What are Resource Credits ?

New word: Resource Credits?

This term is defined by it’s creators, the software developers who work for Steemit and publish information on their blog called @steemitblog .

Definition: Resource Credits are non-transferable credits given to each account based on how much Steem Power it has, which get “spent” whenever a user transacts with the Steem blockchain.

What function doe this new entity called Resource Credits perform on the Steemit Platform?

They are a form of currency you spend to enact or perform transactions on the platform.

What are Transactions: They are votes, comments, transfers and power ups.

You pay or expend Resource Credits when you perform transactions or interact with the Steemit platform.

Each transaction has a specific cost in Resource Credits, if you have enough resource credits to cover the cost, you can perform the transaction.

If you don’t have enough resource credits you get an error message telling you that you are unable to perform the transaction or interaction.

You should also be aware that the cost of transactions varies depending on factors that effect blockchain perform and the available supply of resource credits.

Questions:

1. How do I get resource credits?

Answer: You are given a certain amount of resource credits in direct proportion to how much Steem Power you have. You need at least 15 Steem Power to be awarded any resource credits.

2. If I spend all my resource credits, do I have to buy more?

Answer: No, resource credits regenerate each day by a certain percentage, which is believed to be 22% and it takes 5 days to fully regenerate your entire allotment from zero.

3. Can I buy resource credits?

Answer: No they can only be given to you buy Steemit when you buy Steem Power.

4. Can I give my resource credits to others?

Answer: No, these tokens are non-transferrable, they are attached to Steem Power. But you can delegate part of your Steem Power and the resource credits go with the delegated Steem Power.

5. How much do transactions cost?
These are the costs I see on Steemd.com: They are subject to change.
comments 1,570,000,000
votes 282,000,000
transfers/powerups 259,000,000

Other useful information from the GitHub article on Resource Credits:

This information restates some of the information above in slightly differen ways, which might be useful.

The RC bandwidth system is a complete rewrite of the bandwidth system. Its goals include:
• >Enable simple, effective UI feedback to users about bandwidth usage and >remaining bandwidth
• >Simplify the mental model of what buying additional SP gives users
• >Reduce or eliminate unstable feedback in current bandwidth system

Resource credits

Each account has a manabar called "resource credits." Resource credits have the >following characteristics:
• >RC's are attached to a particular account and cannot be transferred
• >An account's maximum RC is proportional to its VESTS
• >Transacting uses RC
• >Transactions which would cause a negative RC balance are blocked
• >RC regenerates over time

Computing Price

The price of each resource will be based on the current level of the stockpile. As the stockpile decreases, the price of that resource (in terms of RCs) increases. In other words, as the stockpile goes down, accounts will have to pay more RCs to use the remaining resources.
Cost in RCs won’t translate into anything like a price increase in terms of STEEM or USD, due to the fact that RCs are non-transferrable. The goal is only to leverage a market system to ration resources, not to create speculative opportunities or manufacture another token that can be used to purchase goods or services.<
Computing Cost
For each transaction, the System will statelessly compute a value and exchange rate in RC for resources like CPU megacycles, state memory, and history size.

Sources
@steemitblog
Steemd.com
Steemit GitHub

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