A Newbie's Head-first Dive into Blockchain: Hello Steemit!

I've always been keen to pursue the next adventure, explore new opportunities and brave the unknown...sometimes to my detriment.  So far, this pursuit has manifested itself in my life in the form of chasing criminals, bushwhacking through tropical jungles, starting businesses and exploring upcoming technologies.  Perhaps, then, it might be a natural course for me to dive into the emerging world of blockchain and cryptocurrency.

As if I don't have enough going on in my life, why get started in cryptocurrency, and why now?

While I'm always interested in technologies and niche markets, finance has never been a strong point for me.  A short experience in home financing before the crash left me with mixed feelings of disdain as well as curiosity, but I never had the formal education to consider myself even remotely savvy when it comes to developing financial stability, let alone "success".  Perhaps my humble roots and lack of experience in the world of "using money to make money" has contributed to my interest in this new movement.  One of the most intriguing aspects of blockchain and cryptocurrency is the ability to work somewhat outside of the fabricated norms of financial power and influence that have dominated our world for so long.  From what relatively little I have discovered so far, we might now have a new tool to level the playing field in a small way and create new forms of stability and growth that are not directly and flagrantly controlled by the dynasties that have created and hoarded wealth for so long.

There is no tomorrow, we live only in this moment and we take nothing with us when we go.  But if I happen to stick around to see what the possibility of tomorrow might offer in the form of the next moments that I get to experience, why not plant the seeds now that can grow into the harvest that I can reap later?  I'm not particularly driven by being the first in line, I would imagine that I float somewhere between Early Adopters and Early Majority.  In fact, despite being aware of and actually believing that Bitcoin and similar projects are a viable solution quite some time ago, it has taken a while for me to take the step to actually become involved myself.  A good part of that is probably a result of a certain level of intimidation due to the relatively complex technical aspects of this new paradigm.  What has certainly tipped the scales for me is the embracing of efforts like Steemit by trusted friends of mine such as Randy @hilarski, who's social media and forward-thinking marketing efforts have always inspired me.  These are the innovators who pave the way for people like me to suck it up and dive in!

But blogging though...

I've always been a pretty decent writer, starting with poetry at an early age and then working through the corporate and legal worlds in my professional life.  I've even been involved in creating web content, writing articles and of course my fair share of social media engagement, but for some reason I now tend to cringe when I think of having to write articles and blog posts.  Consistency is a serious challenge.  I'm certainly not convinced right now that engaging with Steemit as a blogging platform will be a gold mine for me, but it does seem to provide an opportunity to enter the blockchain stream and earn some nominal cryptocurrency to get the ball rolling, which can be quite intriguing for someone who really doesn't have the liquid assets to drop a chunk of traditional money into a Bitcoin investment and see where it goes.  I'm certainly willing to give it a shot and see if this seed grows!