Steem has become one of the highly sought coins in the market, but people often times do not understand how it works.
They think steemit is a coin while steem is a token, so many confusions and all that.
Then some users already earning in the platform do not even get the working principle well and it has also caused a major challenge to their success on the blockchain.
When I got on the steem blockchain, I found it hard navigating and understanding the platform, but I got a complete hang of things from the many types of research and posts I read.
I believe so much in the platform and I have decided to contribute to it in the little way I can.
The Steemit FAQ is bulky, said by my friend
@sampson-k
Here in this post, I will walk you through on the platform and help you understand each term and how to get improvement consistently by knowing each of them
Let's get Started
Every new user who has gotten an account or anyone who already is on the platform might be wondering the meaning of so many terms they come across in the platform, You can ask yourself, What is steem, Steemit, steem power and steem dollar? What is Reputation Score and how to follow the right path to improve it?
How to get more curation rewards? What are dApps? How do I Succeed on the platform? What are keys and How can I manage them.
Below is step by step guide to get the answers About each of these questions.
Steem
Steem is a cryptocurrency and the liquid currency of the steem blockchain, just as amino acids are the building blocks of Protein, Steem is the building blocks of the other two types of currency on the blockchain- Steem Dollar and Steem power
It powers the steemit platform, busy.org platform, and essentially other steem based dApps.
One can easily buy this cryptocurrency in the open market and also at will exchange to other cryptocurrencies. I usually advise individuals to hodl steem as we envisage a skyrocketing of it.
Steemit
This simply can be regarded as social networking, with Rewards
Steemit is an aggregate social media site where users, who are called Steemians make contents- Original contents and are rewarded for it. It is powered by the Steem blockchain.
Steem users who are on the platform can upvote or downvote these contents in what is called a reward an author system.
As a post's popularity increases, it gains more visibility and the author is likely to receive even more rewards for their effort.
Users whose posts are downvoted usually fail to make the best gain out from the post as their posts either loose visibility from the top of the "Hot" and "Active" list on the Steemit front page.
Upvotes can also be made on comments and the people with large stakeholders in the Steem platform called "whales"
Steem power
This is the power of a steemian. It is more like an investment in the steemit network, as it increases the value you make on people's posts. Essentially, the more your SP, the more your influence on the Steem blockchain
Also, you can earn more curation rewards on your post or posts upvoted. The more earnings you give to authors, the more you earn as well. So the platform rewards everyone equally and evenly.
You earn this steem power from posts and you can only make use of them in a power down process, which I will discuss more subsequently, but over a 13 weeks period, you can power down everything you have as Steem power.
Steem Dollar
Steem Backed Dollar(SBD) is the steemit currency, which is basically a stable currency and always worth 1 US dollar each in value.
So whenever you write quality content and you get any reward from the community, the author's reward gets split into two categories mean 50% pay per post is going to be SBD while 50% is SP(steem power).
You can convert Your SBD into Steem and then into SP for long-term investment and get the biggest rewards.
Understanding Reputation Score
A close look at your profile, you will notice a number in parenthesis close to your username, which is called Reputation Score.
Every user starts with a reputation of 25 and the maximum is over 80 but no one has exceeded a reputation of 90
Users often times give preference to post made by individuals with a higher reputation score, maybe because they feel they have more quality content and also value to give. So it is important you build your reputation score.
How to Improve Your Reputation Score
Below is a list of ways you can improve your reputation score
- Upvotes - upvote worth is dependent on the amount of SP, which I mentioned above as well as the percentage of upvote given, a 100% vote is not the same with a 50% vote.
Your Steem power cannot increase your reputation, unless when you self-upvote yourself.
Always make Quality content that compels the users to read and upvote your content.
Create a good relationship with other users by commenting on their posts
Reply to User comments, resteem their posts and follow each other.
What Decreases your Reputation Score
Downvotes
Flags
Downvotes and Flags are the opposite of Upvotes, it brings down the value of your reputation score.
A user can be downvoted when they plagiarize or involve themselves in illegal gestures.
Understanding the Steemit Wallet - A Guide
Source:@mslifesteem
Steemit Wallet has become a standalone website by the recent announcement by @steemitblog.
The steem wallet is where you store your tokens (Steem & SBD) and also perform different tasks like transferring money, powering up Steem to Steem power, trading of Steem to SBD and vice versa. In simple terms, you can do everything that it is capable of.
Delegating Steem Power
Some steemians get confused when they see a negative sign underneath their steem power. No need to panic, it means you delegated steem power out to someone
Here is a screenshot from the wallet of a friend - @desmoniac
Source: @desmoniac
Note: Negative sign defines that you delegated some of your SP.
You can delegate SP to market ventures like @smartsteem or to some other projects like @steemua or even minnows you value their content and intentionally want them to improve,
Leasing Steem Power
Source: @uche-nna
Leasing Steem Power is the direct opposite of Delegation, it means you have received some SP to your account which intermittently will increase your reward on the blockchain.
Savings
The savings option in your wallet is used to store SBD and steem. If you plan to save or hodl some steem or SBD, It is better to deposit it in the Savings account.
It doesn't give you any interest, but It is guaranteed that it provides you an extra layer of security for the tokens because It takes up to the 3 days to withdraw your Steem and SBD back.
Estimated Account Value
This is the value of what you have in your wallet in US dollars, which is based on the tokens available in your account. The SBD, STEEM, SP all contribute to the estimated value.
There is a menu very close to Steem, SP and SBD, usually appears when you click an arrow.
Transfer - This option allows you to transfer steem or sbd to another steem account. There is a place for the username of the recipient, memo and amount you want to send.
Transfer to Savings - As I mentioned, you can transfer your assets to your savings for security and long term hodling
Power up & power down -
Power up allows you convert your steem into steempower while power down allows you convert back your SP to steem. It takes 13 weeks for a complete power down
You can stop it by clicking Stop power down, which will appear in the menu next to the SP. This Stop power down option is only shown when you'll start powering down some of your SP.
Buy and Sell - These features are used to sell your other cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, Ethereum, Bitcoin Cash and more, to Steem or SBD and you can buy other cryptocurrencies by your existing Steem or SBD via the BlockTrades.
Market - Through some outside platforms, you can sell your SBD into Steem and vice versa.
History
The steem blockchain is a decentralized platform and everyone can see the transaction history of the next person, no secrecy or some sort. Everything is transparent.
Curation and Author Rewards
Curation rewards are rewards you get from posts or comments you upvote on the steem blockchain while Author rewards are rewards you get from the content you made, which has received an upvote. The author earns 75% of the post reward while the curators earn 25%.
Ways You can Earn More
Upvote new posts before others so you can earn higher curation rewards
Have huge stakes in the form of Steem power so you can earn higher curation rewards.
Note: It is always better to wait for 15 minutes after the post is published then upvote the content because between 15-30 minutes the rewards divided 50% to the author and 50% to the curator.
Earning More Through dApps
dApps in full means decentralized applications. Decentralized applications (dApps) are applications that run on a P2P network of computers rather than a single computer.
dApps, have existed since the advent of P2P networks. They are a type of software program designed to exist on the Internet in a way that is not controlled by any single entity.
You can easily increase your Reward by using other Steem blockchain based Apps on Steemit. All these Apps are connected to Steemit which means every time you post through other Steem blockchain Apps, It shows all the posts in the Steemit blog.
Some of the popular Apps like @utopian-io, @busy.org, @dtube, @ steemstem @esteemapp @dmania, @zappl, @@@dlike @actifit @ and @dsound are based on Steem blockchain.
You can increase your rewards by using this app, but a better understanding of these apps is important before using them.
@Utopian is a Steem based blockchain technology, that reards users who contribute to open source projects.
So many projects developed are made open on Github, users who can contribute to the improvement or modification of these projects are rewarded.
Contributors can earn rewards by publishing their source code on Github to the utopian platform.
Some of the categories are Development, Graphics, Tutorials, Documentation, Video Tutorials, Bug Reports and Blog posts, etc.
Visit Utopian.io for more.
Steemstem
@SteemSTEM is a community on Steemit that supports & focuses on topics related to Science, Technology, Engineering or Mathematics.
Their curation team scours the Steem blockchain for original and quality content related to the STEM fields in five different languages (English, German, French, Spanish and Italian). Using the #steemstem tag is recommended to facilitate their work, but it is not mandatory.
After having found a post, a curator decides on the voting strength it should be voted (small, medium, standard or high).
Source
Andre Gray football coaching academy (@agfacademy) is a steem based platform that delivers the most important components of formal football training to talented and passionate players of football all over the world using the STEEM blockchain.
Visit AGFacademy.com, Watch the first drills & skills video uploaded by Andre.
Practice the drill, And then record a video of yourself performing the drill, Upload the video to either YouTube and then on the website.
The project is supported by @oracle-d.
Esteemapp
eSteem offers a social experience where you can share any type of content, pictures, quick thoughts, short status updates from your mobile device through app.
eSteem mainly focuses on improving mobile experience and the choice of the platform is really depends upon your personal preferences.
Some of the features that stand out include: bookmarking, multiple post drafts, scheduling posts, in-app picture uploads, real-time push notifications, have multiple account, quick transfer of funds, ability to choose connection to any network nodes, interface has more than 50 languages, more than 10 currencies to view rewards in local currency.
I use the @esteemapp a lot, so you can also download it as well from the Google play store, it was built by @good-karma, a steem witness.
This is an open source network that has features just like steemit. Busy.org can give you notifications on what happens on your account. You can also earn free votes when you post through the platform,
In their wallet section, they also show some extra information about the market value of Steem and SBD.
DTube is a decentralized video platform that is almost like YouTube. It gives rewards to the users who upload their videos on DTube the same way as Steemit by upvoting without having more subscribers like YouTube.
I have earned upvotes by using this platform and you can also earn when you post your videos through them. @nathanmars is a Dtube ambassador and does wonderful work with the platform.
DSound is an amazing application for Music lovers which allows them to upload, download and listen to music.
The good news is that people enjoy their music and also earn some Steem Cryptocurrency because they use Steem blockchain as a database.
This is a curating community here on steemit. They upvote very high-quality contents and you don't need to use their tag to be able to get curated. They have different curators for different niches
There are other dApps which I cannot completely mention now, but they are helpful, as you journey more, you will get to understand more.
We still have the likes of @anomadsoul, @ausbitbank @aggroed @theycallmedan @acidyo @ocd who upvote quality contents as well
Understanding Permission Keys and Passwords
The keys used in accessing the steem blockchain are very important and there is need you safeguard them. The blockchain is a bit sensitive and you don't get to recover passwords easily
Always save your passwords online and offline and do not give them out, So here is a guide to your keys
Master password
This is the key that a user receives when they finish the signup process. You can use it to perform activities on the blockchainPosting key
The posting is highly recommended for use in login and activities on the blockchain. The posting key lets the user publish a post, comment on someone's post, upvote, resteem and follow other Steemians accounts.Active key
The active key is used to perform more sensitive activities on the blockchain such as transactions, transferring funds, trading, changing profile information, Avatar and more. So every time you will do these certain tasks, then the Steemit account will need your Active key or master password.Owner Key
The Owner key is the most important of all the keys, and most powerful too. It can perform all the tasks on Steemit like Posting key and Active key do and even It has the ability to change the Owner key itself.Memo key
The memo key is used for the source of communication between Steemians like private messaging. With the help of this feature, Steemians can encrypt and decrypt private messages that will be sent and receive among them.
Note: The Active and the Owner key can't decrypt private messages that's why you can only use the memo key for this purpose.
This is the much I can write for now. If you have more questions, leave a comment below and I will make sure I answer them. do not forget to resteem and upvote
Nicely written.. Well done bro!
Congratulations, this post has been upvoted using the Steemjet community account,courtsey @cherylsonty, Keep publishing quality posts using the steemjet tag to earn curation rewards.
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