Crash course Introduction to Crypto currencies and steemit for those who have never heard of it.

So what is a Cryptocurrency like Bitcoin or Steem? Please Join me as I attempt to introduce you to the mysterious world of Blockchain, Crypo's and decentralized social media platforms.
This will be my first post as an auther on steemit besides my introduceyourself post. Please give me a few minutes of your time to let me talk about the thing that everyone seems to be so afraid of. the misunderstood Cryptocurrency.

WHAT IS A CRYPTO CURRENCY LIKE BITCOIN?
Bitcoin is a form of online currency that is worth at the time of this post around $9,000 USD. Bitcoin can be devided like the us dollar can. A bitcoin is divisible into smaller units. All the way down to eight decimal places, or 0.00000001 . The more that people buy and hold a crypto currency the more it goes up in popularity, scarcity and therefor price. This can make it unpredictable and potentially risky to invest in. But, fear not, Crypto will be around for a long time. established crypto's are pretty stable long term but fluctuate sometimes hundreds of dollars in a day.

AN ALTCOIN IS ANY CRYPTOCURRENCY THAT IS NOT BITCOIN.
Because Bitcoin was the first and ultimately grand master crypto, all others are referred to as ALT'S. Alt's can be a fantastic way to day trade. With some alts selling as low as 1-5 cents per coin. This means you can buy for pennies, hold for a while. If that coin jumps up to a couple of dollars per coin, you will be sitting pretty happy with your $15-$100 investment.

WHAT CAN YOU DO WITH A CRYPTO CURRENCY?
As mentioned above you can invest mid/long term or day trade with crypto currency. You can also shop with some crypto's. You can trade them on the exchanges for other coins that are likely to go up in price and you can exchange them directly for US Dollars.

HOW DOES CRYPTO AND BLOCKCHAIN TECHNOLOGY WORK?
There is nothing simple about blockchain and crypto's when you first start. that being said I will do my best to explain how crypto's work throughout the article. I will have to explain block chain in a following article.

WHAT IS STEEMIT AND HOW IS IT CONNECTED TO CRYPTO?
Steemit.com is a new mix breed of social media/ blogging platform and Blockchain Crypto currency. What this means is that the social media app is built onto the crypto currency platform allowing its users to unlock those coins for a profit. Block chain technology decentralizes everything which simply means, there is no one person or organization that owns or controls the social media or currency system it is owned and operated and all content is monitored by the community itself through upvotes and downvotes.

HOW DOES STEEMIT WORK?
When a user posts useful content, other users can upvote that content (similar to a like on facebook) when someone upvotes your content, a small amount of Crypto currency, in this case STEEM is unlocked from the blockchain and given to the author. You can also earn by upvoting and commenting on others posts and your comments will have a chance to get upvoted for steem reward as well. these are knows as curation rewards. Some users have lots of steem power. powering up your steem will allow you to make substantially higher upvotes and help others earn more. additionally, any steem that is put into steem power gains a nice interest while its there. some upvotes can be worth 100's or even 1000's of dollars.

CAN ANYONE GET INTO CRYPTO?
Yes anyone who has a bank account can buy Bitcoin, etherium, bitcoinCash and lightcoin. once one of those base coins have been purchased you can exchange them for alt coins such as steem and many others. investments are subject to daily gain or loss. once you are done day trading it is advised that you transfer all funds to a USDT wallet. USDT is a crypto coin but it is "tethered" to the US Dollar. that means it cannot gain OR loose value while your away. Crypto's are a way for everyone to make some money on the computer. quite a crowd of teens are making big bucks these days buying low and selling high in the crypto markets day in and day out.

WHY TRADE CRYPTO MARKETS INSTEAD OF REGULAR STOCK MARKETS?
Lets start by saying, if you don't have 25k to dump into regular stock market's then its basically not designed for you to participate in. Stock markets are open a few hours a day 5 days a week. Crypto markets are open and booming 24/7. crypto never sleeps because it is being adopted by almost every country on earth. many places do not have a stable government currency to survive on, so they use bitcoin and other coins to buy food and cloths for their families. this makes the market wide awake regardless of where you are in the world. Some coins can jump to incredible high's and extreme lows all within a day or even in a few hours. This makes for unheard of trading opportunities for anyone who wants to get involved.

WHY HAVENT I HEARD OF ALL THIS BEFORE?
though bitcoin has been around for 8 or 10 years, it didn't gain much popularity until it gained a 10,000% increase in value in a short period of time. the sudden onslaught of bitcoin adds had most of us thinking it was a scam or inaccessible to the average person with no tech skills. that was a misunderstanding. we would all be millionair if we had all bought 100 bitcoin at 1-10 cents per coin. now there are maybe even hundreds of crypto coins and new ones being released all the time. many of these start as low as 1 cent per coin just like bitcoin did. buying a few hundred or thousand of these penny coins could pay out big if they jump up to a dollar per coin while you are holding a bucket full of them at 1 cent per coin.

AM I SURE THIS ISN'T ALL JUST A LOAD OF HORSE DUNG?
I understand that all of this is very taboo and foreign to most of us. world changes at an increasingly fast rate and it is hard to keep up. unfortunately many of us struggle paycheck to paycheck to get by with out ever catching a break. And though we look for ways to improve our financial troubles, we often stick our noses up and walk away when someone tries to tell us about bitcoin or cryptocurrencies. Why is that? i think its because most of us are so programmed to work hard for your boss to get your bills paid that we forget how big, full of opportunity and accessible the world is.
By the time the boss, irs, govt and state get their cuts, your left with enough to pay rent, car notes, student loans, daycare, piano classes and starve for two weeks. this isn't a very fun reality for most of us, yet we don't dare break the routine.

Well guys, I'm going to take a leap of faith and give it a go. I'm not quitting my job, I'm essentially working a second one from home. I'm sure that given the deserved time to educate yourself and a few spare dollars will change your outlook on your financial future. i hope you will realize that one of the largest wealth transfer systems on the globe is at your finger tips and is ready for YOU to use it. I for one believe in the blockchain and the potential of crypto's in general. I'm also excited about steemit and other future blockchain/social media platforms.

Thank you for taking the time to read this post. some of the info may not be 100% accurate as i am new to the crypto world and am still learning boat loads of information every day. I obviously am NOT a financial adviser, and this is NOT to be taken as financial advise. these are only my opinions and observations. blindly investing in crypto currencies can be very risky. do your own homework before making any sort of purchase or transaction. if you have any questions, feel free to ask, if i cannot answer the question i will direct you to content that will answer your question accurately.

To sign up for your own Coinbase wallet where you can buy Bitcoin, Etherium, BitcoinCash or Lightcoin click the link below.
https://www.coinbase.com/join/5ae154b149d3f30338232b5f

To view Crypto Prices or sign up for Binance for investing/day trading click below
https://www.binance.com/trade.html?symbol=STEEM_BTC

Have a great day!