As part of my exploring steemit and the STEEM blockchain, I decided to convert a small bit of my BTC to STEEM. For some reason I could not really find a lot about how to do this. It seems either you need to already know how to use an exchange that happens to have the pair or you have to learn something new. I fell in the learn something new camp.
STEEM is a bit different than most crypto as well. We have a ton of keys! So which do I use?
In the end I found Change Hero which is similar to Changely or SimpleSwap or those kinds of services. No account needed. I would guess it takes a bit larger fee than a regular exchange does, so if you are comfortable with exchanges that is probably a better way to go. But for a first foray into buying STEEM this route is pretty convenient. You basically send them the BTC and give them your STEEM address and wait.
And waiting I did... I don't think it was any fault of Change Hero. Just how slow Bitcoin is. It took around 22 hours but once the BTC transaction was confirmed the STEEM was in my wallet in no time.
One thing I did have to figure out... my username is my address! I had so many keys... and most crypto you just have your keys, not a username. So I thought for sure I needed one of my public keys. I also read a welcome post here that talked about what all the keys were for and in the memo description it said it wasn't used for much except something with exchanges. So I tried that too. Luckily Change Hero doesn't let you advance if things don't seem right. I ended up figuring out my username was the address. Without the @ symbol. I also put the memo public key in the memo box, though I'm not sure that was needed...
So after that, I just sent the BTC to the address Change Hero supplied. Waited the 20+ hours. Then got my STEEM!
After that I powered up! Because why not. I am still learning how these things work but my understanding is the higher my SP the more my votes on posts will be worth. So I wanted my upvotes to actually reward more than 0.00. :D Hopefully now they will? Guess I'll find out.