Hi, all new steemian out there... 

I'm a layman who just started up and know nothing about steemit, bitcoin, and cryptocurrency. Today, this cryptocurrency is so popular. A lot of people invest money in bitcoin and other cryptocurrency and some of them becoming a millionaire in just a month. So I decide to study a bit about it. In this post, I will share with you what I learned.

![1d.jpg](https://steemitimages.com/DQmNj2FnbV3XkdrYnKpdGMc4gvL1i45zjqULEQpqhyxV1Jz/1d.jpg)
[source (edited)](https://www.shutterstock.com/image-illustration/copper-steem-coin-isolated-on-white-670630732?src=xXKVsC8eTyzfN7kf3yvOOQ-1-7),[source (edited)](https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/big-pile-dollars-250583767?src=JGwPk7zsHKEWGNueYqp-NA-1-7)

On this post, I will share with you, a point of view of a **layman person** related to the steemit, bitcoin, and cryptocurrency. A simple and easy explanation about cryptocurrency in layman words. I just learn all this! so please be aware that there could be wrong information somewhere. Please advise me if you found one.

## Bitcoin money
##

What is money actually? Money is only object that been accepted for trade goods in given country. So why can we print more money and make all people happy? We can't! because the more money in the market, the less its value (inflation). Say today we need $10 to buy a burger. If we print money 10 times more and distributed to all, everybody richer 10 times but the burger will raise the cost to $100 for sure. In another word: by doing this, the dollar value is decreasing its value. Normally, Central banks have to be careful on increasing or decreasing the printing of money. 

Bitcoin is a new money that was created in 2009 by an unknown person. Transactions are made with no middlemen (no banks!) People can send bitcoins to each other using mobile apps or their computers similar to sending cash digitally. No central banks! So who controls the creation of a bitcoin? The process called *"mining"*. Using computers to solve complex math puzzles. This is how bitcoins are created (or printed). 

![2.jpg](https://steemitimages.com/DQmeyR5ei6aLr3Rm94a21F6zU1csrQyCJvEBXRdKjubTAh3/2.jpg)
[source](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BSn3FC_SBPA)

Currently, a winner is rewarded with 12.5 bitcoins roughly every 10 minutes. You can mine yourself if you want too. I can show you how I manage to setup a mining application with all the setting. Its work and I get free bitcoin money, but that I think should be in another post...

## Steem money
## 

Then long after that, a lot other cryptocurrency coming on and they basically operate the same way but they have different purposes. For example Ethereum, Litecoin, Dash, and many others including **Steem**. 

The purpose of **Steem** currency is to *supports community building* and *social interaction* with rewards. Steem is the first cryptocurrency that attempts to reward individuals who make contributions to its community. When you create a content in steemit you increase its value and you get the share rewards from that. The rewards are given in its own currency unit which designs especially for community building. If you really serious about steemit you should read [steemit white paper](https://steem.io/SteemWhitePaper.pdf)

In business, there are 2 options for you to generate income. One is doing a business with other people. The other is to joint venture with other people and form a bigger business (buy ownership). So, when you do business with Steemit (by creating contents), you kind of do two things in one.  50% of the value that you create goes to your pocket in cryptocurrency call Steem Dollars (SBD). The other 50% goes to long-term capital commitment call Steem Power (SP). When you have more SP you have bigger voting power. You can decide which contents worth more value than others. This is why we always vote in steemit. SP also influence how much money you can get when people vote you.

## Practical subject
## 

I know... my explanation above is very basic. I hope it becomes easy to understand and suitable for a layman like me. So now we going to talk about a practical matter...

So... Is it really true, you can make real-live money? The answer is **YES**. I make real USD money around $25 on my simple first post ;)

In order for you to be able to *use Steem money in your real live*, you need to deal with several cryptocurrency things. First, you need a wallet. This is like your physical wallet but it's not  ;) Its only use online. I learn that the easiest and practical way to create a wallet is using a mobile app. I end up install 3 wallets on my phone from several websites. At the end, I use [this app](https://www.luno.com/) because it's easy for me to buy bitcoin in one place. The app name is Luno [https://www.luno.com](https://www.luno.com/)

I download it to my android and I register it using my Google account. One more thing... You need to give your phone number for security purpose. They will send you several emails for confirmation. If you register you can use this promo code **J7Z34** to get free $5. The app looks like this...

![5.jpg](https://steemitimages.com/DQmZEJmRkxwGxiyZKdMxT6HFKacvNsP5gDDWWAbCZxgKXi5/5.jpg)

If you go to a Wallets menu, you will see 3 kinds of currency there. At the bottom is the currency for your Money in your country. The top one is a Bitcoin wallet. You can buy, sell, withdraw and deposit money easily with this 3 currency menu. To buy bitcoin: First, you need to deposit money using your bank into Luno. Then go to bitcoin wallet and click buy. Take note that there will be little charges for the transitions.

## Buy Steem
## 
Now... You probably need to buy a Steem Power (SP) to increase your voting power. I show you how to do that.

![6a.jpg](https://steemitimages.com/DQmcoYChjEVC71mZG7ZWdi33biuN7zM1BfK9baLyTURHGnJ/6a.jpg)

Go to your Steemit page and make sure you log-in. Then go to a Wallet menu by clicking on it. On the Wallet: Look at the STEEM section. Click at the arrow beside your total STEEM money (the red circle on the above image). A menu will pop up. Select **buy**.

BlockTrades website will open up. Ops...You need to register on this website first. Once you did register make sure to log-in. This is the screen capture of BlockTrades website.

![7.jpg](https://steemitimages.com/DQmViuK2dmpTqoZGeTvuFVX3465T4C3NNxrex5BLrgXPkdd/7.jpg)

First...Make sure to choose correct **Send currency** and correct **Receive currency**. On the above, I will send 0.03 bitcoin to Steem currency. After you done that, you click **Get Deposit Address**. This will generate the address to be used for sending your bitcoin to Steem

![8.jpg](https://steemitimages.com/DQmNV5FvbL93FHRzEjqSdHXfqWrJAw34gap3ejvVdmUAspy/8.jpg)

The address will pop-up. Copy the address above and go to Luno app to send bitcoin from there. This is how you do it. I know... It's a bit complicated :(

![9a.jpg](https://steemitimages.com/DQmZC6PC1aef3FBPE4hjrrXoge4zT49aQ87B23WcFdjXEgU/9a.jpg)

In Luno app: Go to a Send menu and choose Bitcoin. The above screen will appear. Paste the address that you copied into this textfield (red arrow above). **Warning! Alert!** Make sure to paste the correct address. If you do a mistake, there is no way you can ask for help. You will lose your money! Remember, there are NO middlemen (no banks!) in cryptocurrency. 

After the whole process is done you have to wait. It can take sometimes for your money to appear in Steemit website.

This post becomes too long. Tell me in the comment below if you want me to show you, how to send money from Steemit into your Wallet so that you can use that money in real-live.

Bye..️️