My experience with Steemhunt and Letseat - Month 1

The journey towards using steemit was a very gradual process for me. I was first, uninformed, and thus very skeptical of bitcoin. I couldn't understand why a variable in a code is worth $10,000. However, the crazy bull run in November and December totally got my attention. I started learning about bitcoin and tried to figure out whether it was just blockchain that was good or if bitcoin also had some merit. Yes, I was getting influenced by the whole blockchain good, bitcoin bad nonsense. I don't think I will blame myself for being stupid about it. I work in finance and very accomplished and respected members of the community were all gung-ho about blockchain but called bitcoin a speculative bubble. And usually in traditional financial markets, such drastic volatility is witnessed in riskier assets. So bitcoin had risk written all over it.

But once I started delving more, I learnt how big a deal bitcoin was, and why some say it is the biggest innovation after the internet. Eventually, I learnt about steemit and the I liked the concept. It is after all, one of the few fully functional blockchain projects where large number of transactions are being recorded everyday. Its scalable and so far, it seems workable in the long run.

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With a belief that steemit can succeed in the long run, I have been super excited about projects being built on the steem blockchain. I have been using 2 of them - steemhunt and letseat. There are others that I am yet to try - Zappl, Dlive to name a few. I have spent may be a little over 2 weeks using steemhunt and letseat and I wanted to share my experience.

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First, letseat.

Source: letseat

Now the best part about this is that there is already an app for it. That is smart thinking. I use steemit on my chrome browser on my android phone and its not as good as using it on my laptop. And where is the app for a project that has bee around for a long time. So launching an app for letseat was a smart step to begin with.

Now the app is all about posting reviews of restaurants you've been to. And for a foodie like me, its actually fun. In fact in 2 weeks, i have turned into that idiot that clicks photos of his food before eating it, tries to click photos of the restaurant. I do it secretly, so that no one notices and that is why picture quality suffers. But anyway, the app is simple to use. Its location based, so once you start the app, it asks you to turn on gps. The restaurants nearby come up. In fact, so far it has been 100% accurate in identifying restaurants where i am seated for a meal.

You choose the type of food, the time you think one should visit the restaurant, the price (L/M/H) and then the review and photos. I like the fact that reviews do not have a set format. You can choose to write a review that is honest. I like the fact that I can share my thoughts about my favourite places. And since its new and i am one of the early adopters, it feels good to help grow a platform. Also, given that I am the first few to review a place, my opinion may be read by those looking for it.

Suggestions -

1. The app could benefit, if i can review some places i have been to and liked, so removing location based reviews could be good.
2. Limiting the audience of reviews to followers on steemit. Usually, one will trust the recommendation of people within one's social circle more than a random person. Or there can be an option to see 'what friends say' and 'what everyone else says'

So, if you're a foodie and you love talking about a good restaurant you went to, with your friends, give letseat a try. You won't regret it and you'll help grow a good project.

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Now, steemhunt.

Source: steemhunt

Steemhunt had always excited me since the day it launched. However I was too late to the party and now i feel odd being the only one sober among a bunch of happily drunk people.

Its a browser based application. I am not aware of an app. The idea is to hunt relatively new cool tech products, games, and apps and write about it. This one has been tough. My first 2 reviews went unverified as I did not meet the listing criteria. However, I did get 3 right, products that i think did look cool and could be desired by many.

Usually whenever, i thought a product was cool, it was either too old to be listed or it was already on steemhunt or there were enough similar products on steemhunt. So its been difficult to hunt as far as my personal experience goes. But if you are tech savvy and read up a lot about new gadgets, this is the tool for you.

Now, it is possible to search for things on the internet and post about it. After all, the idea is to hunt. But i have limited myself to things i know about and have owned or want to own at some point. And limited knowledge of products can be an impediment to successful hunting on this platform.

Its not bad, but i think may be expanding the idea to incorporate cool products outside of tech could be useful. Also, a product can be cool even if its old i think. Polaroids, record players are cool. Vintage products are cool. May be at a later stage when all tech has been exhausted. And i get the difficulty of expanding the product universe.

But its still a good project for anyone who is finding it difficult to write blogs and increase SP.

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The idea of sharing my experience is for red fish, plankton and minnows to find other avenues to increase their stake. I already talk about dustsweeper and other tools in my monthly update. I thought this will also be helpful to some. Also, if you are a part of other projects, that have helped you earn SP, please let me know in comments below.

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It's finally good to get a blog post out. Cryptos have been stagnant but positive news keeps coming in the background - CBOE's ETF, or highest ever volume of btc futures traded. The market is full of bearish sentiment, the search for 'how to short bitcoin' is at an all time high. The contrarian in me believes that the tide will turn very soon!