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Yes, Thanks again for taking the time to explain things.

I'm still not sure about the other aspect of it:

regarding vests, and SP, and growing, there's nothing to stop you from immediately selling those SBD on the STEEMIT market and exchanging them for STEEM (and then STEEM POWER)

The above statement is true, but that was not my concern. My thinking was that regardless of the market value of steem, earnings will remain consistent and based on the SBD (assuming it is valued at around $1 USD).

If my assumption is correct, then when the price of Steem goes to $1,000 USD, in order to buy a single steem one would need to earn 1,000 SBD. That could take a very long time for a Minnow and even longer for a Redfish.

At today's market value, one need only earn 1.4 SBD to buy 1 Steem. Much easier to accomplish! And since Steem is what vests are based on, it is far easier to grow when Steem and SBD are close in value. This is also why I believe early adopters had the advantage in being able to purchase their Steem when it was only worth 20 cents (Getting 5 Steem for each SBD sold). Of course, this only applies if my assumption is correct in that the amount of SBD earned is constant and not related to the actual value of Steem.

nothing is constant, and even at that point (or even a month or two from now for that matter), depending on the balance of the system, you may receive your 50/50 in STEEM/STEEM POWER instead of SBD/STEEM POWER. If you're worried about some huge potential move over the next 7 days, that's a different story, otherwise just convert the SBD to STEEM on the STEEMIT market as you receive it, and you're good to go.

Hmmmm... I'm not making myself clear.
It is not the short term I'm thinking about and not even the 50/50 split (we sorted that out already). I'm just thinking about the future and what would happen if Steem takes off like Bitcoin did. Regardless of whether one takes payment in Steem or SBD, if the payout is always calculated on the SBD then I see a problem. Even if it is calculated on the US Dollar, unless the payment keeps up with the value of Steem, it becomes more and more difficult to buy Steem as its value goes up.

Like I suggested in my example:
When Steem was 20 cents, $1 USD (and supposedly 1 SBD) bought 5 Steem.
$1 USD (and supposedly 1 SBD) now buys less than 1 Steem.
When steem is worth $1,000 USD, 1 USD (and supposedly 1 SBD) will buy only 0.001 Steem.

At what point would YOU want to buy your Steem?

Now, on the other hand, if earnings were calculated and paid out based on the value of Steem, then all that doesn't matter.
As the value of Steem goes up, the earnings will rise accordingly and instead of making $10 per post one will get $100 or $1000 so that it is possible to purchase an equivalent amount of Steem with that earning.

As it is now, it takes a while to get out of Minnowship. If it becomes more difficult to purchase Steem it will only become harder to become a dolphin. Make the goal seem out of reach and watch everyone abandon hope.

I'm not concerned about how much MONEY one earns, I'm talking about how difficult it would be to become a Dolphin or Whale. Don't think of money as an asset, but simply as a means to obtain a goal. Does that make it more understandable? Am I onto something here or am I barking up the wrong tree?

Let's try this another way. Let's say it's 50/50 and you are getting 50% STEEM and 50% STEEM POWER. STEEM = $100 US each, and your post payout shows $100. You will receive 0.5 STEEM and 0.5 STEEM POWER.

Now, let's say you receive SBD instead of STEEM. You will receive $50 SBD (expected to be worth about $50 US) instead of $50 worth of STEEM (or 0.5 STEEM). HOWEVER, that SBD is worth $2 USD instead of $1 USD. So you now have $150 US worth of STEEM POWER instead of $100 US once you exchange it for STEEM and Power UP to STEEM POWER.

Yes, I get that. Forget that part.

BTW, I just used the internal market and lost approx. $2.50 as compared to if I had traded outside. I got 10.394 Steem for 15 SBD with internal market.
According to Coin Market Cap, I should have received 11.827 Steem.

19 days ago I Paid 12.159 SBD for 14.144 STEEM (note more steem than SBD).
Today I paid 15 SBD for only 10.394 Steem (note less steem than SBD).
Forget the split thing. Just look at these numbers on their own.

Coin Market Cap is a bit tricky, so it's best to go directly to an exchange. As I wrote in my latest post, poloniex does appear to be processing STEEM/SBD again, and it does seem to be offering a better rate than the internal STEEM Market. But that's a completely different question. If you find an even better exchange rate elsewhere, by all means go for it! Just remember though, poloniex has had many issues lately, and there are still additional trade fees involved. But leaving all that out, here are the numbers I got.

$15 SBD / 1.4430 (internal market) = 10.395 STEEM

poloniex

pay to exchange SBD to BTC for around 2450 currently
from BTC, buy STEEM...

15 SBD = 0.0099885 BTC
STEEM = 0.00078621 BTC * 0.0099885 BTC = 12.721 STEEM (22.4% premium!)
(less exchange fees)

So basically it's implying that SBD is trading at an even greater premium at poloniex than it is on STEEM. Just make sure the people who've had their SBD and STEEM stuck over at poloniex have finally been made whole again first before considering it though!

I figure by the time exchange fees are added in it probably works out near the same. Plus its simpler using the internal market and I don't have an account with any exchanges anyway. I'm hoping by the time I'm ready to actually use my Steem, I can buy stuff with it just the way it is! 1 wallet and that's it! Simple; just the way most people would like it.

Have you figured out that I had 2 distinct and separate issues regarding my original question? The 2nd one has nothing to do with earning more or less money, nor if you take it as Steem or split it. It has only to do with SP and how easy it is or is not, to earn it.

Coin Marketplace

STEEM 0.23
TRX 0.25
JST 0.038
BTC 95511.18
ETH 3313.19
USDT 1.00
SBD 3.30