Thanks for the note!
I made the mistake of using an exchange to convert SBD to Steem because I saw people doing so, and I realize now the rate is so much better with market.
Actually, the Steem internal market and the external exchanges (OpenLedger, Polo, Bittrex, etc) will typically give you similar rates. The internal market is usually better if you're only exchanging a few hundred at a time (since it has no fees and you don't have to trade into BTC first), but it almost never has enough depth to do thousands.
So it turns out people were burning SBD for over the last 1-2 years, probably most without knowing.
What I didn't really mention in my article is that sometimes converting SBD is actually the right thing to do: when SBD is worth less than 1 USD, you'll make a profit by converting it. It's the exact opposite situation as now, when SBD is worth more than 1 USD and you make a loss by converting it. So yes, people have been converting for a long time, but some of those conversions were smart.
My question is how is market managed? Is this part of the blockchain (can't be right...it's Steem no BitShares) or part of a feature Steemit Inc implemented?
The market is part of the blockchain! The Steem blockchain has an internal, on-chain market that allows you to trade between SBD and STEEM totally trustlessly. Lots of blockchains have their own internal markets; they've been doing this for years. Counterparty was the first, then Nxt, then Bitshares, then tons more.
Anyway, thanks for dropping by and thanks for the encouragement. I hope my clarifications here help!