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SBD can be very useful if ever someone develops a mobile payment network - if shops accept payment in crypto for goods and services, the steem blockchain has 0 transaction fees and 3 seconds blocks and a sleek mobile wallet (steemwallet by @roelandp). A shop then can price its goods or services in SBD which is far less volatile than STEEM - the financial "currency risk" is it taking is much lower than with STEEM.

Converting SBD has been pretty profitable recently, hence the large amounts of SBD conversions.

@timcliff wrote a very helpful post about the Steem Blockchain Dollar (SBD). Here's the link: https://steemit.com/sbd/@timcliff/sbd-explained