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What is an ICO?
An ICO, or Initial Coin Offering, is a new way to raise capital for all sorts of projects by selling a cryptocurrency. It’s mostly used by tech startups.
How does it work?
A project or company specifies its intentions to hold an ICO by publishing a so-called whitepaper. There it explains the project, its goals, how much capital it needs to raise, when the ICO is scheduled, and other information to help investors decide whether to participate.
In exchange for making an investment, an investor gets the project’s cryptocurrency, usually referred to as a token. Depending on the project, tokens may be acquired in exchange for other cryptocurrencies or for fiat money like US dollars, euros, and so on.
ICOs let startups and other companies raise capital much more easily and quickly than, for example by selling shares or bonds or getting loans, since the market is still largely unregulated and they don’t need to deal with venture capitalists or banks. Going forward, however, raising capital via an ICO can be expected to become more and more complicated as the market matures and new regulations are introduced.
What is a 'Cryptocurrency?
A cryptocurrency is a digital or virtual currency that uses cryptography for security. A cryptocurrency is difficult to counterfeit because of this security feature. A defining feature of a cryptocurrency, and arguably its most endearing allure, is its organic nature; it is not issued by any central authority, rendering it theoretically immune to government interference or manipulation.
The first cryptocurrency to capture the public imagination was Bitcoin, which was launched in 2009 by an individual or group known under Satoshi Nakamoto. As of September 2015, there were over 14.6 million bitcoins in circulation with a total market value of $3.4 billion. Bitcoin's success has spawned a number of competing cryptocurrencies, such as Litecoin,
What is STEEM and how does it work?
Steemit is a social network that looks and functions the best.
Steem (STEEM) Steem is a cryptocurrency used to power the platform Steemit - an incentivized blockchain social media platform. Users create and curate content on Steemit just like other social news platforms
teemit is a platform that combines blockchain technology, social media, and cryptocurrency for the creation of user-generated content and community building. The social community helps to produce content and curate it, while it gets rewarded with two main cryptocurrencies: 50% in Steem Power and 50% in Steem Dollars.
As we will see throughout the guide, Steemit uses financial tools similar to those used by startups. With the main difference, those rely on the blockchain technology and cryptocurrency, rather than on a few venture capital investments and equity ownership.
The 3 Steemit Currency Units:
One big difference between Steem and other digital currencies is that there are three different kinds of Steemit currency units.
There is Steem, Steem Power, and Steem Dollars.
Steem:
Steem are the units that are bought and sold for actual money on the open markets. You can trade them as you would bitcoins or a company’s stock.
But you don’t want to hold on to these for too long because more Steem Units are created every single day. If you hold onto Steem Units for a long time, they will become diluted and lose value.
Steem Power:
Owning Steem Power Units is essentially like making a long term investment in the currency because you can’t sell Steem Power Units for 2 years. But there are a lot of good reasons to have Steem Power.
By keeping your currency as Steem Power Units, you will be able to make considerably more money in the long run because you essentially have ownership in the network. As the network grows, so will your piece of the pie.
And you’ll be heavily rewarded along the way. The way things are set up now, 90% of the new Steem Currency that is generated every single day is distributed to the people who already hold Steem Power Units in the form of additional Steem Power Units. (The other 10% goes to content creators and curators).
Half of the pay you receive for your content will be in Steem Power Units.
Also, the more Steem Power Units you have, the more your curation vote will count. You will have more influence on the site and you will also get paid more for upvoting other people’s work. (When you upvote someone’s work, they will get paid more as well.)
Steem Power Units also play one final and very important role. They prevent massive price swings and volatility on the open markets. Because everyone is locked in for 2 years, we can’t all sell our currency all at once if the market starts to dip, which would crash the price were it to happen.
Steem Dollars:
Steem Dollars are the third and final form of the currency and never get diluted or lose their value. They are designed to be a stable currency that you can sell at any time. When you create popular content, 50% of your pay will be in Steem Dollars.
And you’ll be rewarded for holding Steem dollars too. It’s not nearly as much as the rewards for holding Steem Power. But because it still keeps the currency in the network, holding Steem Dollars pays 10% interest.
When you earn Steem Dollars for creating content, you have three choices:
You can convert the Steem Dollars to Steem and sell it immediately on the open market for real money, essentially cashing out.
You can hold the Steem Dollars, which keeps the money in the network and pays you 10% interest. You can sell them at any time. If you think the value will go up and want to sell at some point in the near future, this is your best option.
You can exchange your Steem Dollars for Steem Power. If you want to invest in the future of the currency and reap the biggest rewards, this is the way to do it.
How are the newly created Steem distributed each day?
Every day 90% of the new Steem units are rewarded to the people who hold Steem Power Units.
10% of the new Steem units are paid to content creators, curators, and commenters.
When you create content that actually earns money, 50% is paid to you in Steem Dollar Units that can be exchanged for actual money right away (or converted into Steem Power). The other 50% is paid in Steem Power. The Steem Power Units are locked up for 2 years.