UPVU FAQ

Upvu is a blockchain based decentralized social media - powered by Steem.

UPVU : Steem Engine based liquidity token with the same utility as SP(Steem Power) but with a much shorter unstaking period.

Upvu : Refers to a 3rd-party frontend(upvu.org) built by forking Ecency while also being an aggregator service based on the Steem blockchain.

Upvu is hub of communities powered by cutting edge technology where users are getting paid for their time, resources and learn while having complete control over their account, communities and content. Through ease of use, users not only learn but also become investors, innovators of the new internet.

The Upvu platform is based on Steem blockchain technology. All content is immutable and uncensorable. All users fully own their content and digital assets, and no one has control over the data. The core of Web3 is to add the concept of OWN beyond READ and WRITE, and it differs from existing social media in that all users have full control over the ownership of personal information, data, and digital assets.

The Steem blockchain is the publicly accessible distributed database, which records all posts and votes, and distributes the rewards across the network. It is where all of the text content and voting data is stored, and it is where all of the reward calculations and payouts are performed.

On a technical level, the two networks rely on the same model of a blockchain, but are built upon different technologies and codebase. Steem is based on a new state-of-the-art blockchain technology called Graphene, which uses “witnesses” instead of “miners” to produce blocks.

The “delegated proof of stake” model of using witnesses instead of miners allows for greater efficiency in block production. With BTC, 100% of the new coins that are created are allocated to block producers (miners). With the Steem blockchain, only 10% of the new coins are paid to block producers (witnesses). The other 90% of new STEEM coins are awarded to content producers, curators, and Steem Power holders.

Upvu stores and reads data from the blockchain, and thus data is accessible and uncensored. Upvu rewards content creators with built-in incentive mechanism of blockchain, with tokens (STEEM, SBD) as well as VU Points. Tokens can be purchased and sold in major cryptocurrency exchanges (e.g. Binance, Huobi, UPbit, Bithumb). VU Points could be utilized within platform and traded for goods, services.

You can sign up using the official member registration website (https://signup.steemit.com/) or through the Steem Keychain chrome extension developed and operated by the Upvu development team. A tool to create accounts directly on upvu.org is currently under development.

Account names on Upvu and Steem blockchain can not be changed. If you would like a new account name, you can create new account.

Accounts on Upvu and Steem blockchain can not be deactivated or deleted. The account along with all of its activity is permanently stored in the Steem blockchain.

You can log in to Upvu using the Steem Keychain chrome extension where your Steem account information is stored, or using your active private key. We take security very seriously, so we never store your private keys.

There are different keys with the appropriate permissions for what you are doing.

• Posting keys - this key should be used for social networking actions, like posting, commenting and voting. This key has a limited set of permissions and it is not able to be used for monetary actions. So you can't lose money if someone else gets access to this key.
• Active key - this key has additional permissions for more sensitive monetary-related actions, like transferring and exchanging tokens. When performing a wallet related action, you may be prompted to authenticate with your Active key. You should only enter your Active Key into apps which you trust because anyone with access to this key can take your tokens. Do yourself a favor and store this key safely to avoid losing tokens in the future.
• Owner key - is the most powerful key because it can change any key of an account, including the owner key. Ideally it is meant to be stored offline, and only used to recover a compromised account.

The first information shown near your image is your reputation score and display name, description. Below information about followers and following, registration date on Upvu. You have the option to add extra information on Upvu settings such as about information, profile image, cover image, your location.

VU Points are continually minted and rewarded for all users for various social activities they perform on upvu.org. Points can be used for promoting, boosting your content, using a variety of advanced features, can even be transferred or gifted to another user. You can also purchase VU Points with STEEM or SBD.

The Steem network continually creates new digital tokens to reward content creators and curators. Some of the newly-created tokens are transferred to users who add value to platform by posting, commenting, and voting on other people's posts. The remainder is distributed to holders of SP and the witnesses that secures the blockchain.

STEEM is a native token on the Steem blockchain and can be transferred, staked (powered up) and traded at any time. STEEM can be converted to Steem Power in a process called powering up or staking STEEM.

Steem Power is influence tokens that earn more power for holding long term and voting on content. The more Steem Power one holds, the more one can influence other's rewards and earn rewards for accurate voting. Steem Power is staked STEEM token that can be unstaked in 4 weeks.

Steem Dollars are denoted by the symbol SBD, an acronym for Steem Blockchain Dollars. Creating SBD requires a combination of a reliable price feed and rules to prevent abuse. Providing a reliable price feed involves three factors: minimizing the impact of an incorrect feed, maximizing the cost of producing an incorrect feed, and minimizing the importance of timing.

SBD is a convertible bond-type token of the Steem blockchain with a value stabilization mechanism, and is paid as a reward along with STEEM (SP) to users active in the Steem ecosystem.

Steem Power can be delegated to users by another user. When user is delegated Steem Power- their Resource Credits, content votes, and curation rewards are calculated as if it were their own Steem Power. Users are not able to power down or cash out delegated Steem Power however, as it still belongs to the original owner.

All users can stake their STEEM in their account and convert it into an influence token called SP. The term power-up is often used with the word “staking” on other chains. STEEM converted to SP through power-up can be delegated, but cannot be transferred or traded. If you want to transfer or trade, you must power down first.

Steem Power can be powered down in the same wallets where it can be powered up. When you power down, STEEM Power will not be available as STEEM immediately. It is converted in 4 equal parts and transferred into your STEEM wallet weekly, the first portion only being available a week after the power down was initiated.

Your voting power goes down a little bit every time you vote. It begins with 100% voting power and by voting you use small amount of voting power. The more you vote the fewer influence you have, meaning efficiency of your vote will decay. Daily 10 votes with 100% VP are recommended to utilize efficiency and curation rewards better.

The dollar amounts next to posts and comments are estimates of the potential payout that will occur when the payout period ends, based on the current voting activity and price of STEEM. It is the potential payout that may go up or down until the period ends. Payouts occur as a combination of SP and SBD. Sometimes the blockchain may substitute STEEM in place of the SBD based on market conditions.

Every user has a reputation score next to their name. The more value you bring to the community the more reputation score you will have. It is also a mechanism that is designed to help reduce abuse of the Steem platform. Getting upvoted by people increases your reputation and getting downvoted by people with a higher reputation can push your reputation down and make your posts less visible. Users with a lower reputation score are unable to affect your reputation.

The more upvotes from the users with high reputation you have the higher reputation score you will have. The best way of improving your reputation score is earn upvotes by adding value to the community.

Upvu is home of free speech where you can post everything you created: phrases, quotes, blogs, anecdotes, photos, videos, memes, songs, and more. Be creative! Just be careful of spam or abuse.

A tag is a piece of information that describes the content that it is assigned to. They help search engines identify the content of pages online and using that information, produce the best results for a given search. All tags must be lowercase letters. Spaces aren't allowed, but hyphenated words with a single dash are allowed.

Users can create the tags of their choice but by choosing a useful tag users may reveal your post very easy. For example, your first introduction post can be popular just by using introduction tag. Be sure that you are using tags that are related to your post otherwise your post may get downvotes for mistagging.

You have several options like browsing your hard drive to add an image by clicking on the selecting them link from within the editor or if you have copied image just click ctrl+v (cmd+v) and your image will be uploaded into your post or comment. Another way that you can use for videos and images is paste the image or video's web address (URL) into the editor and it will automatically be added.

Thumbnail is reduced-size version of picture taken from your post that can be viewer's first impression about your post. You can choose a thumbnail before publishing your post. In post creation page, click Advanced button and select any one of your images as thumbnail.

After writing your post you can see that Publish button is still gray, be sure that you chose a good title and at least one valid tag. If you miss them Publish button will be disabled.

This is the way of sorting content on Upvu.

• Trending - Widely mentioned or discussed posts.
• Hot - Popular posts in last couple hours.
• New - The newest posts sorted by the published time.

In publishing settings section, you can see 3 different Reward types/choices.

• 50%/50% - This rewards in half SP, and half liquid STEEM / SBD. The ratio of liquid STEEM to SBD rewarded is based on network conditions at the time of payout. This is the default payout option.
• Power Up 100% - This option rewards the post in 100% SP.
• Decline Payout - Use this option to receive no post rewards. Votes will affect the post's position on the trending ranking but no rewards are paid from Steem's reward pool. Replies made to the post are still eligible for rewards.

Content source helps you understand how content was published. In some cases you may see a third-party client name, which indicates the Content came from a non-Upvu application. Authors sometimes use third-party client applications to manage their blogs, communities. Third-party clients are software tools used by authors and therefore are not affiliated with, nor do they reflect the views of, the content. Content can be directly created by humans or, in some circumstances, automated by an application.

After login, you will find Wallet page in top header on website or in Profile page. In wallet page you can initiate transfer of any token you hold to another user or exchange accounts, click on arrow next to your balance and find transfer operations. Transfers are irreversible because they are registered on blockchain, make sure to send correct recipient.

There are two kind of rewards are shown in your wallet:

• Curation rewards - The rewards earned for upvoting posts and comments.
• Author rewards - The rewards earned by your own posts and comments.
• Points rewards - Social actions and interactions also rewarded with Ecency points.

Role of witnesses or block producers in Steem blockchain is to act as the network's governance body. Top 20 witnesses are producing blocks every minute while rest remain as backup witness and gets randomized chance every minute. Community elects them to represent their voice and each user can elect up to 30 witnesses. This role is integral part of consensus mechanism blockchain runs on and recommend user engagement to vote on trusted witnesses. Witnesses are compensated with SP for each block they create.

Visit Witness page and click voting icon.

• Plagiarized posts or copied content.
• Leaving nearly identical or materially similar comments on multiple posts.
• Using tags that are unrelated to the post.
• Threatening users with any type of physical violence.
• Not citing sources when using someone else’s material.
• Posting ‘not safe for work’ content without using the “nsfw” tag.
• Scams or Fraudulent offers.