https://cdn.pixabay.com/photo/2018/05/18/14/35/bitcoin-3411309__340.jpg
[source](https://cdn.pixabay.com/photo/2018/05/18/14/35/bitcoin-3411309__340.jpg)
### "It isn't doing any good sitting in your wallet in liquid form" 
I know. I know. @carlgnash, you are right. 
### When I didn't learn a lot 
from a 40-page book by a Mensa genius, 
### [Blockchain Made Simple - a Non-Technical Explanation](https://steemit.com/book/@carolkean/blockchain-made-simple-a-non-technical-explanation-by-john-mccormick-keangarooview), 
fellow Steemians came to my rescue. Why did I buy the book? Well, knowing the author, I felt kinda obligated. When I decided not to review it, he pressed me for a review. *sigh 

"Don't waste your money, even if it's only three dollars" sounds harsh, and you never once heard me say that.

### @carlgnash and @mariannewest of #freewritehouse
could, should, but don't have time, I'm sure, to write the book on blockchain. They actually read my post (thank you!) and noticed my techno-difficulties with "The Wallet" :
> I joined Steemit in June 2016, and I'm still not sure how to "power up" my crypto earnings in my cyber wallet, and this disturbs me, but I only have so much time in a day to learn new things.

### @freewritehouse •  2 days ago
> If you want help, let me know what is a good time and we can do a video call on discord or zoom. With zoom, I know how to share my desktop, so that might be better...
***
### "Zoom".....?
### Video call? 
### Eek!
Sorry, I've had some weird techno-glitches with those calls. I'm just glitchy.
### "Walk Me Through It"
@carlgnash offered me the slighlty less daunting option:
![](https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmbQkW8WhANeQyBb25doifmLo7sg6ZvaFx7KyXUjuWX1jS/image.png)
### "Power Up"
is a concept as daunting to me as Auto-Upvote, which I've tried to set up, but the disclaimer to STOP if you do not know what you are doing stops me every time. 
### "You might reconfigure stuff" -
Eep! I do that all the time on my laptop just by resting my left hand too close to the built-in "mouse." There is a technical term for this part of a laptop but I refuse to go off Googling it.

This unfortunately is how I navigate technology:
https://cdn.pixabay.com/photo/2017/09/11/15/34/animals-2739386__340.jpg
[source](https://cdn.pixabay.com/photo/2017/09/11/15/34/animals-2739386__340.jpg)
So I started to "Power Up" after using Steemit's search engine for posts on how to accomplish that. 

Believe it or not, I was baffled by the balance that showed up before I ever typed in an amount to transfer. Where did that number come from? It didn't match the balance in my wallet.

### With fear and hesitation, I liquidated 50 SBD. 
https://steemitimages.com/640x0/https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmbVVYXhR74gtcBCpJJun2R39Uv9rXUh7SAPRcniiEqtGd/image.png

### I got this far:
https://steemitimages.com/640x0/https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmUhUsnitNHmNv4SxPJfGuVLfjfJuxY8oZnExpuvmZNKvn/image.png
# Vesting?
@carlgnash explains:
> Yes that is correct. Although not intuitive, a "transfer to vesting" to yourself is the same thing as "powering up". If you had confirmed this by hitting "ok" you would have powered up 50 Steem.
# I hit the yes button,
But for the next two hours, nothing moved except that little blue arrow spinning its wheels like an old car on ice. I tried to cancel (no luck), tried to X out of the tab (still no luck), summoned my husband, who did a control-alt-delete, and I started over. This time, the transaction went at light-speed.

Something about having the husband watching over my shoulder seems to make computers work better.

So I checked my wallet.  Lo and behold! I powered up twice?
### But but I only liquidated steem once!
Or so I thought. For all I know, I could have inadvertently completed the transaction half a dozen times.
### I did it twice? How can this be?
![](https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmTceQNzrNBNMSPEKDGZehZtHdkMDx6ihmtp963pnBxgVv/image.png)

# $162.471
remains in my wallet after all that "Power Up" stuff. 
Funds just sitting there doing nobody any good, but I was saving up to delegate to some good cause, and someone told me I should have 500 SBD before I delegate.

### I know Carl is right:
> ...even if you do not want to power up the SBD/Steem, it would still make sense to convert it from SBD to Steem right now just based on what the prices of those two coins are doing right now. You could currently get ~400 Steem for your ~180 SBD.

> The basic idea of SBD is that it is supposed to be roughly worth $1 US per 1 SBD. There are mechanisms built into the blockchain that help prop the price of SBD up if it falls below $1. But there is no reason why SBD should ever be worth more than $1, and in fact the mechanisms that control how much SBD is printed always assume that it is worth $1. It did happen historically in the past year that SBD was worth way more than $1, but that was 100% the result of some large crypto investors manipulating the price (at the time this happened there was a much smaller circulating supply of SBD so it was easier to manipulate the price). The likely ceiling for your 180 SBD is that it could be worth $180 dollars at some point.

> Steem on the other hand could and likely will not only reach $1 again, but could go well above that. There is a much higher ceiling for Steem than for SBD. So if you converted your SBD to 400 Steem, there is a good chance that it could eventually be worth $400, or even much more. I see this as a favorable time to exchange SBD for Steem.
***
https://cdn.pixabay.com/photo/2018/01/12/04/23/currency-3077534__340.jpg
[source](https://cdn.pixabay.com/photo/2018/01/12/04/23/currency-3077534__340.jpg)
And in a related issue,
> .... "cashing out" usually refers to taking your earnings (either Steem or SBD) off platform. Meaning, sending either liquid Steem or SBD to a crypto exchange, and from there either exchanging for fiat (cash) or a different crypto currency. What I am describing is something else entirely.

> Using the internal market to convert SBD to Steem doesn't actually involve taking it off platform (it is an internal market, on platform) and the currency stays in your wallet. The funds don't go anywhere, they stay in your wallet, they just change form. All that happens is you have changed it from SBD to liquid Steem. If you want to power it up, you have to do this step first (because you can only perform the "power up" action with Steem, not SBD).
***
And my favorite part:
### None of this is particularly intuitive, 
so please feel free to keep asking questions if you aren't sure what I am saying :) Cheers
 --@carlgnash
### Thank you,
@carlgnash and @mariannewest and everyone else who tries to help me through the techno- ~~labirynth~~labyrinth.
#### *How many of us can spell "labyrinth" correctly on the first try?*
https://cdn.pixabay.com/photo/2015/07/29/02/44/book-cover-865428__340.jpg
[source](https://cdn.pixabay.com/photo/2015/07/29/02/44/book-cover-865428__340.jpg)