NEVER EVER USE THE "CONVERT TO STEEM" BUTTON! ALWAYS ALWAYS GO ON THE INTERNAL MARKET
Shortly after my first post, I realized how many newbies that may not know the difference between the "Convert to Steem" and the internal market.
A friend of mine, who didn't know better missed out of 400 STEEM because of that! Ouch!
What's the difference?
The "CONVERT TO STEEM" button in your wallet is there to guarantee that you'll get $1 worth of steem with your steem dollars. But it doesn't sell it at current market price!
The conversion via that mechanism takes 3 days I think and it can be helpful when SBD are selling for below $1 but when it's worth $12-$14, it's catastrophic.
TO PROPERLY EXCHANGE YOUR SBD IN THE CURRENT SITUATION you have to go in the internal market which can be found in the hamburger menu on the top right under "Currency Market" or by typing: https://www.steemit.com/market
The screen should look like something like this:
Wishing you a happy SBD/STEEM conversion from now on.
Dear @cryptoctopus, what an excellent article ! You are a really smart steemian ! Thank you so much for this type of advice ! It's so easy to make this mistake...
Your son is a genius @grandpere ! :-)
As a newbie I had no idea about how this all worked and I’m sure I would have made that mistake. I guess it’s a good feature for when it’s lower than $1 but you think they would have a warning before the conversion.
A warning would be a step in the right direction. I calculated lately that between 5 and 10 % of the daily SBD in the author reward pool is erroneously converted from SBD to STEEM.
My guess is people just want to power up and they think this is a market order, but it's not. In conversation, people often confuse “convert” with “trade." They mean "convert SBD to STEEM on the internal market or via bittrex" but they just say "convert." So people hear that you can convert and look, there's an option to convert, how convenient.
5-10% is a lot! I’m still confused by all of this but I do know I won’t be hitting that convert button!
Why would the platform have such a choice so blatantly misrepresented?
It really makes me re-think what this whole thing is about. How deliberate was that UI choice, I wonder, and what does that say about the rest of the Steemit platform design?
What other "gotchas" lurk in the system?
There are times when this option is helpful, but not right now.
This idea was recently discussed among Steemit developers. Hopefully they'll implement it.
Seems like it would be a pretty simple fix. I’m loving the app at the moment though!
I exchange SBD for BTC in Bittrex when BTC prices are low with respect to average, them buy Steem when BTC goes up.
Seems like a good way to stay ahead of the curve. I’m still growing my account and haven’t even thought about converting or trading or selling or whatever other options there are. Just got my first reward from posts and comments.
Let me make a correction on this strategy.: I had never used the internal market. I was not even aware of it,due other confusing internal links of Steemit. Recently I started to use it, and I find I can get more steem and fastest than Bittrex. Hence, now I would send to Bittrex only to invest in other cryptos, but not for exchanging them to Steem. Of course if I were to sell, them I would do it against btc and eventually into steem. I want reach 1,000 the fastest. Large amounts of steems behaves as Black Holes regarding followers. And the more followers you suck in, the more gravitational pool you will have.
Dear @justinmora, I'm very new to Steemit, just registered 2 weeks ago. I was thinking about exchanging SBD to BTC when BTC prices are low, but could you please tell me what is the difference between buying Steem or Steem Dollar when BTC goes up? Why is buying Steem better than buying Steem Dollar?
Thank you very much for your reply in advance :)
Let's go by parts in function of my current knowledge: You buy Steem to Power Up, so you can get more steem and SBD.
If you buy BTC with SBD when BTC prices are down, then you can latter get more Steem when prices of BTC are up. The more steem you power up, the more potential to improve your cash flow of Steem and SBD you will have.
Thank you so much for your explanation :) That's very kind of you!
@cryptoctopus For first time i had convert SBD to Steem but take it 3 days, as after so many days later i could realize that i am a looser because SBd value 7 or 8x !
That sucks, lessons learned I suppose.
Someone else had 1000 SBD locked in conversion, a huge loss. What's also important is that the conversion CANNOT be canceled once it's initiated.
That's how it would feel to me
I realized how many newbies that may not know the
hahahaha...!,,,exactly evryone will feel like this
Nobody could have anticipated that pump. I mean who hodl'd SBD? Nobody :(
lucksacks.com does and then we pay it out to our players and they 20x. :)
Maybe I should start playing at lucksacks again!
Yeah, I don't see why anyone would be holding SBD prior to this. However, if it ever gets down to $1 naturally, then I bet we will see lots of people who hold on to their SBD rewards in case this happens again!
That's the dilemma, nobody had any reason to hold SBD. It was trading at $0.95 for a months. And yes, when it goes back to $1, I'll be the first to hold it and wait for the next pump. The last pump happened in May when SBD reached $22! So it's possible we'll experience another pump in a few months (if history decides to repeat itself).
Hahahahahahahaha Great example dear @cryptoctopus
I had only 0.5 SBD left, so not enough to sell on bitrex.
So I thought, maybe if I use the 'convert' button. Then I might profit from SBD's spike.
Luckily it was only 0.5 SBD.
Transfers from/to exchanges cost ZERO fees, gotta love Steem. So yes, you could transfer that 0.5 SBD on bittrex, sell it, buy STEEM, and transfer that back. However, there are commission fees for each transaction on the exchange itself.
In the end, the internal exchange remains the best and quickest solution. I recently bought 60 STEEM with 10 SBD on the internal.
10 SBD x $12 = $120
$120 / $2 per STEEM = 60 STEEM
The prices are approximate when I did the transaction. But you get the idea.
If you buy BTC in low range, wait to hit higher, and then wait steem to go low, then you maximize
Oh man, that must sucks. That's like a 500 Steem loss or something like that :(
My first rookie mistake was something similar. In my introduction post about 3 days ago I choose the 100% option instead of going 50-50. I didn’t knew nothing about Steem dollars at the time.
But either way, I am happy to have found this community and excited to take part in this!
Read the FAQ, it's the first thing everyone should be doing when they join any platform. You'll find a lot of information to get you going :)
Yea I heaerd about it on discord, luckely I used the internal market, man i got cheap steem! I also think it is better to buy steempower right away. When sbd goes back to 1$ we have our origianal amount of $ but when you buy for 5sbd like 30 steem, steem will never go down 14 times. Or do you think it is better to keep my sbd till it is higher? higher sbd doesnt mean more steem because when steemprice rise you can meaby get equal amoubnts of steem on internaml market :) ?
Great post, I always buy on the market. Waiting 3 days is silly.
why this otption doesnt lead to the market at times when sbd price decouple from 1 usd?
A little bit too late for me.. but it's good to know in the future.. I think I only lost 90% of it :((
Sigh.... I learned this the hard way. I thought one SBD = one STEEM. This newb learned the hard way. haha!
A month ago 1 SBD = 1 STEEM.
Now, 1 SBD = 6 STEEM.
Funny how quickly things change.
Ouch, I'm sorry for your loss :(
Really a hekpul note at the right timr...hope it will help me sooner..😉
Thanks that info. Wow I used to press it all the time