Originally posted here on Steemit
https://steemit.com/hive-142140/@punicwax/how-steemit-works-steem-and-sbd

Something everyone should know about STEEM. So STEEM itself is what you would purchase and send yourself on the Steemit Platform to Power Up. And if you want to "hodl", STEEM is the Steemit currency to buy cheap and hodl.

https://steemit.com/utopian-io/@jga/steem-proposal-possibility-to-transform-from-steem-to-sbd-in-order-to-reduce-speculation

STEEM and SBD Basics

But, STEEM Backed Dollars, or SBD, are pegged at about $1.00 give or take the occasional fluctuation. This used to be accomplished using a Steemit based Exchange which made SBD Liquid, and whoever traded the most every day, while keeping the price up, got like 100 or 1000 STEEM per day. So you do not want to hodl SBD, because it won't go up. When SBD goes over $1.00 it is designed to be dumped to raise the price of STEEM and stabilize SBD at $1.00.

https://steemit.com/how-to/@blueorgy/how-to-convert-your-steemdollars-sbd-to-cash-usd-transfer-it-into-your-bank-account

So hodl STEEM do not hodl SBD.

Now, when you earn Currency on STEEM it is SBD and STEEM Power (SP). STEEM Power is STEEM locked on your Steemit account until you Power Down a.k.a. Withdraw. So you earn SBD which can be instantly withdrawn and sold and should be sold, unless you want the savings interest you can get in your Steemit wallet. And you get STEEM Power which is STEEM being held.

Up and Down

Right now as this is written STEEM is $0.15 to $0.17 going up and down daily, but around that price every day. Relatively earnings are low, because 9,000,000 STEEM is only around $2,000,000.00 Votes from someone with 2,000 SP is about $0.01 worth for the reciever of the vote.

With the new Greeters team, new Management, new Minnow Support, and option to form Communities which are basically the Subreddits /r/ of Steemit, the price is likely to go up soon. And when 9,000,000 SP is $9,000,000.00 or $18,000,000.00 then the portion that pays out in SBD goes up. Because it is pegged at $1.00, STEEM becomes more valuable and less is more, but those vote payouts require bigger loads of SBD because they are pegged around $1.00.

So keep all this in mind as this platform reaches its true potential, which it has not fully achieved yet.

And STEEM was $8.00 each 2 years ago.