Introducing myself and this profile - an introduction to steemit

So this is a jab at something novel, I for once am going to venture outside of the medical field and try to explore my creative side. My name is Mohamed, I am a 4th year medical student living in the US, I am interested in radiology and hopefully I will be soon matching in 2019. I am excited to meet you all and hopefully interact with you in a positive and constructive manner.

Moving forward this channel is going to include(and not to be obvious about it lol) up to date medical knowledge in terms of research and things that we learn from first hand in the medical field to help us live a healthier lifestyle. Furthermore, I will be sharing my ideas about the financial crypto-currency market, and how I am proceeding with my investments. I am no genius but I like to do my research before moving forward. And whatever else comes to mind that I find particularly interesting that I think should be discussed.

Today however, I wanted to give people such as myself an introduction to steemit and how we can use it to our benefit. Ill try to make this as succinct as possible, so that everything is nice and neat.

What is steemit and how can a simple user use it to their benefit?

Essentially it is a social media (blogging platform) where users create content, and get paid for it. We get paid when other users enjoy our ocntent and upvote it. How do we get paid? Blockchain cryptocurrency steemit coin or steem dollars (SBD). I would like to note that is completely free to sign up and try it for the first time. We also do not spend our own money when we upvote content. The beautiful thing about all this, since we earn money in the form of steem or SBD this is a form of investment. So lets say, you write some content and you make 20$ worth on this given day. If the price of steem coin skyrockets, so will that money you made on that content and all your other content. Its genius!

Why does this matter?
Since this is blockchain, this is decentralized. Decentralized means it is not under the control of the central government (federal government). Which means your content will be yours, will be uncensored. The way i see this is a snowballing effect. You create quality content, people start following you and you earn a good reputation. You start getting more upvotes and you start making more money in the form of a cryptocurrency that keeps growing.

It matters to us because it gives us the freedom to work at any moments time, and in a way it almost decentralizes us as well.

The three steem currencies:

1. Steem - is the fundamental currency of the platform. Its intrinsic value is subject to change, up or down based on how the market values it.

2. Steem power - This is a token which is essentially an investment of equity into the platform. You can convert steem coin into steem power by powering up and then the longer you hold the more value this gains AND the more influential your upvotes and flags become. So if you had 0 steem power, you wouldn't be able to vote or flag. This is not subject to inflation. However, 90% of newly created steem goes into the form of steem power. You can view this as interest.

3. Steem Dollar - Roughly equivalent to the USD, so its value fluctuates.

Voting and how it works:
If you think a blog is useful then you can up-vote it and similarly if you think it is not useful or offensive in anyway you can down-vote it. You are not using your own money to up-vote, you are getting paid by the steem system (newly created steem coin) to determine who gets paid based on their content. Every upvote we make, adds 5% increase to our steem power. Therefore, to maximize the power and value of your vote then vote on 20 topics and make sure it is good quality.