Hey Everyone,
This realm of technology moves so fast it's not always easy to keep up. I'm not going to go deep into the intricacies of the topic here. This is the quick tip I wish I had when I was trying to figure this stuff out. It covers the most important concepts a person should know about so they can get started. So let's jump right to the point!
Blockchain Resources
We can think of each blockchain as representing an area or territory. These territories each have their own currency or "coin" and we can also use that coin to buy real estate in that territory. The land you are in possession of produces resources which get utilized to perform operations on the blockchain. Some types of resources are consumed and then gone forever but others are renewable.
Steem and Steem Power
On the Steem blockchain (which is hosting this article you're reading right now) there are two main types of "coin" or cryptocurrency that we want to focus on here and those are (liquid) STEEM and STEEM POWER. Liquid Steem is the circulating currency used on the Steem blockchain to transfer value from one account to another. Steem Power is essentially the same thing but it has been staked or "Powered Up." It's like owning stock in the blockchain or to recall the earlier metaphor it is like buying real estate. You're investing your Steem into the Steem blockchain and in return you get the resources you require to do the work you want to achieve.
Resource Credits
When you stake your liquid Steem and turn it into Steem Power you gain Resource Credits. The more Steem Power you have the more Resource Credits you get access to. Resource Credits get used when you transact on the blockchain. That means upvoting content, publishing content and using decentralized apps (dapps) such as games built on the blockchain. Resource Credits replenish over time.
Tron Energy
On the Tron blockchain things are similar. You have TRX which is the liquid cryptocurrency similar to STEEM. You can also stake or "Freeze" some of your TRX, so we can say that Frozen TRX is similar to STEEM POWER. And when you Freeze TRX you gain access to a replenishing pool of "Energy" which can be compared to Resource Credits on the Steem blockchain.
Unstaking Your Coin
You can always convert your staked coin back into the liquid version but it usually takes time. STEEM POWER can be converted to STEEM in chunks over a period of several weeks. Frozen TRX can be unfrozen at any time as long as it's been frozen for at least three days already.
Practical Takeaway - TLDR
In the end the idea is that if you're going to be active on one of these blockchains, and especially if you're playing some of the gaming dapps, you're going to want to stake some of your coins. This is how you stake your claim on a certain percent of the network resources. If you decide not to do this, you will run into problems when you are trying to do something but have no Resource Credits or Tron Energy available.
A Few Great Games on Blockchain
If you are interested in checking out a few great dapp games on the Steem, Tron and Ethereum blockchains take a look at my recent review:
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