How can we solve Steem / SBD confusion?

in steem •  7 years ago  (edited)

I saw this comment on my YouTube page today after talking about STEEM and the Steemit platform:

It's a question that I get asked quite a lot, especially when I talk to people about Steemit. We have Steem, Steem Backed Dollar (SBD) AND Steem (which newbies might think is ANOTHER coin).

This creates a situation where new comers to the Steem ecosystem are intimidated and hesitant to buy coins - They need to understand the concept of Steem power, powering up/down and even "convert to Steem" before they

I'm still wrapping my head around on how to solve this issue. People in the crypto world definitely need a fast way to understand Steem. Reddit uses a concept called Karma - The good thing about Karma is that the name aids understanding - 'Do good and good things will come to you". This naturally leads users to want more karma and allows for faster understanding.

How can we improve the situation for new users? Allow them to understand our system better?

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There are 3 types of currency. 1. Steem Dollar is used within the site amongst steemit community. 2. Steem Power is like owning a savings bond that is backed by steemit. It accrues interest 10% annually. It gives the user larger voting power and higher rewards for content created. SP can not be cashed out immediately, it can get paid out over an extended period of time. 3. Steem: It can be used both inside the Steemit community and in exchanges and traded against other currencies. Regards @sensicat

That was the intent of the Steem Dollar, but investors seem to want it too. My understanding is that Steem Dollar should not fall below a dollar. What I don't understand is the mechanism that prevents that.

I think the first step is to create a unique symbol for each currency and stop putting the dollar sign next to the rewards.

HAHAH didn't think about that . thats so true. the dollar sign is attractive but it causes even MORE confusion!

I think that this needs a full, big video explaining steem, steemit and the whole ecosystem.

I can already see my feed: Boxmining "Steem in a nutshell"

That would be a Great one!

I think that the simplest way to help new users to avoid confusion is to keep them informed. Point them in the direction of pages which have detailed posts about how the platform works, as well as Dtube pages which explain it.

An idea might be for a large page like yours yo repost an old post of yours every week or two so that newcomers see, otherwise it's up to Steemit to create an introduction for new users that they all read when they sign up!

That might work. I made a video before about Steem vs Steem Power vs Steem Back Dollar

Great, I'll have a look at it. I would be happy to also do a post like that - if we could get a few more people, and all post it at a different day to ensure newcomers would see it, that might work. Otherwise I'm not sure!

It has become particularly confusing with Steem Backed Dollars not being pegged to the dollar anymore. Or they dont seem to be anymore.. Steem is the shortest named of them all, start there lol.. Bitcoin Cash must have a double problem having a BCH ticker some places and a BCC ticker at others.

Yeah. Ticker confusion isn't that bad because people usually start from coin market cap. You're definitely right with SBD - people will start asking "why isn't it a dollar" etc

In the ticker symbol respect there is only one (STEEM) too. I have ran into a problem like this several times recently though. Buying mybit token I almost bought mbit instead.. and buying Aion I seen another coin called Aeon. Steem is more of a having multiple tokens problem I guess..

wow that ticker confusion is serious! it sucks how different exchanges list names differently. I hope we can clear this up this year! we have SMT - steem media tokens coming this year too!

It's Smart Media Token not Steem media token. Less confusion there.

Haha yes. I hope they are just called SMT in the underlying code like ERC20 tokens are or something similar to avoid the confusion

@drpuffnstuff @boxmining
Let us take it like this:-

  1. Us Dollar not equal to Australian dollar.
  2. mexican dollar not equal to us dollar.
    3)us dollar not equal to canadian dollar.
  3. & vice versa.

The name of the currency is same. That is " Dollar" but the value is different because the prefix is different. In case of steem dollars the prefix is steem. Thus it does not matter if steem dollar is not pegged to the dollar.

Also there are people from every country on steemit. Almost from more than 200 different countries. Thus i think steemdollar can have its own identity.

i love your videos and blogs my man :D keep it up

Thanks @aistis !

It's hard to explain when SBD isn't pegged to the $1 of STEEM as it is described. I'm not sure how to tackle this issue other than saying each asset has a market of it's own.

Yeah .. I was expecting SBD to go back down to 1 dollar, but at this point in time.. might as well just enjoy the rewards

I will also love the idea for a video, I really miss the time when Steem Dollar was below the price of Steem :s

I like the use of word "Karma" by Reddit as it allows for faster understanding.

This truly is very confusing for people who are new to crypto or Steemit in general. Maybe they need to try and make it more simple to understand. I have personally been in the financial world for a bit and am still a bit confused. :P Maybe try and develop specific names for the whole concept which helps aid new users to grasp the concept quicker? Not too sure haven't given much thought to it. Interesting post, thanks Michael! Big fan of your videos!

Thanks!

  ·  7 years ago (edited)

They should simply remove the Steem Power naming altogether and just name it "Power" balance in the wallet. Just explain that this is how much you contribute to/earn from the network. Lastly, tell the users you can withdraw Steem from the "Power" balance only gradually.

The problem with that would be how do you get steem - > power. Is it a 1:1 ratio? users might get confused in that aspect.

  ·  7 years ago (edited)

Well, it'd still be 1:1 because you wouldn't convert anything: you'd simply put some Steem in the "Power Balance". I just thought it'd be a simpler concept for people to grasp: a piggy where you keep Steem for longterm. This would simplify things because it would remove "Steem Power" altogether.

nice post

Thanks for your help on this. It always seems to be different from coin market cap.

Fork Steemit and sit Reddit on top ... In all seriousness, renaming to something more explainitory would go a long way.

For sure! leveraging what people know already makes a big difference.

I think it is easy. we may have to tell them that these are all forks and since they had to be used somewhere we named them and assigned them different purposes.
Even after that there will still be a question. We may have to explain them what is a fork?
Thus i think the only solution for this problem is time. With time they will learn everything. Instead of putting all our energy in thinking what different steems are, i think we should concentrate on posting good quality content.

Its really confusing..and Ive been here for months! My steem dollars and steem power dont equal my account balance even though the rest is 0?

your payout is given in 50% steam dollars (which are meant to be worth 1 dollar) and 50% steem. so they don't have to equal.

Thanks @boxmining..but I have no 'steem' which is odd if its 50% of payout? Just 'steem dollars" and "steem power'?

I don’t understand how to exchange my steem dollar at his real price (coinmarketcap)

two ways:

1- send to an exchange (like bittrex) and exchange for bitcoin. Then you can change bitcoin for whatever coin you like, including steem.

2- If you only want steem, then you can just click the arrow next to the amount of SBD in your wallet. Then in the drop down that appears click on "market". This will take you to the steem internal market, where you can sell SBD for steem at the real price (coinmarketcap). If you don't know how to use the internal market, there are many posts and videos explaining this, google it!

Yes but when I click on steem dollar then « transfer » I can only send it to an other steem account

Yes send it to bittrex. You should first sign up to bittrex, then click + on your steem dollar wallet. It will provide you with the memo and the account name (which is @bittrex).

Ok thanks !

hahhahahahhahahhahhahahah.... you have made my day.

I’m inspired by your videos and blogs, nice work man

The best way to help beginners to create a training channel for Youtube with several training videos. For beginners who have already come to the platform, you can try to introduce curators.

There are two kinds of Karma, reputation and steem power