Techie-word-to-english translation for common steemit lingo. Special tools included!
Steemit Glossary
- Created as a collaboration effort by Stellabelle & Intelliguy.
Bitcoin: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bitcoin Digital asset and a payment system invented by Satoshi Nakamoto. Nakamoto introduced the idea on 31 October 2008 to a cryptography mailing list. It was released as open-source software in 2009. Bitcoin is convertible to most international fiat currencies and uses a computer or smartphone to transact peer to peer. It is the equivalent of a public money system, that is owned by the same people who use it.
BitShares: A Decentralized Asset Exchange founded by Dan Larimer that can trade SmartCoins, User Issued Assets, and offers multiple financial tools for things like Project Funding, Recurring & Scheduled payments. Think of it like NASDAQ, and a Central Bank, all decentralized and owned by the same people who use it.
Bittrex: https://bittrex.com/ A very popular US-based cryptocurrency exchange. You can trade STEEM, BITCOIN, and hundreds of other cryptocurrencies.
Blockchain technology: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blockchain_(database) A blockchain consists of digital blocks that hold timestamped batches of valid transactions. Each block includes the hash of the prior block in the blockchain, linking the two. The linked blocks form a chain, with only one (successor) block allowed to link to one other (predecessor) block, thus giving the database type its name. Blockchain was the main technological innovation of Bitcoin.
Blocktrades: https://blocktrades.us/ Cryptocurrency conversion tool that allows you to exchange cryptocurrencies without needing an account.
Coindesk: http://www.coindesk.com/ Media outlet covering cryptocurrency news.
CoinMarketCap: https://coinmarketcap.com/ Cryptocurrency Market Capitalizations in real-time. Instantly check to see how the Steem market cap and value is doing in relation to other cryptocurrencies.
Coinbase: https://www.coinbase.com/ A popular buying and selling Bitcoin & ETH platform. Contains Bitcoin wallet, merchant tools for e-commerce, and more.You can convert Bitcoin & ETH to normal fiat currency (like USD) and from a regular bank once you’ve undergone identity verification.
Content Creator: Someone who authors a story or post. In most cases, this is new, unique content that is not found on the internet already. They receive 50% of the total value of their contribution, which is also split between steem power (SP), and steem dollars (SBD).
CryptoCoinsNews: https://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/news/ Media site dedicated to providing information about cryptocurrency news.
Cryptocurrency: A virtual currency, that is based on consensus that is stored on a public leger, or public blockchain. These are decentralized systems that are spread out around the world in a peer to peer arrangement. The use of complex hash algorithms protect the balance in a cryptography wallet using public and private keypairs. Bitcoin was the first cryptocurrency, and since that time, many more have been created as well. Bitcoin is currently the de facto standard, and the most highly valued at the current time.
Curator: A steem user who upvotes a post by using their daily voting power to assign value to a post that they believe has good quality content and should be seen and the author rewarded.
Curation Reward: The reward given to a curator, which is their portion of the 50% allocated to all curators that have upvoted a post.
Dan Larimer: Founder of BitShares. Cofounder and CTO of Steemit. Read Dan’s blog to learn fundamental aspects of Steem and the foundation on which Steemit was built: https://bytemaster.github.io/ He’s also @dantheman on Steemit.
Decentralized: These systems are often seen as peer-to-peer. The traditional system of a “centralized” server, with multiple clients is historically the way the internet began. Decentralized systems work by all clients sharing information directly with one another, with no centralized server in control. The benefit of this, is that there is no one centralized server to attack, nor can any government shut down a particular server to stop the service. It also privacy through anonymity. Any connected node could be the source of a transaction, but it becomes very difficult to know which node is simply relaying information, or the creator of it. Decentralized systems can “agree”, based on blockchains, and hashed algorithms, which use mathematics to show proof of work as a checksum.
Dolphins: Power Steemit users who are not quite whales but who have considerable influence and Steem Power. They could become future whales.
Downvote: Offensive material, copyright violations, content theft, or spam, not appropriate for the steem network can be downvoted by other users. If material receives enough downvotes, it will be hidden and not easily accessed. Downvotes are not to be used for “disagreeing” with someone’s view. They are only used in extreme circumstances where there is obvious abuse of the system.
Fintech: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Financial_technology Economic industry composed of companies that use technology to make financial services more efficient. These are most often startups that seek to revolutionize current models of financial operations.
Hardfork: https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Hardfork A hardfork is a change to the protocol that makes previously invalid blocks/transactions valid, and therefore requires all users to upgrade.
Internal Market: https://steemit.com/market Steem has an internal market which Steem Dollars are traded in exchange for STEEM.
Liquidity Reward: Prior to July 26, 2016, there was a 1200 STEEM liquidity reward for traders who either bought or sold steem on the “internal market” once they earned enough liquidity points. This ended up being gamed by some bots, and as a result, liquidity rewards were halted.
Markdown Language: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Markdown John Gruber created the Markdown language in 2004, with significant collaboration from Aaron Swartz on the syntax, with the goal of enabling people "to write using an easy-to-read, easy-to-write plain text format. Markdown Language is commonly used to create Steemit articles.
Mining: When bitcoin was introduced, it was based on finding the solution to a complex mathematical problem in order to solve the next “block” in the chain. The node that was the first to do it, earned a reward from the newly created bitcoins. In terms of steem’s blockchain you can configure a “witness node” that verifies and confirms steem transactions and new blocks. A certain witness node is picked at random to solve a block, and it must do it within 3 seconds and send it back to the network in order to be rewarded with vesting steem (Steem Power) for doing it correctly and on time.
Minnows: brand new users of Steemit who do not have much in the way of voting power or Steem Power.
Ned Scott: Cofounder and CEO of Steemit.com. He’s @ned on Steemit.
OpenLedger: https://www.openledger.info/ offers the users a wallet of their own located directly on the BitShares blockchain, with multi-signature accounts, referral system, a financial platform for crypto currencies with a fiat gateway and access to easy cash with a crypto currency debit card called NanoCard
Payout: Each post was paid out after about 24 hours, but has changed to approximately every 12 hours
Poloniex: https://poloniex.com/ US-based online cryptocurrency exchange where you can trade STEEM, BITCOIN, and hundreds of other cryptocurrencies. It is also similar to coinbase, where verification will allow you deposit and withdraw in fiat currencies like USD from a traditional bank.
Proof of Work: Also known as PoW. Many blockchains rely on “proof of work”, which is a mathematical hashing (and encryption) of block data. For instance, the next block may contain a bunch of value transactions from many wallets to other wallets. Those transactions are included in the next block of the chain. The blockchain then requires the block to be “signed” with a particular mathematical complexity known as a hash. The first node to contribute a hash that meets that particular complexity level, often win earn a reward. This is known as mining, and proof of work is how a miner earns rewards.
Richlist: https://steemd.com/richlist Check out who holds the most power and money within Steemit.
Satoshi Nakamoto: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satoshi_Nakamoto Founder and creator of Bitcoin. True identity is still unknown.
Simple Bank: https://www.simple.com/ US-based online bank that greatly simplifies banking with fiat currency.
Steem: A cryptocurrency asset, similar to Bitcoin, that is convertible to Steem Power in the current ratio (9 steem can convert by a “power up” into 1 steem power)
Steem Dollar: SBD or SD. The equivalent at average market price of $1.00 worth of steem
Steem dollar ticker: http://steemdollar.com/ A website that gives you realtime conversions for Steem and Steem dollars.
Steem official website: https://steem.io/ Get educated on the basics of the Steem ecosystem including the Whitepaper.
Steem Power: This is also known as “vesting steem” (or VESTS), 50% of all content and curation rewards are paid out as Steem Power. This is an illiquid balance that can only be converted into STEEM over a 104 week period after you power it down. Steem power is important, because it gives you the “voting weight” of your up and down votes. It isn’t easy to earn, and is expensive to buy in large quantity. This is why many people let this balance grow (with vests) over time.
Every day new STEEM is created. Up to 90% of newly created STEEM gets distributed to accounts who already hold Steem Power. Think of it like compounded interest. The system especially rewards those who vest in the system over the long term.
Steemd.com: https://steemd.com/ Use this site to check on your own account without logging into Steemit. A good site to ensure your account has not been hacked. To find your account, add your Steemit username after the “/”. For example, https://steemd.com/@yourusername
You can see all your account activities, including your wallet, balances, password changes, payouts, transfers, comments, etc.
SteemIMG: https://www.steemimg.com/ a free photo hosting site where users can host their images for their Steemit posts.
Steemstats: http://steemstats.com/#/ Follow your favorite Steemians’ actions on Steemit and get payout and other stats about them or your own account.
Steemviz.com: https://www.steemviz.com/ Get real-time feed of money transactions, comments, upvotes, and new users. This site was an enhancement of 
SteemTools: http://steemtools.com/ A growing site of Steem tools for you to use.
Steemit url shortener: https://steem.ly/ Steemit urls are often very long. Using the shortener allows you to make them much smaller for twitter, email, facebook, etc. This enables you to spread them around internet much easier.
Steem Whales: http://steemwhales.com/ A steem whale is someone who has accumulated a lot of Steem Power. If a steem whale upvotes your post, they become a curator to your content. A whale can significantly jump the value of your post, which causes a lot of attention. This makes it much easier for your post to get recognized, go viral, and earn a lot of rewards. Just like regular users, a steem whale only gets so many VotesPerDay, and each vote dilutes the value of their up votes given to each post.
Steem Whitepaper: https://steem.io/SteemWhitePaper.pdf Complete details on how the steem blockchain and overall system works. Written March 2016 by Daniel Larimer, Ned Scott, Valentine Zavgorodnev, Benjamin Johnson, James Calfee, Michael Vandeberg
Steem wiki: http://steemwiki.com A wikipedia for the Steem universe.
Upvote: Curators (other steem users) who find value in the content of a post, whether it be a new story, or a discussion comment, can upvote that content. Doing so, makes the curator eligible to share in the curator rewards. In turn, it also rewards the author as well.
Voting Power: A percentage of how much your vote counts in a 24 hour period. It is based on how much Steem Power you have divided by the amount of VotesPerDay you’ve made. You can increase your voting power by posting and voting and earning more steem power.
VotesPerDay: a moving average calculation. Each consecutive vote you make will increase this value. If you go 24 hours without voting, then it will reset to 20. This means that after 24 hours, your 100% voting strength will be diluted by your next 20 votes. Accounts that vote more often, over time, dilute less based on the moving average. So if you over-vote in a short time span, you’re going to dilute your voting power a lot quicker.
Whitepaper: A technical document with complete details on how a system is designed.
DISCLAIMER
Please note that any websites or data appearing in this document are to be used at your own risk. We personally find value in them for ourselves, but make no warranties, express or implied about your use, or the validity of the information contained herein.
SOMETHING MISSING?
We also didn’t credit additional Steemit sites. If you feel that we missed some essential site or tools, please add it in the comments. We are sure some sites and tools are missing as everything is organically growing daily, it’s hard to keep up.
Extra Tips For Newbies:
There are a lot of tools out there to use. We use slightly different Steemit tools every day but here’s their daily habits in case you just need to start with the basics:
@intelliguy uses these every day:
coinmarketcap.com
steemd.com/@intelliguy while I'm in the middle of going viral
steemit.com of course
https://bittrex.com/
imgsafe.org (i will change when it stops working for me)
webresizer.com (for optimizing photos)
openclipart.org is my secret. I don't post about it at all.
@stellabelle uses these every day:
https://steemit.com/ : to post and vote.
https://steemd.com/@stellabelle : to make sure my account hasn’t been hacked.
https://bittrex.com/ : to transfer SBD to Bitcoin
https://www.coinbase.com/ : to transfer Bitcoin to fiat currency.
http://coinmarketcap.com : to check the marketcap of Steem.
https://www.steemimg.com/steemitqueen : I’m transferring my photos and art to be Creative Commons so the community can use them for free. This is where I upload my photos for my Steemit posts.
http://giphy.com/ : I’m nuts about gifs.
https://www.steemviz.com/ : to get mind blown about how many transactions are taking place all at once in Steem universe
thesecretwriter@protonmail.com: This is where people send me their secrets. Email service is encrypted and anonymous.
https://www.enlightapp.com/ : I make my photocollages and photo art using Enlight on iPhone.