For some time I have been interested in the way steemit works. I have read the whitepaper and the FAQ. There were some significant changes in the area of the service and it was not clear what was up to date and what was not. There are also a few issues that I could not find anywhere relevant information. I have gathered in one place many issues and I would be grateful if someone with the right knowledge shared that knowledge with me.
1. How does SP affect the value of the vote? - accurate calculations showing how SP affects our upvote at 100% VP.
It is linear. The exact calculations are complicated but to keep it simple twice as much SP = twice as much reward value (assuming 100% vote power). There is also a hidden vote power that kicks in if you vote too much (more than 10 full-power votes per day) and reduces your votes proportionately (if you full-power vote 20 times, each will be half as strong).
2. From where do the SD come for all posts? For a year, all these awards come from 10% of inflation when creating new tokens
The portion of inflation for rewards (75% of the total inflation) goes into the reward fund. When posts are paid out, those STEEM are taken from the reward fund and converted to SP (for author and curators) and SBD (for author) by the blockchain logic using the current exchange rates.
3. On what basis is the division into trending and hot? Why are some posts with a lower voting value below those with a higher value?
Both trending and hot use the same algorithm, which adds votes to time. Newer posts will appear above older ones with the same votes and posts with more votes will appear above posts with fewer votes (stake-weighted) if they are the same age. In effect, whenever a post gets more votes, it gets a 'bump' up in the rankings, and with the passage of time sinks down in the rankings. The difference between trending and hot is that hot weighs time more than trending does, so it cycles 'fresh' content more quickly.
4. When the post is added, does the suggested amount of pay for the author appear immediately or is this value that will be divided between all the voters and author?
The amount shown is the total for all payouts.
5. What was the starting amount of STEAM? Was there an ICO on which the first STEEM was distributed and the new users were getting theirs STEEM only after getting upvote from the original owners?
It was proof-of-work for the first month, so the initial STEEM was mined. The developers mined the greatest share of it (about 80%).
6. What is the principle of delivering 15% of new tokens to SP's? Is this a random factor where accounts with large amounts of SP are most likely to get a token or everyone gets the same amount proportionally to amount SP.
It is proportional.