(Eedit Feb 2024: Since Boosting Function with ecency points has been stopped, I removed this part of the post to not confuse newbies, who still often come here to read and learn)
A first helping guide for beginners on Ecency / HIVE about Resource Credits, Voting Power, HIVE Power and Ecency Points.
HIVE / HP / HBD
RC - Ressource Credits
VP - Voting Power
Ecency Points
To perform each action on the HIVE blockchain, each user needs so-called Resource Credits (RC). RC are needed for example to write posts, comments, to perform upvotes or other actions.
If you are new to Ecency HIVE, you will soon notice that you don't have enough RC (resource credits) to perform many actions. It's a bit complicated to explain where the amount of Resource Credits comes from, so for a better understanding let's first look at what there is to discover in your new HIVE Wallet on Ecency:
1 - HIVE / HP / HBD
HIVE
Is the name of the coin on the HIVE blockchain. HIVE is a cryptocurrency that can be traded at any time. Trading is possible at a few trading platforms and in the HIVE Engine Wallet itself, but more are coming all the time.
HIVE POWER (HP)
These are HIVEs that have been "staked." Means, these HIVE are converted into HIVE POWER and are not available to trade them in a hurry. ( in parts weekly avaiable over 13 weeks )
HIVE BACKED DOLLAR (HBD)
Is a token that always has a value of approximately one US dollar. While the HIVE can rise or fall in value depending on the exchange rate (like any cryptocurrency) the value of the HIVE BACKED DOLLAR always remains approximately the same.
2 - RC - Ressource Credits
The amount of HP (Hive Power) is responsible for the amount of RC (Resource Credits) a person has.
To make it easier to understand, lets check once again:
The HIVE is the cryptocurrency of the HIVE blockchain. It is the BASIS of all our actions and the HBD and HP are derived from it.
The HBD - HIVE BACKED DOLLAR is a way to preserve your money from the ups and downs of the cryptocurrency price, if you want to. Also, you can transfer the HBD to so-called HBD Savings, where you get about 10% interest per year on the amount.
A conversion between HBD and HBD Savings takes about 3 ½ days.
The HIVE POWER (HP) is the staked HIVE that someone owns. The HIVE POWER, in terms of its dollar value, is subject to the same price fluctuations as the HIVE itself.
However, we can use them well to have more influence and to be able to perform several actions.
While normal HIVE "just lie" on your wallet, they will make you a stronger member of the community, when they are staked into HIVE POWER:
Higher HP results in higher RC (Resource Credits)
Higher HP results in higher VP (Voting Power)
New signups via Ecency automatically get a small HP delegation for starting.
What to do if RC are too low:
- Waiting, they will recharge themselves after some time (lengthy, be patient and read what others write meanwhile)
- Deposit HIVE to the wallet and convert it to HP
- Ask someone for a delegation of HP
- Ask someone for a delegation of RC
For more information how to boost your RC, please join us in Ecency Discord, so we can help you.
HP Delegation:
There is another intersting special feature with HP, because HP can be "delegated" (lend) to another person. If someone has a lot of HIVE POWER, he can lend any part of it to another person, so that this person can act.
HP delegation is used very often and with pleasure to support new users. (you remember? +HP means +RC and +VP)
3 - VP - Voting Power
One of the central elements of SOCIAL MEDIA 3.0 on the HIVE Blockchain is that we promote and support each other when we like a post and think this is good content. That's what the UPVOTE function is for.
Please note! The upvote function is very different from what we are used to in old social media systems where we can just give infinite likes and hearts.
To protect the system and because it also makes sense, the number of possible upvotes is limited and to make this measurable there is the VP - Voting Power.
With every upvote your VP decreases and recharges relatively slowly by 20% per day.
When you click on the upvote arrow, you find at the end of eacht posting, a bar will appear where you can set the level of your upvote (VOTING VALUE) between 1 and 100%. The more you like a post, the higher you should set the bar.
For the beginner this means, with a low HIVE Power, it is the best to give only about 10 upvotes with 100% value on posts every day and if possible not to vote on comments yet. And make sure that your VP does not drop below 80%, otherwise it will take a long time (up to one week) to recharge.
I know from my own experience that when we are new here, we are so used to giving hearts everywhere and for everything that it feels wrong NOT to click on that heart and not show thankfulness for comments.
Even if this seems nonsensical at first, it makes perfect sense! Because the upvote and also the downvote system are the core of the HIVE idea, which ensures as much as possible that only good and own content is posted, which is very important for our chain.
Since we don't have a central supervisor, we are all challenged to do our best on our own responsibility, but also to watch the others to protect the chain from abuse.
4 - Ecency Points
The Ecency points system is only available when using the Ecency mobile app or the Ecency Desctop version, but it offers a lot of advantages!
You find your Ecency points in your wallet. They are given as a reward for various actions, all you have to do is go to your wallet and "claim" them.
For example, you get points when you are active on HIVE by using the Ecency frontends for:
- Writing a post
- Commenting and voting for others
- Reblogging an article and many more actions that you would do anyway are thus rewarded.
The advantages of the points:
PROMOTING
Here you can submit any post you want and this post will be shown as "Promoted" in the feeds of other users for the selected period of time.
The same as with boosts, enter the webadress of the content you want to promote, beginning with you username. Then choose how many days you want to promote it and sign with your key.
Even though you can promote any article you want, it is recommended to promote only really very good content. Why? The community will not vote for bad content and then your points were spent for nothing.
GIVE AWAY
You can also give away points to other users. Very often they are used as a reward for contest winners, or simply to give a little pleasure to people who have commented on your post.
Why not you give your HIVE friends some points as birthday present?
To all newbies who have read this far, I strongly recommend at this point to go back to the beginning of this posting and read through everything again. The understanding of the initially confusing terms will be easier!
And you should know, we were all at that point once. It takes time to understand the system, but it's definitely worth sticking with it and just ask if there are questions left.
I wrote this text for supporting new Ecency / HIVE users and hope it will be helpful for them while making first steps in our HIVE world.
Here you will find Ecency on discord: https://discord.gg/U3xRpjs3