I Was Onboarded Into Crypto By Steem - my answer to @whatsup's #mainstreem call

in #mainstreem5 years ago

So @whatsup put out a call for those of us who weren't into crypto prior to Steem, to share our stories. Here's mine!

keep calm and hodl.jpg

1. How did you hear about Steem?

I found out about it because Facebook friend @lyndsaybowes kept posting about it and I decided to finally give it a shot.

2. When did you join?

September 2017 - just in time for the mooning to start!

3. Why did you join? (What was the attraction?)

Honestly, because I have been looking for ways to earn a little here and there in ways I can handle (because I have been too unwell to work a traditional job for a while), that hopefully will add up to enough to live on. I'm disabled without a disability check. So, to earn from blogging, I didn't expect to strike it rich; I thought it would be like my YouTube channel. At the time, I earned a YouTube check every year, year and a half or so. I hadn't been able to add to the channel in years because my laptop had broken, so that was just residual views, mostly on my how-to videos. I basically made $100/year. That's what I expected out of Steemit. So all the people who bitch because they aren't crypto billionaires make me laugh. I was a newbie redfish when cryptos started mooning, and legitimately, if I counted both the SBD I was cashing out to pay bills and buy cat food and the SP I was keeping, at those prices during the ATH? That was enough to live on, right there. That was as much money as I had been earning at THE BEST PAYING JOB I HAD EVER HAD IN MY ENTIRE LIFE. Granted, those prices didn't last, and I don't make enough to live on now (not even close). But for like a month, I did - at three months in. I've accumulated a lot more SP now. The potential is there to earn an actual living here, when prices get high enough and/or you have enough vested. That's what got me so excited, short term or no, because I could see the possibilities for the long term.

4. Have you expanded your crypto life beyond just Steem?

Sure have! Again, I'm way below poverty line, so I can't invest fiat into it. If I could, I would. But I am able to hodl a few altcoins I think have promise, and I've purposefully bought things I needed with the coins I earned here from sites that allowed me to use crypto directly, to support that as a thing, where possible. So like, I bought a t-shirt from 6dollarshirts.com because they take Bitcoin, and I bought my new blender (I still call it "new" even though I bought it months and months ago) from overstock.com because they take crypto, too. If a pet store that sold my kitties' special allergy food took crypto, I'd be a regular. I also use DuckDuckGo through Presearch for all my searching to earn coins, I have signed up to get free Manna coins, I got some SEED coins from an airdrop (they're coins for a crypto-based game), things like that.
But most importantly, I started teaching myself about it. I started online - my favorite thing to point beginners to is this video from SciShow on YouTube:


...and I read a lot of crypto news sites, like https://cointelegraph.com/
But I also downloaded a couple of audiobooks to learn more, like The Age of Cryptocurrency (here's a link from B&N: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-age-of-cryptocurrency-paul-vigna/1120327580?ean=9781250065636) and The Truth Machine (https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-truth-machine-paul-vigna/1126245381?ean=9781250114570#/).

5. How would you explain your current interest in Steem and Crypto in general?

I am reeeeally left, politically speaking (green or eco-anarchist, is probably the closest to my views), and see crypto as a way to end social inequality and a stepping stone away from our current capitalist system. Wrest control away from the oligarchy/banksters, and give it to the people. Steem is one of the big coins, IMHO, to do that, because you can onboard already-poor people like me who don't have fiat to invest. We can earn with our actions and build up our worth, like any job, but with much greater potential, and without benefiting the plutocratic "powers that be" while doing so. We're not funding the banks that are funding the oil pipelines here - we're literally planting trees (@treeplanter), or investing in solar (solar coin), and investing in people. And for all the people who try and freak out about the amount of energy used by crypto - those figures are based on the older mining rigs for Bitcoin, not the more common, newer setups (video cards versus ASIC, I think, but I'm not a techie and don't remember spec type stuff offhand so google it if you're curious), and if all Bitcoin was mined with ASIC (which it might be by now, I don't know), it would be like a small town in America's worth or something, I forget the exact stats (they're in the book The Age of Cryptocurrency). Ethereum is moving to PoS so their energy use is supposed to be cut by 99%, and frankly: how much energy does the world banking system use? Visa? Mastercard? Western Union? Each mega bank individually? FUD stats can sound scary, but they say nothing about what type of energy is being used (maybe those mining farms are run on solar or wind because they don't want to pay obscene electric bills), what other industries use, and the plain fact that if we're creating economic activity anywhere, there's going to be energy use, and I'd rather there be energy use for fairer systems like crypto banking the unbanked, than some oil tycoon adding another digit to his net worth while poisoning the water. I'm an environmentalist, and this sounds like fear mongering to me. But I digress...

6. Are you holding or investing (no judgment here, I am just wanting to prove or disprove the value)

I am trying to hodl as much as possible, but again, I'm already way below poverty line so I need to cash out some just to pay rent and eat. That being said, I've never actually powered down here on Steemit so far. It looks like I might have to to make rent at this moment, but I've always managed to squeak by somehow without doing it so far. Flying by the seat of my pants life right now.

So there's my story! I hope it was useful. Have a great day, Steemit! <3

That minnow your mama always warned you about

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Excellent writeup I might do one too. I like yourself heard of Steemit from a friend and SO wish I had joined when she first talked about it not months later....

Right, I'm like, dang, I might be a dolphin now if I had joined the first time I heard her talk about it ...lol. Ah well. It happens in its own time, sometimes!

Same. I am thinking I'd be at least rep 65 right now if I had've

Totally awesome write up! !tip it would be good for us to chat more about swapping crypto for fiat. Depending how much you need. I'd love to somehow get more steem before it mooooooons! But, like you, i am broke AF and flying by the seat of my pants. Though, i am on social assistance so that helps a lot with rent, water and gas. 🤷‍♀️ #lordhavemercy

I might have to power down for the first time to make rent this month. :(

Thank you very much for writing this.

Very cool to hear your story! I think there's still a lot of potential here to start a model of a form of UBI... not necessarily that you can live on, but that adds an income stream to help lighten the load. I am also a big fan of this as a "pay it forward" economy... that helps "train" people to the idea that if we help each other, we can actually all be better off.

=^..^=

Yes, totally, to both counts. I think the way the economy is now, and the way it is going, we're going to be more of us earning a little bit from many sources rather than one job with one good salary. And for sure - if people can get over the idea of a zero sum game and recognize that a rising tide lifts all boats, we will all be better off.

Hey, did you get your share of the Cats of Steemit contest payout? I don't know how to tell! LOL

Hi @phoenixwren I enjoyed your post inspired by a prompt from @whatsup about the entry into crypto-currency and ongoing experience.

Have a happy day.

Thanks very much! You too!

Finally coming back around to read these more thoroughly. Great job on this. :)

Thanks. :)

🎁 Hi @phoenixwren! You have received 0.1 STEEM tip from @davedickeyyall!

@davedickeyyall wrote lately about: My Actifit Report Card: January 20 2019 Feel free to follow @davedickeyyall if you like it :)

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Great survey, interesting answers! I realize how powerful 50/50 pay out is, because everybody needs some liquidity!

Also, in terms of 'energy', it is interesting when people start comparing systems. Do they take into account the cement and concrete (and associated mining for sand and aggregate stone) for pouring all the vaults for the traditional banking system? Or do they only include the light bulb inside the poured concrete vault?

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