In the offline business world - The main difference between the two types of stock is that holders of common stock typically have voting privileges, whereas holders of preferred stock may not.
STEEM is either one or the other, it is either STEEMPOWER (Technically called VESTS) with voting-rights or liquid STEEM without voting-rights.
Backed by nothing but nightmares, hopes, dreams & a lot of Bitcoin - SBD is the ultrafast single feature cryptocurrency that has the only feature of being a cryptocurrency - safer than Bitcoin and built for speed and to be spent publicly just like money.
The SUPPLY of SBD is very low, regulated by a de-escalating inflation model, there will never ever be truly a lot of them under the current economic concensus, and from the looks of it the supply will remain low and sustainable at least for my lifetime and beyond.
If you are holding SteemPower, you are locked in the system - and to explain the difference so that lawyers and worse understands it - SteemPower is similar to owning the outcome of a Mining-Rig, like those Asics and GPUs people buy to mine Bitcoin & Ethereum & Dogecoin - SteemPower is virtually the same, with the same risks and ROI as everything else. If you do not use it, you do not gain much from it, but if you are smart and delegate your SteemPower where it is profitable, you can become very successful in managing your part of this encrypted cyber republic of STEEM (re-public).
If you still sit in your mothers basement as a private citizen on paper rich as fuck at New Years EVE, that will most likely have PERSONAL concequenzes for you before easter. Yes, some governments work extremely hard to attack private citizens in their wallets, which is why you have to INCorporate. It is legally sound, and stupid not to. Companies have professional rights worldwide, and no country is the same - so before you run down to your LOCAL lawyer to establish a company where your mother lives, take a look at the worldmap, and use some time finding out which country is the most business-friendly and tax-friendly so you can continue building your crypto-empire, and from there you should establish a second entity which only purpose is to pay you a small salary, the pocket-change you need to eat and sleep. Pocket-change, because as a private citizen you get slaughtered in some countries if you make "too much" money personally.
By that think of it like this - your house should not be owned by your personally - but by one of your companies which only purpose is to own that lot. If you buy an expensive super-car, helicopter, plane - those items should be placed inside their own company for ownership, and rent them out to the highest bidders, or to yourself if you want to play with the toys of your companies.
There are clear rules of juristiction in this world, and therefore by incorporating in as much of it as possible enables you to move in and out of markets completely legal and unhindered for the most part.
Because governments around the world have drained the lifeblood out of the public sector (see broken roads, bridges, abandoned cities etc) they do not offer anyone any real protection. Calling the police is done after the fact, it is not like your local police is there to serve and protect you - they are there to serve and protect the treasury and make sure you pay into it. However, there is no rules in this world that say they are entitled to extort you with a government license paid for by your mothers last paycheck outside of their juristiction, and since we are talking about legally obtained unclassified assets here, assets which you must protect - at certain levels private security becomes much more then the gun at your desk. If you take this seriously today and you are new, in 3 years from now you may be "too rich", so hopefully this article found you in good time to plan ahead.
Join me and thousands of others at http://STEEMspeak.com Discord - we have a 24/7/365 active (always people and music) in there - plus mighty bots that can upvote your friends posts and investigate abnormalities and STEEM development as a (very large) group of investors.
Thank you for reading & supporting my witness by voting for 
Fyrst.
