Welcome to Hive!

The point of getting upvote is to get rewarded either with Hive Power only or Hive Power with HBD (50% both).

In the case you use @esteem (now known as @ecency), you will get rewarded with ESTM by being active such as Making a Post, Making comments, Reblogging, Referral and many other more.

You can use ESTM as a Gift, Promote or Boost your post.

At the moment, you cannot swap ESTM with Hive.

Hope that helps!