I am not sure if any steemians registered themselves without having any understanding of how the entire system works. To be honest I was lured by the fact that I am be paid for the same things that I have been doing on Facebook. So in other words, it merely means, I can now do my posting in luxury (while sipping coffee at Starbucks and eating scones like a real English gentleman) and not to be cooped up a local coffee shop beside McDonalds hoping to land a bar or two of their wifi bandwidth. ![earn money.jpg](https://steemitimages.com/DQmZVkjaAF9vq2JeZfDKawVYcSW7QCZ7RTJkkJw4GqHfe5S/earn%20money.jpg) source If you are a digital dinosaur like myself, this is what I had learnt in my month long journey with Steemit and my buddies @bitrocker2020, @awesomianist and @littlenewthings. STEEM BLOCKCHAIN Steemit is the interface that allows the creative input to be converted into crytocurrency and subsequent into cash. In short, the blockchain are like chefs cooking dishes and steemit is the brand that deals with the customers. The creative input by authors, artists, photographers and video loggers prepares the raw material to be given to the chefs and the end result is a meal package. The price if this meal package is not pre determined. The more popular the dish is, the more expensive it can sell. It is just like the famous sister char koay teow in Penang where you pay freaking good money for some scrawny prawns. ![sister char koay teow.jpg](https://steemitimages.com/DQmNstUMae22QbSC6jsYyMkn4QGo6D5jgd6yEZ6nJti2Whh/sister%20char%20koay%20teow.jpg) source Simply because many patrons have given it the 'thumbs up' ![thumbs up.gif](https://steemitimages.com/DQmerLNwMALg8h3B4B4w67g9HTZHqgdrpVefWEruXBQW4vi/thumbs%20up.gif) source STEEM Steem is a type of cryptocurrency just like bitcoins. It is the lubricant that is generated by the blockchain after serving out your dish. This is the lubrication that keeps you and me going back to Starbucks or McDonalds to continue our postings. However, Steem like any other currency is traded and its value can fluctuate which is bad for you and me as the farmer that provides the eggs, poultry, fish and meat to the chefs. So, to ensure that we don't go hungry and can still make it to be a millionaire in 10 years' time we are given a guarantee in the form of Steem Backed Dollars (SBD). For every SBD owned by the content provider, there is a guarantee that it will have the value of USD1. So that we can write or draw in peace. STEEM POWER This is the interesting part. This feature of Steemit endows the owners with superpowers. If you have superpowers, you have many friends. it is just like how everyone wants to be friends with the football captain or the head cheerleader. Of course, like Aunt May says, 'with great powers, comes great responsibilities'. Of course it surprises me that Aunt May is quite well read and is able to quote Voltaire. source ![voltaire.jpg](https://steemitimages.com/DQmRkJR4DdfwmshpXzH58PsfXYYo3V1wYbMFcBBkfdFaAwh/voltaire.jpg) source But we are not really concern about that kind of books she keeps under her pillow. In short, every chick in the neighbourhood wants to be friends with Spiderman because he has superpowers. So, in short, if you have a good stash of Steem Power, you can be Spiderman, Birdman or even Antman and everyone will be your friend. This is because you can delegate some of your powers to them, you can make them 'stronger' by giving them the 'thumbs up' for their chicken or vegetable that they produce and they will be paid more. POWER UP AND POWER DOWN Only in this steemit universe you can choose to increase your power by paying money for it or you can choose to give up the powers and be paid for it. So that is pretty cool. If someone wants your ability to spray sticky gluey things from your body, they got to pay for it. Sorry, commercial break because I can't stop giggling and the person next to me which is stealing glances at my computer screen is bursting out. So, powering down cannot be done at one go, it must be done in installments. Kryptonite cannot kill Superman instantly right, Superman merely gets weaker and weaker. So the same goes for Steem Power, it has to be powered down in installments. This is to prevent sudden departure of a real superhero that may leave the Steemit universe at the mercy of evil villians. So, the force shield has to exist so that there is no premature death by the sudden departure of our heroes. This should be enough for the first installment, more to come in the next blog. Steemout.

melancholee