*Easy Peasy Lemon Squeezy
(Image source: Pixabay)
So you are somehow on Steemit but maybe just never been into that Bitcoin thing and do not even know what a Cryptocurrency is or what a Crypto does for that matter. All you know is you have a Wallet page, it seems confusing, and you just want to know how do you spend your earnings from Steemit. There is a few different ways to go about this, so let's do this.
First way to spend Steem you have earned is by doing it directly with vendors in the cryptocurrency world. Check DuoSear.ch to see products you can get on OpenBazaar right now. Websites like Purse.io offer discounts on your Amazon.com purchases, thanks to @shapeshiftio, both OpenBazaar and Purse offer the ability to accept Steem instead of having to transfer to Bitcoin (see the post "Tutorial: How to Buy with Steem on OpenBazaar"). Once you know how to use Shapeshift, create accounts with eGifter and Gyft and start buying Gift Cards which you can then just use the eGifter or Gyft mobile apps and pay from your phone in a great number of places. Last and certainly not least is Peerhub, a website that has adopted Steem as one of it's main payment methods.
Trying to turn your Steem into Cash?
This will take a couple of more steps and I won't lie keeping cryptocurrency as it is and spending as it is instead of spending it as cash actually helps the overall value of Steem itself. But hey, it's your Steem, you want it to be money, keep reading.
Let's multitask. Have some tabs open. Have your Steemit.com Wallet page open in one tab, and in another tab go to Poloniex.com or Bittrex.com and get yourself an account. If you are wondering what to use over the other, I suggest just having an account on both exchanges. Both support STEEM and Steem Dollars (SBD) as well as most the major alt coins, as well as having being around for quite a while.
It's time to transfer your Steem and Steem Dollars to one of the exchanges you just signed up for.
On Poloniex, click on the "Balances" tab and go to "Deposits & Withdrawls" and type "Steem" in the search box. Click the "Deposit" link which will bring a box that will give you your "Steem Memo", keep that tab open and head back to your Steemit.com wallet tab you should stil have open.
On Bittrex, you go to the Wallets tab and type "Steem" in the search box. Next to STEEM there is a plus and minus box, click the plus box. In the window that pops up, click "New Address", keep that tab open and head back to your Steemit.com wallet tab you should still have open.
From your Wallet page, the top selection "Steem" shows the number of Steem you have on the right, click on that to display the drop down and choose "Transfer", in the "To" field you will put either poloniex or bittrex depending on what Exchange you are using. Enter the amount of Steem you wish to transfer, and in the Memo field is where you go back to your tab open on the exchange and copy that tiny string of letters and numbers that Poloniex or Bittrex has provided you.
Repeat this step for Steem Dollars (SBD) if you wish to transfer those earnings out as well using the same steps as above. Make sure to create a new deposit and get the other memo string of letters of numbers that the exchange will provide you. Steem Dollars and Steem are different currencies. We are deep into this tutorial for me to be revealing this information to you, but I just now realized some of you may have been so confused by that Wallet page that you didn't even know you had been getting paid out in two currencies this whole time.
Not always instantly, but at least very shortly your Steem and or Steem Dollars will be on the exchange site of your choice.
From there you now need to go to the Steem / Bitcoin exchange page and sell your Steem for Bitcoin. Quick links: Poloniex STEEM/BTC exchange page, Bittrex BTC-STEEM exchange page. At first these pages will look a little scary if you have never traded before, lots of big graphs and lots of numbers. Take a breath, navigate to the part of the page where you will see "Sell Steem".
This is a quick tutorial so if you are trying to play the markets, go elsewhere, because my instruction to you is to just take all your Steem and find the nearest "Buy Order" or "Bid" at the top of that list that matches the amount you are selling, click on the order, enter the amount of Steem you are seling, and hit the sell button. Repeat these steps for Steem Dollars (Quick links: Poloniex Steem Dollars/BTC exchange page, Bittrex BTC-SBD exchange page). Once you have your Bitcoin, you can now transfer from your exchange wallet to something like Bitsquare or LocalBitcoins or Coinbase and sell your Bitcoin for cash or even have money directly deposited into your bank account.
Remember, you can skip all those steps and just spend your Steem directly now. Grab your next Starbucks coffee using the Gyft app on your phone by shapeshift'ing your Steem into Bitcoin at the time of purchase. Support an artist and buy some original artwork on OpenBazaar. Buy a comic book. Or screw this tutorial, do something different, take your Steem and hit the built in Steemit.com exchange market and transfer it all to Steem Dollars and let it earn interest.
ALSO ON STEEMIT
* This Elephant Sculpture Art was Bought With STEEM