It's easy to forget the reasons why you want more steem power. It's not just about having a powerful vote either.
Introducing STEEM POWER
....and solving misconceptions about the importance of it.
This is what most people are familiar with:
1) The more STEEM POWER you have, when you upvote someone, the more money value you give them.
AND
2) The more STEEM POWER you have, when you cash out later and power down, the more money value you get
Those are both correct, but they are not the most important reasons to accumulate STEEM POWER:
3) EARN EVEN MORE FREE STEEM POWER
QUOTE July 1/2017 from @jerrybanfield "75% of Steem inflation goes to authors and curators on posts and upvotes while 15% is given to Steem Power and 10% to witnesses. This means out of the 9.26% current total inflation, about 7.1% of all new Steem "printed" is given out to users making posts, comments, and upvoting through curation. Before 16.0 the inflation went mostly to Steem power with authors, curators, and witnesses getting a few remaining percent."
Translation: Even if you did nothing each day, but just held STEEM POWER, your account would probably (and does) earn more STEEM POWER (SP) simply by keeping as much SP as you can in your account. Just watch your SP grow over time.
4) HIGHER STEEM PRICE
Holding Steem Power keeps liquid steem OFF the market. It ties it up so it can't be sold while it is earning interest payments. This makes steem less liquid, which impacts the supply, which directly impacts the price.
Lower supply of steem on market = higher steem price (so when you do sell STEEM later, you get more for it)
5) HIGHER NUMBER OF FOLLOWERS THAT WILL COMMENT AND CURATE YOUR STUFF
Everyone seems to want your upvote when you have a lot of steem power, because you have more power to direct where curation rewards go. So having some friends and followers with high SP balances helps you to earn if you are an author, poster, or commenter.
People with high SP Balance generally have a high number of followers and commenters. Look, and you will see this happening all over the place.
6) MORE RESPECT
This is controversial, but I'll say it anyway. If you have a tiny account, worth less than $100 USD your words and thoughts are often taken more lightly, than someone that has $100,000 USD worth of steem power.
This isn't always the case. However, it often IS the case. Bigger SP holders (especially whales) seem to have more attention when they post something, because everyone is hoping to be noticed by them. So there is an unspoken added respect given to them. (deserved or not)
7) BELIEF AND SUPPORT OF THE STEEM BLOCKCHAIN
Holding (and not selling) your steem power shows that you believe in keeping your investment here... That shows user and account retention. Wealth retention. Without it, STEEM would be worth $0 - the more people who hold STEEM POWER, the better. We want the majority to be holding SP, and only a minority to be powering down or selling STEEM.
So only take what you absolutely need today. Invest and keep your holdings safe in Steem Power for your future.
Steem Power is good. The more you have is good. When all of us do it, it's good.
Great post that explains everything in plain words. It took me almost half a day to find relevant information to explain how everything works by watching YouTube vidoes and googling all the relevant information. Shortly afterwards I realized that there is no point to keep my steem without transfering it to steem power. Hopefully more and more people will realize that they can only benefit from that in the long term as the price of Steem keeps climbing up. I see very bright future as the posibilities beyond Steemit being only social media platform are endless. Steem on and have a great day!
Excellent. Sometimes I don't know if I explained things well enough until people tell me so. I do appreciate the comment.
Yes, I think so too.
I'm there with you !
Had to share this on my facebook page. I want all my friends to join steemit I am also hoping to convince more musicians, poets and artists to join. I keep telling my friends that not only am I earning money, I am earning it as Steem, which earns me more AND it is going up in value. I have a friend that keeps his money in cash. I pointed out to him that his cash is going down in value while my steem is going up in value. No pressure bro.
: )
So awesome. STEEM BABY!!!
#payitforward
I'm glad you did it.
I would definitely never sell the Steem power that I've created so far and am seriously considering buying some Steem to boost it. This seems like a long term game to me... after all where else can you create and consume great content and get paid for it. Seems like a winning combination to me. Thanks for a great reminder to get more Steem!!
I've translated your post to Russian language for ru community https://steemit.com/steem/@allfabeta/perevod-stati-pochemu-steem-power-stoit-derzhat-i-pochemu-eto-khorosho-dlya-vas-da-i-dlya-vsekh-nas-tozhe
I appreciate that you said where it came from, as well as notified me about it.
for sure, it's your post. How could I didn't mention you and link to an original post?
I just need to bring your words to our guys
Some people, without values, will steal a post for greed reasons and want to hide their tracks.
You, on the other hand, didn't do that... you're right. You need to bring this message to the russian community too. :)
Thanks for the info! I'm still trying to find out if it is worth it buy Steem and convert it to SP and if I buy it then how much. I heard it is not worth it to convert your SBD to Steem. I think I need to read more posts like this one!
This webpage should help you to better understand the conversion rates:
http://www.steemdollar.com/steem.php
The bottom line though is that SBD is converted not on a 1 for 1 ratio as I first thought as a newbie. The rate fluctuates with the market as intended. Therefore, buy STEEM to power up not SBD with prices as they are today.
The easiest way to add Steem Power to your account by adding your own investment is through the "Buy Steem" menu option under the three bar icon next to your account image in the top right of your screen.
As a newbie I made the mistake of adding money to Coinbase, buying BTC there, sending it to Bittrex, buying STEEM there, and finally sending that to my account at Steemit. I paid transaction fees twice that way. Oops!
Maybe my mistake will help others avoid doing the same! /blush
Thanks for sharing that... you're right. Each time you convert and transfer, you stand to lose a bit in transaction fees, etc. So you want to limit the number of "hops" or "transactions" you do, to get what you want.
When STEEM price is low, converting to SBD gets you more STEEM that you can power up with. That's a great time to convert SBD on the internal market.
SBD is also good to keep handy if you intend on buying certain products and services (now and in the future) that accept SBD as a currency.
When STEEM price is growing in price, and you plan on investing long term (more than 2 or 3 months) in the system, buying on the way UP and storing it in STEEM POWER makes the most sense, because as time goes on, your STEEM POWER accumulates even more SP just by holding it.
The "CONVERT" feature you are referring to, is if you want the blockchain algorithms to convert SBD to STEEM for you, based on average price feeds in the proceeding 7 days as published by witness nodes.
The CONVERT feature happens automatically when you trigger it, and gives you an "average" price, which is a very conservative way of getting a "fair" price. You can stand to lose a bit, or gain a bit than trading on the Steemit internal market instantaneously. So there's an investment method for everybody (both conservative and risky types of people).
Is there any simple formula then for us non trader non math wired folks to follow? I thought I had it figured out that as long as STEEM is over 1 US Dollar I'm better off buying STEEM, not SBD, to power up. Is that not true? Explain it as if I were a 5th grader please. LOL
"When STEEM price is low, converting to SBD gets you more STEEM that you can power up with. That's a great time to convert SBD on the internal market." <-- That hurt my creative math handicapped brain.
I'm still curious about the details behind "STEEM POWER accumulates even more SP just by holding it" too. Would I have the regular redeem prompt in my wallet when that happens, or does it just slowly go up on its own?
On its own automatically. The one you push is curation + author rewards only.
To see it happen, don't push the one that asks you to claim it. Write down the number of steem you have in steem power and come back in 3 days. Watch it go up and up. Over the course of a whole year, and without you having to do anything, it increases.
Does anyone have an idea what the APR is equal to then?
https://steemit.com/steem-help/@jerrybanfield/steemit-updates-summarized-from-launch-to-19-0
It's part of the quote I used above, but goes into more detail (which is what you are looking for)
It's not a fixed rate. It's a percentage that can change. In general holding steem power always means your power increases the majority of the time. Read that blog post for more.
Thanks!
Most of us are in for the long haul!
Let it grow, let it grow. A few days from my one year steemit anny, still have not hit that powerdown button!
This was very informative. You were clear in explaining the concepts to the users of our platform.
I've given out SBD as prizes and transferred some to other people, but otherwise, I haven't taken out anything since I've been on Steemit. It's taken awhile to build up, but I'm a baby dolphin now. It's an arbitrary threshold, but it's an incentive.
Great post. I'm quite happy to have never (so far) powered down in the year+ I've been here. I'm fortunate enough to not need that money for anything else.
I'm glad you mentioned #6 as it is a controversial one, but it may also reveal something I've been cautiously curious about. What if those with higher steem power often have better comments simply due to their nature/nurture mix which enabled them to accumulate wealth? I want to be very careful here not to say something as black and white as "rich people are better communicators" or something like that, but I do wonder if there's some form of valid correlation which can be teased out. Sometimes I'll find a new account with a relatively low SP who catches my attention and over time they end up becoming a higher powered account because, one might think, they are the type of people who do things rich people are willing to do (take risks, be generous, provide value to others, etc).
There are always exceptions to every rule of thumb.
In general, having steem power is rarely a liability if ever.
A person with poor mannerisms or ethics is that way whether they have steem power or not.
A person with good mannerisms and ethics can benefit even more, by having steem power as a bonus.
So in this case, it's not the person... but the steem power, that seems to be the bonus in the case of good people that want to be noticed more...
I have only been active for a few weeks and bought some STEEM to power up. I've seen both types of accounts as you suggested. Some accounts have a lot of SP and barely any content or engagement, and some accounts have low SP and lots of engagement. It is quality engagement too!
Hopefully people will not hold it against me that I'm powering up by buying Steem Power. I want to use Steemit as one of many investments, and I always invest for the long haul. My hope is to get to 5K SP as quickly as possible, and I do not plan to do that simply through posting. Is that bad?
I have never seen someone get seen negatively for buying SP.
It's the opposite.
People buy STEEM and power up, are very well thought of...
The only time they aren't is if they do that (buy and power up) and then use that power to abuse users on the system by downvoting non-stop or other things.
If you power up and behave... everyone loves you.
Awesome, thanks! Yes, I love Steemit and fully support the mission behind it. I'm bringing as many new people as I can over to the platform too from places like Google+ and FascistBook.
That's another thing that @timcliff was stressing on a recent @steemittalk podcast:
https://steemit.com/steemit/@steemittalk/stp-episode-043-07-08-2017-w-special-guest-timcliff
He basically said, if you bake a bigger pie, everyone gets a larger piece.
Most new users to steemit, makes steemit a bigger reward pie for everyone.
So yes, please bring more new users here. We need them. Steemit is designed to scale large.
Oh yeah, my dream come true would be for the censoring content filtering "do no evil" Google+ and jail house FascistBook to go the way of Myspace. Steemit is the better alternative to walk away from the two disasters those places have become.
No! I don't think that's bad at all. I'm surprised you would even think that. Investors are the only reason STEEM has any value at all. When I started here, I invested in STEEM a bit also. I think anyone who is serious about the platform should so they can help determine where new STEEM gets allocated via their votes. The notion that some Steem Power is better than others based on how it was earned is silly to me. It's fungible value. All that matters is what you do with it.
...aka the reason for this post. We need to focus on it a bit more so people don't think that, ever. I was shocked too when I saw that innocent question.
I cannot remember the source of the post, but they were talking about how great it was that @papa-pepper had supposedly never bought into his account and built it completely based off engagement and work here. The implication was that the author of the post wanted more people like that user and less people who simply bought SP.
Shrug. I disagree, and it's unimportant to me.
I've adjusted my reply to @everittdmickey on this very blog. That must have been where you read it.
It now states:
Thanks! Yes, I'm still new here, so I don't want to step on any toes or do things that upset people. I really appreciate the advice from you long time veterans. A lot of SP is in my future.
I love the security aspects of storing SP too. People can put their crypto profits in SP to protect them. That's a lot safer than having them on an exchange that can be hacked.
Knowing my luck too, I'll lose a hardware wallet. haha
P.S. It was not your post that I saw that about papa. It was an entirely different thread. They were against SP being bought, and the discussion was about SP, not reputation. If I find it, I will let you know. :)
The FAQ doesn't seem to address the benefit of holding STEEM POWER beyond the "influence" for the reward pool @ned @timcliff @anybody know the best way to fix that?
Yes, this news that we get "interest" simply by having SP is very intriguing to me. When I was first active on here a couple weeks ago, I was curious abut the "currently collecting 0% APR" text within my wallet.
People told me there used to be interest paid but it was no longer the case. Now it seems like perhaps interest, in a sense, is still getting paid? That makes me want to buy even more SP if it is true.
0% APR refers to SBD only.
At one time, it was better to keep SBD because SBD would get a 9.5% interest rate in the early days.
Now Steem Power holding is the new winner ever since a hard fork that happened awhile ago.
I wish they would remove that text from the wallet. It is confusing. :) Thanks for your wisdom!
Nice, clear explanation.
I think for simple folk like me who don't like to look at the markets, the following simple suggestion works: when you post, pick the 50-50 option, and then do literally that, i.e. leave half the money in SP, and withdraw the other half when it reaches a certain threshold (e.g. 100 steem dollars). Unless there's some very noticeable change in steem value, don't even bother checking the markets. I mean, that's what you do in real life: you don't check the markets every time you buy clothes or a cappuccino.
15% is given to Steem Power
that would explain the fact that I've seen my SteemPower increase without me doing anything....
As for respect...well yeah.
I give more credibility to someone who has a higher reputation.
When a minnow with a rep of less than 30 starts preaching how the cow ate the cabbage...I'm less than impressed.
If an account has EARNED (not bought) a large amount of SteemPower....they usually have a higher reputation too.
Exhibit A:
You'll notice his Reputation? 75.5...he's ranked #16 by reputation of everyone on Steemit. 34,599 Steem Power ain't half bad either.
I happen to know that he got IT ALL by posting, commenting and voting. He did NOT buy in...not only Have I 'spoken' with him on Steemit but his account (as is everyones') can be examined on SteemWhales.
So yeah....SteemPower is worthy of respect...most especially when it has been earned. Reputation is the indicator of whether it has been earned or bought.
OOPS. I disagree. (I had previously said EXACTLY) -- was pressed for time and replied too quick.
SteemPower is worthy of respect, because of the investment in the system, and potential to curate well.
Whether it is bought or earned does not matter. You can invest time, or money. They are the same for SP and should be seen the same way when it comes to curation.
Reputation, on the other hand, can only be earned. That is where it matters, and why @Papa-Pepper could be admired.
If you use the word 'respect' in the same manner as 'respect the grenade, when it's pin is pulled Mr. Grenade is NOT your friend' , in regard to some rich person who bought up a bunch of steempower..then I would agree.
I say this because I've seen Whales flag a dissenting Steemer to oblivion for personal reasons. PappaSmurf comes to mind.
Thank you for the plain language explanations. Really helpful in understanding how to get the most out of steemit and also being able to give back at the same time. Love it!
New people is upvoting like crazy without thinking of how to do it in a smart way. I keep learning, this was very helpfull to understand a bit better =)
Really great and informative post! Great for newcomers in the community!
To me it makes sense to grow this community by investing in it and yes I do sink it into steam power. Thank You for putting this out to be shared!
Tanks for this useful information. I have taken some notes and will keep this in mind as im gaining more steem power
Welcome! Joining Steemit will change your life. Please consider checking out minnowsupportproject.com and @minnowsupport. It is a great community of individuals that will help you get started and can answer all of your questions.
Do you advise systematically converting most, if not all, of your STEEM or SBD into STEEM POWER ? If so, do you then recommend always putting your posting rewards at 100% STEEM POWER ?
It depends on the person. If you are a skilled trader, being able to convert SBD to STEEM at the right time (and vice versa) can be rewarding.
If you're someone who wants to only spend SBD without ever having to PowerDown SP to STEEM, you might decide to only convert earned SBD to Bitcoin and then USD, etc. (Sometimes its nice to spend a little amount for your posting efforts every now and then and reward yourself)
For those that don't need any funds right now... 100% power up, is the best solution.
Great post!
This is very informative and timely. As a beginner, it shares more light about what Steem Power really mean
Very nice post @intelliguy, just what I needed to understand Steemit in a simply manner. Thanks again! @lank
I'm new and going all in on steem power,,, STEEM ON !
Thanks for all your hard work doing this! I know it takes a long time! i just know this.
meep
great post, thank you for the information :)
perfect explanation for noobs like me. plain english, no jargons, easy to understand and read. thank you! Take care! <3
Superb post. Resteeming!
Thanks for the write up @intelliguy!
This was very informative. You were clear in explaining the concepts to the users of our platform.
My goal is to have atleast 1000 Steem in my account. Ready to see this site grow and become a great adventure. Learning all of the side tools are helpful in this journey.
My goal is to give 20 Upvotes, 20 "actual comments" each day to stay active.
I switched to 100% STEEM a few weeks ago when the price flip happened and SBD was worth less. I've been powering up since day one :-) This is truly a great investment in the future and one I hope does really pay off in a few years. I resteemed :-)
Every post is helping me understand a bit more. Thank you @intelliguy. Nice to meet you. Resteemed.
Welcome :) Followed. Follow me back 😘
The problem is that is pretty hard to get steem power.
My account as less than 1$ of steempower no respect at all hehe.
Your account joined 3 days ago.
In only 3 days of being a new user, you say "it is pretty hard to get steem power"
Well considering that the pay period is 7 days, you still haven't gotten paid for your work.
I hope you are more patient than working for something for only 3 days.