good guide for noobs! Gonna share so hopefully some that I know will see! Thanks 😁
Sweet, get em talking man. It's new and we have a tendency as humans to fear new things. Took 5 years for Facebook to be 'accepted'. Steemit is not even 2 years old yet.
I wouldn't neccesarrily promote polo. Trex has much fewer issues.
Talk to me about that on discord, I've had some issues with that one.
This is a great write-up for beginners!! :) Do you have a Facebook or other social media account you can link this to, so people unfamiliar with Steemit can see?
I do, but I'm rarely there anymore AND, I don't want to go over there. I want people coming here ;) So I will probably clutter the FB feed if that's what you mean. I always try to tap those three other share buttons up there. :P
I totally understand! I'm only over there when I'm advertising Steemit and my posts! 😂 Would you mind if I put this link on my Facebook page so I can evangelize my peeps over there?
Not in the slightest sweets, go right ahead and plaster it everywhere :)
I was just thinking to myself the other day, if only somewhere on the Internet existed where you could post whatever you fancied and get cryptocurrency rewards for the effort. And bang - here you are explaining to me exactly how - where do I sign up? Joking aside this is a great post to drop into our social media accounts to pull new users in, it covers everything they need to know in one tidy easy to read and digest post.
#thealliance
The inspiration came from talking to some people offline and I thought you know? I don't have a really good reference for them in my bookmarks or anything so I'm going to go ahead and write one and hope they understand it. Glad it makes sense bud.
Thank you @enginewitty. Really a thorough explanation. Ia m not brand new but new enough to learn some tid bits.
Appreciate it, and yes just went to vote for you as Witness and came back here to let you know :)