Part21 - US content creation for blocktrades_US

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Steem

Refers to multiple related topics, explained as follows:

-a- Steem, the blockchain:

at the core, Steem is a blogging and social media platform powered by blockchain technology utilizing the Delegated Proof of Stake (DPOS) protocol. Steem was originally founded by Dan Larimer and Ned Scott via their company Steemit, Inc. in 2016 and has since then, undergone a multitude of hardforks (currently at hardfork 22) in which new features have been added, some removed, and a series of platform parameter changes were implemented.
However, Steem isn't merely a blogging and social media platform; there already exist many other type of applications built on top of the Steem blockchain, often referred to as "dApps" (decentralized applications), and include "Splinterlands" / "SteemMonsters", a collectable trading card game using the Steem blockchain for card tokenization, "SmartSteem", an investment and promotion service, "dLease.io", a Digital Asset Leasing platform, "Steem Engine", a token creation and exchange platform using a sidechain mechanism connected to the Steem main blockchain, "Partiko", an app providing an alternative front-end versus the original "Steemit.com" web-based frontend, "DTube", a video sharing platform, similar to Youtube, but tokenized via the Steem blockchain, et cetera, et cetera.

-b- STEEM, the currency:

the main currency of the Steem blockchain, which can in its "liquid form" be transferred on-chain to other Steem accounts, at zero cost transaction fees and 3-second block confirmations. STEEM tokens are assigned a monetary value, as determined by the free market based on supply and demand, can therefore be used to pay for goods and services, and can be exchanged for other assets, for example on so-called centralized exchanges (like Binance and Bittrex, on decentralised exchanges in a 1-to-1 pegged format (for example on Bitshares or the aforementioned Steem Engine exchange), in a native form also on Steem's internal market at which currently STEEM is paired to the Steem Backed Dollar (SBD), and of course exchanged safely and promptly via BlockTrades' own cryptocurrency exchange services as found on this website.

Steem (Backed) Dollar (SBD)

The Steem Dollar (SBD) is one of (currently) 3 native Steem blockchain tokens (the others are liquid Steem and vested Steem Power), where 1 SBD is intended to be worth around 1 US Dollar.
Steem Dollars can be seen as "blockchain debt", as 1 SBD holds the promise to repay 1 USD worth of Steem tokens when converted.

Under "normal circumstances", at pay-out time, the author of content that was upvoted by (other) Steem Power tokenholders, receives a portion of the Content Rewards Pool called "author rewards". Again, normally, 50% of those author rewards are received by the author in staked / vested form (Steem Power), and the remaining 50% of those author rewards is paid in liquid form (in case the other chooses to receive 50% vested and 50% liquid). That liquid portion of author rewards is then paid in Steem Dollars. The author receiving those SBDs can then choose to hold the SBD for a while (for example when he expects the price of SBD to remain stable at around 1 USD but he expects the price of Steem to go lower), or to convert the SBDs to Steem (which conversion process currently takes 3.5 days), therewith "burning" the SBDs, or to sell those SBDs either on the internal market, or an external market (including at the BlockTrades exchange services).

However, in order to limit the amount of "debt" the Steem blockchain has, a formula exists in which the currently circulating amount of Steem Dollar tokens is compared to the current total market cap of Steem, resulting in a ratio number, and in case that ratio becomes too high - caused by -a- too many SBD tokens exist, or -b- the Steem market cap is too low to carry that dept, then instead of printing new SBD tokens the blockchain rewards authors with liquid Steem tokens at pay-out time instead of liquid SBD, and the conversion rate at which 1 SBD is worth 1 US Dollar is lowered, until either enough SBD tokens have been burned (thus lowering the total circulating supply of SBD tokens) or until the market cap of Steem is sufficiently high again.

In December 2017, due to various unconfirmed reasons, the price of 1 SBD briefly was worth far more than 1 USD, as high as 12 USD even. Under normal circumstances, when the blockchain prints liquid SBDs as author rewards and in case 1 SBD on the free market is worth less than 1 USD, SBD token holders are still able to redeem 1 USD worth of Steem in exchange for converting 1 SBD, so as a consequence, the market price of 1 SBD will soon return back to 1 USD. But in case, like in December 2017, 1 SBD is worth far more than 1 USD, of course nobody willingly wants to convert a token worth 12 USD for 1 USD worth of Steem. This led to a temporary situation in which there was no way for the Steem witnesses to bring down the price of 1 SBD back to 1 USD again.

Steem Power (SP)

The Steem blockchain has a rather unique feature, implemented via the Delegated Proof of Stake (DPOS) protocol, in which liquid STEEM tokens can be "powered up", a process also often referred to as "vesting" or "staking" tokens, to so-called "Steem Power" (SP). In a staked / vested state, Steem Power (SP) CANNOT be directly traded nor transferred to another account on the Steem blockchain, but it does provide "voting rights" that you can apply to vote for block producing witnesses, to either upvote or downvote specific content published on the Steem blockchain, to vote on community-initiated Steem Proposals via the recently introduced Steem Proposals System (SPS). Having more Steem Power equals having more influence at your disposal to both allocate newly distributed Steem Reward Pool tokens (using Steem Power you get to co-decide which Steem accounts are rewarded what amount of rewards) and to co-decide which block producing witnesses are elected as so-called Consensus Witnesses. Having more Steem Power therefore resembles being a larger shareholder in a corporation, and you get to vote on where you think the Steem blockchain / platform should evolve to.

As introduced in hardfork 20, Steem Power also directly correlates to Resource Credits, which allow you to perform certain actions (such as posting, voting, transfering tokens, etc.) on the Steem blockchain. If you have enough Steem Power, and therefore Resource Credits, you could even claim & create new Steem accounts yourself (which you can then use to onboard other users to the Steem blockchain, or divide your own Steem holdings into multiple accounts that you control yourself).

In staked / vested form, Steem Power can also be "powered down" back to a liquid state, at a 1:1 ratio, in a process that currently takes up to 13 weeks (1/13th of your powered down Steem Power is converted back to liquid STEEM tokens every week).

BlockTrades offers you an option to purchase Steem Power directly via our web site.

Steem Power Delegations

If you're looking to (temporarily) increase your effective Steem Power, to have a larger influence about which content should be rewarded more or less newly distributed tokens on the Steem blockchain, an interesting option is to use the mechanism of Steem Power Delegations.
When you receive such a Steem Power Delegation, this can be best seen as the leasing of Steem Power owned another account, delegated to your account.

In and by itself, SP Delegations are considered to be voluntary by the delegating account holding the actual Steem Power, as that Steem Power, while delegated, then cannot be used by the delegating account to earn curation rewards with itself. Instead, the corresponding voting rights are (temporarily) transferred to the delegation-receiving account, which in turn is able to use the incoming SP Delegation to either upvote or downvote specific content with, and also get rewarded newly distributed curation rewards in case of content upvotes. As such, because those curation rewards (which are distributed in a vested state by the Steem blockchain) have a financial value (as determined by supply and demand on the free market), the delegation of Steem Power also has a financial value - hence the comparison to leasing Steem Power.

Steem Power Delegations can be purchased directly via the blocktrades.us web site; we sell delegations for an initial duration of 90 days which can then be renewed at any point while your BlockTrades SP delegation is active, and the duration will always be added on to the end of your current delegation.

Transaction Fees

A transaction fee, regarding cryptocurrencies, occurs when on-chain transactions are executed by blockchain miners / block producers / witnesses validating and conversely executing a transaction. The height of a transaction fee, the amount which has to be paid by the sending party, differs per blockchain.

Bitcoin transaction fees for example can change depending how much volume the network is experiencing at a given time and the current rates. These fees are based on the bytes-size of a transaction and depending how busy the network is it can take more or less blocks to confirm a given transaction. Miners have a tendency to first process those transactions with the highest transaction fees included (those transactions are processed within the next (few) block(s)), where other transactions are processed later (which can also be much later).

Other blockchains, like Steem, have zero transaction fees and most transactions (which in the case of Steem might include token transfers but also content transactions and votes) are processed within the next block, at 3 second intervals.

Wallet

In a blockchain and cryptocurrency context, a wallet is a digital storage facility in which digital assets (mostly cryptocurrency tokens) can be sent to, transferred out from, and kept safe in. Cryptocurrency wallets exist in various forms with different characteristics:

• cold wallets: a type of wallet which is NOT connected to the internet and can therefore - at least theoretically - not be hacked due to not having the facility of having external access to;

• hardware wallets: a type of wallet in the form of a physical device which manages wallet keys and can be accessed when (physically) connected to a computer or smartphone, and can therefore also be dis-connected from that computer and kept offline, in the form of a "cold wallet". Hardware wallets are considered to be very safe, often also convenient, and are produced by various manufacturers such as Trezor and Ledger, to name the two currently most well-known hardware wallet manufacturers;

• hot wallets: a type of wallet which is directly connected to, and can be accessed via, the internet. For this reason, while seamingly convenient, "hot wallets" should be considered less secure than so-called "cold wallets" or "hardware wallets";

• hosted wallets: a specific form of hot wallet, therefore connected to the internet, but provided to you as-a-service by a third party, for example a cryptocurrency exchange. While relatively convenient to use, users of such hosted wallets need to realize that because the wallet is hosted by an external party, that external party is in direct control of the tokens stored in said hosted wallet. In a strict sense of the word, hosted wallets go against Bitcoin's (and public blockchains in general) fundamental paradigm of "Be Your Own Bank", as an external party - the hosted wallet provider - is to be seen as the trusted party in direct control of the digital assets stored in the hosted wallet. It is therefore advised to carefully assess the trustworthiness of the hosted wallet provider, prior to depositing digital assets to it, and an often heard advice is also to NOT keep an overly large amount of digital assets value at such hosted wallets;

• paper wallets: a specific type of cold wallet in which keys are printed on physical paper, kept offline and therefore NOT connected to the internet, and are therefore generally considered to be safe to prevent an attacker / hacker / hostile person gaining access to the digital funds stored in such a paper wallet.