Lets say I am new on steemit as well, I joined in September last year and wasn't active until a month ago. I am still learning as well but from my recent activity on steemit I am loving it, besides the money aspect you get to read very insightful posts with great contents.
The steem in my opinion is the coin, while the Steem power determines the power(strength) of your reward from your upvotes comments...so the bigger your Steem power the bigger your your reward and the SBD (Steem Backed Dollar) is your steem that remains constant regaless of the market value of Steem due to fluctuation. I hope I am correct and someone with more knowledge is welcome to correct me...

I see potential in Lunyr it is a blockchain based knowledge sharing and you get paid for writing. district0x DNT as well
THC
I am with you on Vechain
I will like to stock up LTC
DASH
and lets hope STEEM goes beyond $10 before the end of 2018!