Using Steemit for your social media certainly has its perks!
I'll be heading across the country this summer for a family member's wedding and needed to book a flight for me and my wife. We all know that flights can be expensive these days and vacation costs can quickly add up. But I have a little secret to tell you...
I paid nothing for my tickets!
OK, maybe that's not entirely accurate. I did pay something. In fact - I paid for the tickets in U.S. Dollars. I have a pre-paid VISA debit/credit card that I've been using for my internet purchases. However, that card - the Bitpay debit/credit card - is actually charged up with the cryptocurrency, Bitcoin. If I want to spend some money, I transfer the Bitcoin to Bitpay, and they convert the amount into spendable U.S. Dollars via their debit/credit services.
But what if you don't have Bitcoin? I'm glad you asked!
Here on Steemit.com, you can earn rewards for blogging, commenting, and voting on the blogs and comments of other users. The Steem blockchain produces digital tokens called "STEEM," which users can earn through performing those activities - the same activities that they can engage in on other social media platforms that don't pay them. These STEEM tokens (or SBDs, which are STEEM Backed Dollars) can then be bought, held, or sold in a wallet on the Steem blockchain or on a number of cryptocurrency exchanges, just like other cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum.
I have been fortunate enough to gain a great following on Steemit and have earned rewards for doing what most other people in the world do throughout their day for free. So, I decided to take some of these rewards and purchase my plane tickets!
I sent 480 SBDs to the BlockTrades exchange service. They automatically converted these 480 SBDs into Bitcoin and sent that payment over to Bitpay, which was waiting on these funds in order to charge up my pre-paid card. After confirming that those funds were received, I booked my flight and paid with my Bitpay card.
As you can see, the tickets totaled $749.92. But due to the current price of SBDs, I received a premium for my Bitcoin transfer. It essentially cost me $480 of earnings to buy $750 tickets.
What a deal!
What did it really cost me though?
I'm just doing what most people do on a daily basis on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Reddit, Pinterest, or any number of social media platforms. The decision to do these things on Steemit has given me the opportunity to purchase plane tickets...for free!
Well, at least that's how it feels to me.
I do what I would otherwise do on other websites and apps, except I actually make money here for doing it. You don't have to know how everything works. You just need to know that it does work. And tonight's purchase is a perfect example of that!
So, if you're reading this and you and your friends and family aren't using Steemit yet, I have to ask you...why not?