Hello, Steemians! I'm Carlo Belgado, 17 years old, and I'm happy to be here on Steemit!

I've done a lot of research about Steem and Steemit before I joined today, and so I would like to give my views about this platform while also showing a few photos of myself for ID Verification.

Why I Believe Steem and Steemit Can Help Relieve Poverty in the World...

1. Steemit is open to anyone, without censorship and without lofty expectations.

I've read many posts already, and what I see are people earning real money for just being who they are and sharing their lives and passions. I've even seen a homeless person here making income - no job interview needed, no assessment test, drug test, background checks and all of that hooglyboo!

2. Steem is a real currency that can be converted to Bitcoin and then cashed out - even without a bank account!

I"ve learned that in my country (Philippines) and in Thailand, there is a Bitcoin wallet called Coins.ph and it's a big company started by a guy named Ron Hose from the United States...a real genius, Silicon Valley investor guy!

With a Coins.ph account, you don't need a bank or an ATM card to cash out - they give you a code and you just go to an ATM machine, type in the code, and get your money!

That means the "unbanked" here in the Philippines and in Thailand can improve their lives with Steemit, because most people here don't earn a lot of money, I can tell you, and they have to work all day usually (12 hours), and earn maybe $100 - $500 a month (most people). Plus, job contracts here only last a few months or maybe up to a year if you are lucky, and then you get terminated!

Filipinos can visit Coins.ph here

The Thailand version of Coins.ph is here

And here is Ron Hose, telling his story on video...

3. Even kids like me can make money with Steemit!

In my country and others, some kids can't even go to school because they have to help earn a living for the family at an early age due to poor wages.

But kids are very comfortable using smart phones and even computers at Internet cafes where I live, and many of them could earn a lot more on Steemit than they could working all day in the heat at a construction site or just foraging around.

The only barrier is their knowledge of English. But I'm thinking as Steemit grows, there will be groups like Facebook, and so you'll have kids who can do stuff like recording their game play and earning from other kids and adults who upvote it - or just sharing cool photos and stuff like that.

My Idea for Attracting More Investors for Steem!

How about creating some investor VIP packages?

Everyone likes being treated as someone special, or getting some kind of exclusive offer. So you could give big investors some cool perks, like all-expense paid trips to a Steemfest event, plus dinner with Ned or Dan, special seating at seminars and conferences, etc.

And you could have it so they must commit to keeping their investment in Steem Power for a year to be eligible for those things.

And then for the less wealthy investor, you could offer free premium services of some of the Steem Tools for a year that have premium buy-in offers, if they buy a certain minimum of Steem through the platform.

Last, I just want to offer one suggestion...

Create some tutorial videos for newbies. These can be made fairly cheap through Fiverr - the voiceovers and intros, and even the syncing of the audio to the videos showing what to do - and they could be nicely made and short.

Text help is good, but a lot of people learn visually these days and having a full set of instructional tutorial videos would help a lot I believe.

THANK YOU, STEEMIANS FOR WELCOMING ME!

I WILL BE CONTRIBUTING BOTH CONTENT AND SUPPORT!

GOD BLESS AND MERRY CHRISTMAS TO YOU ALL!!!

I'm Carlo Belgado, a born-again Christian going to private school. I like to play basketball and volleyball, and DOTA online. Thanks for having me here!