I do not know, but I'd like to understand. What I do know is that this is not the way it's supposed to work.
We find ourselves in a strange STEEM economy right now. Everything is a bit topsy-tervy. The way the STEEM economy is supposed to work, is SBD is stable at about $1.00, while STEEM fluctuates in value.
Explained by the founders: page 14, Larimer and Scott, Steem An incentivized, blockchain-based social media platform:
The primary concern of Steem feed producers is to maintain a stable one-to-one conversion between SBD and the U.S. Dollar (USD). Any time SBD is consistently trading above $1.00 USD interest payments must be stopped. In a market where 0% interest on debt still demands a premium, it is safe to say the market is willing to extend more credit than the debt the community is willing to take on. If this happens a SBD will be valued at more than $1.00 and there is little the community can do without charging negative interest rates.
When they say SBD is valued more than $1.00, they mean like $1.10 or $1.15. SBD going to $8.00 is unthinkable. Not impossible, apparently. But unthinkable.
We've become accustomed to SBD pegged to $1.00 and STEEM around or a little above $1.00. Now all of a sudden, as of the time of this writing, we find SBD around $8.00 and STEEM around $2.00. If this continues like this... well... welcome to the new STEEM economy!
I've been thinking about how to best take advantage of this unusual situation we've found ourselves in. I can think of three idea.
This is a big one. If you are used to posting once or twice every week, consider trying to post every day. I know that sounds like a lot, but if you have the time, it's worth attempting.
Make absolutely sure you select 50/50 for every post! Don't miss out on that SBD!
If you don't know how to write a decent post, just practice. Take the time to learn a little about markdown and formatting. It doesn't have to be anything spectacular, but keep paragraphs short, use heading, add photos. Write something worth reading. Proofread. Edit. It's worth the time and effort.
Practice creating useful posts.
Read other's posts and curate them. Upvote and engage with them. Not only is it appreciated, but it's also an opportunity for them to check out your blog posts also!
Most people value good comments more than upvotes. However, sometimes users can feel a little cheated when a good comment is left without an upvote. It's worth it to upvote thoughtful and engaging comments, especially when they offer information.
If you have over 480 STEEM POWER, you get the upvote slider. This is a very useful tool for offering percentage upvotes, so you don't drain your voting power. You can technically upvote every comment at 1% - 5% and still retain your voting power for posts, etc.
This one is huge. If you were fortunate, or smart enough to hold on to a lot of SBD for this moment, congratulations. You can exchange that about 7:1 for STEEM, which can be converted to STEEM POWER! This is a huge boost for new users who are just getting started. New users can more quickly move from "Red Fish" status to actual "Minnows".
480 STEEM POWER is the magic number. That is when you graduate from redfish to minnow. Right now that can be yours for about $70 SBD. Simply amazing. It would normally take months and months to accomplish this, but new users can boost their status on steemit now on the cheap!
This is a great opportunity to branch out into other cryptocurrencies, if you haven't already. Because SBD is so valuable right now.
If you transfer your SBD (or sell SBD for STEEM 7:1, then transfer STEEM), you can trade them on the open market for other cryptocurrencies. My personal favorite is SMARTCASH, since because not only is it an up and coming crypto, it offers a ton of excellent benefits. You also receive smart rewards each month to increase your investment.
Hopefully this has been helpful as far as ideas to run with, now that the SBD is hitting the moon. We'll see what the future brings, but the future has already been a little unpredictable. It always is.
My gut says that SBD will someday return to around $1.00, but I may be wrong. I am not a financial adviser and I reserve the right to be completely wrong about everything. :-)
Steem on, fellow Steemians!
@ironshield