STEEM Power (SP) is STEEM_Tokens that has been locked in, vested, meaning it can't be immediately withdrawn to spend. STEEM Power is what gives you influence on Steemit. The more SP you have, the more money you give to authors with an upvote as well as the greater the curation rewards you can earn
What is Steemit?
The Steem is an open-source Blockchain. The most familiar platform on top of Steem-Blockchain is Steemit. Steemit is a blogging platform. On Steemit, people earn rewards in form of cryptocurrency when their blogs get upvoted by other users of the Steemit.
You may think of Steem-Blockchain as a power-plant and steemit as a machine run by its power. The same power-plant can be used to build any kind of content rewarding platform, that is why we call it open-source.
I’ll use Steemit’s example in this blog to talk about the Steem, Steem Power (SP), and Steem Dollars (SBD).
Now the question is —
Why three different Cryptocurrencies?
There are three asset classes on Steem: Steem, Steem-power (SP), and Steem-dollars (SBD).
Different assets for different purposes give more control over the functioning of the platform. It also provides clear ways to contribute, earn from, and hold power in — the system.
In the technical terms, Steem is the base currency, traded on the exchanges. All other currencies derive their value from Steem. Steem Power is the native currency to the platform which cannot be traded directly on exchanges. Steem Dollars (Steem Blockchain Dollars) is another currency for rewards, traded on the exchanges.
The authors (people publishing blogs on steemit) and curators (people upvoting valuable content on steemit) are rewarded with SBD and SP. Users may choose to earn 100% SP or 50–50 SP and SBD both when publishing posts.
The witnesses — people who contribute their computing power to the Steem Blockchain) are rewarded with SP.
This sums up a lot of Steem Blockchain. But there is more to it.
A simple example to understand the STEEM, Steem Power (SP) and Steem Blockchain Dollars (SBD)
Think of Steem-Blockchain as a gold mine. Steemit as a tool to mine this gold. And users use this tool for mining.
The mine produces a fixed amount of gold every day. In the world of Steemit, we call this gold ‘STEEM’. The Steem (gold) is traded by the people in the market (online cryptocurrency exchanges). They buy it on a speculative price and keep it (hold) with them to sell later when the prices go up. Why the prices will ever go up? Because the Steem has many use cases; it is useful and scarce.
The value of Steem is exactly the amount at which people are trading it in the market. The trust of the buyers and holders (the one who own Steem) gives it a price on the exchange.
SP and SBD
The Blockchain algorithm (program) produces SP and SBD in correlation with the Steem generated every day.
The SP and SBD are derivatives of the Steem (Gold). Just like ornaments and gold coins are two different derivatives of gold with a different purpose. The role of SP and SBD in the Steem Blockchain makes the whole system function.
Remember: The Steem comes first out of the Steem-Blockchain which is traded in the market. Then Steem-Blockchain produces SP and SBD which has some use cases on the Steemit.
Many thanks to you
Thanks @dobartim, I appreciate it
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