Hello, all you awesome streamers! This is @ddrfr33k, with a bit of an unusual Vimm University lesson. We have a lot of awesome streamers that are checking out @vimm because we're an awesome site! But not all of them even know what Steem is, how this crazy blockchain works, or why it even matters to them. So this post is geared towards those awesome people. People we want to bring into the Steem family, people that deserve to get all the awesome benefits we do!
So! Take a seat, grab your notebooks, let's talk about the Steem Blockchain!
You've probably heard a lot about cryptocurrency, how confusing it is, how many people lost money back in 2018, you get the idea. For a lot of people, it is confusing. And with good reason! Cryptocurrency flies in the face of a lot of modern conventions. It's difficult to wrap your brain around. Thankfully, Steem uses a different method. With Bitcoin and other Proof of Work (PoW) cryptocurrencies, you point your computer at a specific blockchain and "mine" that coin.
With Steem, it's a trifle different. You create a blog post on the blockchain. Other users can upvote your post, and you gain Steem based on the upvotes that you receive. Not only that, but the Steem that they hold determines how much Steem you receive. It's a little confusing at first, but it's actually very similar to an older social community.
Back in the early to mid 2000's, Digg was the front page of the internet. People would share pictures, news, and stuff like that in an attempt to get on the front page. How did you get on the front page? By getting upvotes from other users! But there's a neat twist to Digg. The upvotes that people had received affected the strength of their own upvote. To that end, someone who had received thousands of upvotes had more weight than someone who only had 100 upvotes. If people like the first person upvoted your content, you were much more likely to make it to the front page and get even more upvotes.
Steem works in similar fasion. The Steem you hold determines how much Steem you give out when you upvote. So holding onto some Steem is a good thing! And your upvotes can help out a fellow streamer. Granted this is a super simplified explanation of how the Steem Blockchain works and doesn't cover a lot of the back-end goings on. You gotta walk before you can run, you know?
Vimm uses this same blog post functionality when you go live. You'll make a blog post on the Steem blockchain announcing that you're live. We talked about this in another Vimm University Post not too long ago. When someone upvotes your stream, they're upvoting that blog post. After 7 days, you get to claim the rewards! If you're only using your Steem wallet for Vimm, you can claim your rewards right from Vimm! It should look something like this:
Now, this is @ddrfr33k's wallet and he's up to some crazy shenanigans. Don't think that these sorts of rewards are normal starting out. Just use it for a point of reference. All you gotta do to claim your rewards is to click on that "claim rewards" button. And it's all yours!
You might have noticed that there's a couple different things there. That's one of the more confusing things about Steem. The Steem you hold in upvoting power is called Steem Power, or SP. There's this Steem Backed Dollars (SBD) thing, and those are another complex thing. Basically, they're supposed to be worth $1USD of Steem. Doesn't always come out that way, but here we are. You can turn your SBD into SP through a couple options: @blocktrades can help with a quick conversion, or you can use the Steemit Market to sell your SBD for Steem and then Power Up. If you're new, and don't want to deal with diving too deep, go the @blocktrades route. They're well respected in the community, you won't get nearly as good of an exchange rate, but the time savings and simplicity make it worth it.
As you power up, your upvotes will be worth more, and more people will want to get your upvotes. It's slow going, it takes time, but you can do it! It took @ddrfr33k about 18 months to reach 1000SP. It is possible, it is doable, you just gotta put your mind to it, and you can make it happen!
There's a lot to cover about the Steem blockchain. Far more than we can really put into one post. This one covers the basics, more than anything. If you have questions, want to know more, hit up our discord! We got a ton of awesome people that can help you out if you feel like this guy:
With this, I think we've got a decent starting point for all the awesomeness of the Steem blockchain. I'm going to call this one here, since we've covered a lot of information! As always, ask questions. We're here to answer them!
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