To better understand the three types of assets in Steem and how they can be converted one into another, I’ve created this Steem Currency Cheat Sheet.
Hopefully this can serve as a helpful reminder. I’m not an expert however, and might have gotten something wrong. So if you spot an error, or just feel like adding something, please let me know!
So the three asset classes in Steem are:
STEEM:
- Liquid, tradeable on exchanges (currently Bittrex, Poloniex, and BitShares OpenLedger)
- Can be transferred from an exchange into your wallet, use your account name as the address
- Alternatively, can be converted directly from BTC, ETH, or BTS. Use the Deposit option in the Steemit wallet
- Can be transferred to another user. Use the Transfer option in the Steemit wallet
- Inflates by 100% each year
- Because of that, should be held short term only
- Each 3.3 years, a 10:1 reverse split occurs
- STEEM is like cash in a hyper-inflated economy and can be used to buy SP and SBD, below
Steem Power (SP):
- Illiquid, implies long term commitment to the Steem network
- The more SP you have, the larger rewards you get for curation
- Of the newly emerging STEEM, 90% goes to SP holders, and 10% to content authors and curators
- Acquired by Powering Up STEEM or with a direct BTC/ETH/BTS deposit in the Steemit wallet
- Take 104 weeks to be converted back to STEEM — use Power Down in the wallet
- SP is like company shares — the Steem network distributes its revenue among SP holders proportionally to the size of their holdings
Steem Backed Dollars (SBD or SMD):
- Liquid, tradeable on exchanges and Steemit internal market
- Designed to have stable value of about $1. Current values are listed here (see the Feed column)
- Pay holders 10% annual interest
- Can be converted to STEEM right in the wallet. Conversion takes 1 week and the price is median price over that week
- Can be transferred to another user. Use the Transfer option in the Steemit wallet
- SBDs are like bonds. By holding 1 SBD you effectively lend the Steem network $1, and are paid some reward in return, though likely not as much as with SP. On the other hand, you can sell SBD at any time unlike SP
This neat diagram shows how you can convert between those assets and Bitcoin:
