Toolkit posts are designed to help new Steemians get acquainted with the ins and outs of Steemit. If you have requests on components or systems related to Steemit that you would like to see explained, please let us know in the comments below. [The graphics and portions of text have been updated from our outdated conversion post.]

Converting Steem Dollars (SBD) to Steem Power (SP)

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In this tutorial we’ll walk you the basics of how to convert your idle SBD into SP. This is a beginner’s guide that will go through the very basics of Steemit's internal exchange or "Market".

To begin, start at your Steemit homepage.

• Select your "Wallet" tab
• Under "STEEM DOLLARS" click the carrot to the left of your $ amount
• Select "Market" from the menu of options

• Type the "Total SBD" you would like to convert (illustrated below!)
• Click "Buy STEEM"!

Important note: Be patient! Sometimes a trade won't go through right away. This is especially true if it's a volatile day in the Market and the prices of Steem and SBD are changing quickly. (You can always cancel open trades if you need to.) Once your SBD's have been fully converted to Steem, the full converted amount will appear in your wallet under liquid “STEEM”

Now let's Power Up! So in this illustrated example; your 20 SBD has been fully converted to 20.888 Steem and you have 0 SBD remaining in your wallet. Now, you can "Power Up" your Steem by following steps, below:

• Under "STEEM" click the carrot to the left of your $ amount
• Select "Power Up" from the menu of options

Congratulations! You’ve just converted Steem Dollars to Steem Power!

Why Should I Power Up? (Pros and Cons)

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Here are the key benefits of staking your Steem as Steem Power from the very obvious to the not so obvious -

• Your votes become stronger. Your upvote (and downvote) is directly proportional to the amount of Steem Power you have. The more SP, the stronger and more profitable your vote becomes.

It’s difficult to see the progressive growth of an upvote when you start out as a new Steemian, but that can change quickly as you begin earning through blogging and commenting. We recommend using tools such as steemnow.com to keep track of your vote weight and percentages as they mature over time.

• You earn more curation rewards. You can earn Steem Power just by upvoting good content. Curators actually receive a portion of blog post rewards when a post pays out after 7 days. Blogging isn’t the only way to earn cryptocurrency on Steemit, curation is powerful too!

• You earn interest on your Steem holdings. Just like with other Proof of Stake elements in cryptocurrencies such as NEO and PIVX, you earn a compounding interest rate on all Steem held as Steem Power. Holding SP essentially gains you passive income that you wouldn’t otherwise receive if you left your Steem liquid on an exchange or external wallet.

• You can help create new accounts more efficiently. Every new account made on the Steem blockchain requires a bit of fuel to get going, either by purchasing new accounts with crypto or delegating new account a small amount of SP until they’ve powered up the requisite Steem. Delegating is an efficient and low-cost method for creating accounts and we use @jesta’s application Vessel to do so immediately with our amount of Steem Power.

• You can delegate your Steem Power. Delegating SP is an incredibly powerful tool unique to the Steem blockchain. Delegation allows other users to ‘borrow’ any amount of your Steep Power. This is really useful for when you’re creating new accounts, starting a Steem-powered project, or just want to support Steemit initiatives you believe in by lending a portion of your own stake.

• You become a trusted Steward of Steemit. This is one of the less explained and less apparent social benefits of powering up Steem in your account. The power and value of Steem goes up as more individuals stake their holdings and as such, there is a lot of street cred / kudos / community appreciation given to people who are committed holders of the coin. This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t power down or transfer our liquid currency when you need to, but staking a noticeable portion of your crypto as SP is a well-respected step on the Steemit platform.

These are the top reasons why we recommend powering-up Steem when you can. Accumulating Steem Power will open up a number of financial and social opportunities that can start to unfold the myriad of possibilities with Steemit and its supporting blockchain. Learn more about Powering Up, here.

Breakdown of SBD and STEEM & STEEM Power

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For reference; here is a breakdown of the wallet definitions including descriptions of what each category means. Want to learn more about the Steemit Wallet? Click here!.

Currency	Description
	STEEM - is the central currency on Steemit.com. It’s a cryptocurrency or “token” very similar to Bitcoin. You can earn Steem by blogging, commenting and upvoting content on Steemit. This section of the wallet shows your “liquid” Steem meaning you can withdraw these tokens at any time. You can also move Steem to SP in a process called "Powering Up."
	STEEM Power - (or SP) is the same as Steem. SP though, indicates how much influence you wield in the Steemit community. The more SP you have, the more valuable your vote becomes. Unlike the liquid Steem in the first section, SP is locked in unless you click “Power Down.”
	Steem Dollars - (or SBD) is a secondary currency on Steemit.com. Value-wise, SBD are designed (algorithmically) to never dip below approx. $1.00 USD (though it can go much higher). You can earn SBD by blogging and commenting on Steemit.com. Just like Steem, this section of your wallet is liquid, meaning you can withdraw these tokens at any time or you can convert your SBD to Steem through using the "Market" tab.

Exploring More @sndbox Steemit Toolkits

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Thanks for reading! We hope you found this Steemit Wallet walkthrough useful. Take a look at our full outline of resource / tutorial posts here. If you have any questions please don’t hesitate to reach out in the comment section.

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Check out the Steemit FAQ page to learn more!

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