Covid-19 lockdown day 58 – Celebrating my 500th written blog post over 19 months

A little celebration for myself today, having reached a milestone on my blogging journey, at least on this particular platform. This is officially my 500th written article since beginning to write for Steem/Hive, my favorite blogging platform. This calls for a celebration, so I will congratulate myself and carry on until the 1000 article mark. This is only half way.

I have written numerous other articles or blog posts in the past for my earlier sites, namely Wordpress or Blogger, in previous years, so not counting those few hundred perhaps (I’m not sure) I can say that this is a great landmark achievement for myself. Writing has always been a hobby, and never paid of course on the old blogging sites, but when I came across crytocurrencies like Bitcoin, I began researching the subject extensively around late 2017, and happened to find Steemit, a social media site that pays content creators in cryptocurrency.

That was in late 2017 already, and I opened my first Steemit account, but only wrote a few posts and then couldn’t get into my site for several months, thus leaving it behind (the keys bewildered me, though I got back in eventually). Until one day in October 2018, almost a year later, I opened a new account, having researched more and become re-inspired to write as well as to attempt to earn some cryptocurrency for my writing. What an “insightful” and “progressive” journey it has been since. Those are just words a writer might use as generics to fill in a random sentence, for their could be so many more alternative ones that I could use. They would all be positive, regarding my blogging experience over the past 19 months here so far.

So in other words, it has taken me 19 months to write 500 articles. Not all of them were posted on my blog page specifically. About 100 were ghost written and then traded or sold to another account for Steem tokens. That’s how I worked my way up in Steem credits since I had no cash to buy any crypto to grow an account. I just wrote for myself and for another, and worked my way up in Steem value and thus Steem power value on the beloved blog site. I earned every Steem token by writing. So 500 divided by 19 months would equal around 26.3 articles a month on average. Not bad, basically a written article a day almost every day for the past 500 days. I never realized that until calculating that now. And each post is between 700-1500 words.

I tried to write the maximum that I could be paid for, namely one post a day, though I started slowly but then I built up to one post a day, and then of course more than one a day when doubling up for a while. That really pushed me – those 100 extra articles – a real marathon, where I worked harder than ever, mentally. Then there were some months where I only posted every second day, like now under lockdown, and then there were months where I took a few days or weeks off sometimes. The creative output went through phases.

Nevertheless, despite the first nine months being the most productive so far, all the way along I powered up all my Steem tokens, and when Steemit went to war in March this year and the split or hard fork occurred, I migrated to the new Hive site too, receiving the airdrop, or whatever you want to call it – the forked token.

And I have never wanted to power down or sell until the whole debacle of that Hive hard fork in March. That inspired me, along with the lockdown and loss of income, to really power down my Steem, with the idea of getting it out from the sinking Steem ship, as well as cash out some crypto for food and rent money. What a saving grace, to have some coin to buy food and survive as this lockdown suddenly changes the world around me. Around all of us.

And so this is just a little self-reflection post, on my state of mind and situation as a daily or full time blogger here on our little site. We are so far ahead of the curve with this kind of blockchain tech and the genius concept of being paid to blog from a pool by other people’s upvotes. Proof of Brain is a great concept, and this may well be the way of the future. With only a few tens of thousands of accounts currently on Steemit or Hive, we are a small group. Admittedly numerous have left over the years with all the FUD and especially with the bear market bringing the price down to peanuts compared to the heady highs of 2017/8. They may return in the bull run and growth will still spike upward again in my opinion, as the idea takes hold.

But we are turning the corner now, the tide is turning. The bull market is back post the Bitcoin halving and so the altcoins should also see a climb in price over the next 18 months. That being said, it is a new era in economic history on the planet post covid-19 lockdown and global Great Depression 21st century style, but that could be as much in our favor as not. It is a truly wild card scenario. Still, I remain bullish overall for cryptocurrency and will continue writing, and posting on our blog site, so that I can earn and learn, while contributing to the collective with my written legacy.

Therefore, I may occasionally write personal diary entries, like this one, but I will never write an empty or vacuous post merely for the sake of it. I will keep to my standard of genuine, original and informative writing. And if these posts are read or not is secondary at this stage. Thanks for reading if you do, but that does not change the fact that I will continue to write as long as there is a platform, and I have the lifestyle with the time, and as long as I need money for food to survive. Whether the thought police or censorship comes along or not is secondary too. I presume the written legacy remains on the blockchain, but how long will the blockchain remain?

Look at Steemit. It lasted four years and them was taken over by the Chinese CCP puppet, Colonel Sun Justin. And that was the end of that, or so it seems today by the look of Colonel Sun’s second hard fork attempt yesterday, HF23, where he steals $6 millioin in Steem tokens from his 65 enemy account holders. Oh sorry – developers - who forked from his takeover back in March as lockdown kicked in here. Infighting, politics, money grabbing hustlers...crypto is of course just another currency, and where there’s money, there will be hustlers, wheelers and dealers.

Whatever happens, I worry not. I simply observe and report, like a scribe and notary or messenger. Detached I observe, knowing I’m not the doer but the “witness”, as ironic as that use of the word may appear right now on this DPoS blockchain platform. In conclusion, may I be able to write another 500 articles in 570 days, which will take me to about the peak of the next Bitcoin ATH (all time high) in price, around December 2021, where I will sell the top and reap the rewards of a long wait, although a worthwhile one. See you at the top.