3 YEARS on Steemit ๐ What has changed?
Today is my 3rd birthday on Steemit and I feel as if I should go out and buy myself a teddy bear shaped cake with three candles, just as my son Esteban had last year.
Or even better a STEEM shaped cake!
Am grateful to @steemitboard for alerting me to this info, without which it would have been just another day.
What has changed since then?
In a word, everything.
- the way I earn money
- the way I store money
- the way I spend money
- the way I document my life on blockchains
- the way I interact with like minded people
- the way I am able to help others
- the way I continue expanding my knowledge of crypto
I had already left the banking system three years ago when I started using Steemit and was living a life of cash payments for my film work in Indonesia.
This is me at the 2017 Bali marathon with my DJI Inspire drone (decorated for the sake of my kids, who loved watching it fly).
Stop supporting the banksters!
With crypto I finally had a way to store currency outside of the corrupt & broken banking system and access it with relative ease when I needed it. In Bali there were two bitcoin exchange shops (one of them a 15 min drive from our home in Ubud) where I could exchange my steem for bitcoin and cash it out as the local currency. Once a week I did this and it could not have been more simple.
I worked my little socks off to earn 10,000 steem before the bull run of 2017 and was cashing out over $2000 a week towards the end of that year, when the value of 1 steem shot from $0.07 to $8. Yep, we were living a life of luxury for a little while thanks to steem.
Be in no doubt, everything works in cycles... including the crypto market and it is only a question of time before this happens again.
Crypto Angel
I am very grateful to a man I refer to only as 'crypto angel' because he prefers to remain anonymous. The Universe guided us together at the perfect moment in the jungles of Ubud. He needed a drone and I had one, so we spend the afternoon together and he told me all about this digital revolution and introduced me to Steemit.
We clicked immediately and he ended up hanging out in the eco community for a few months as my neighbour, where he continued to guide & teach me. When it was time for him to move on I gave him one of my cameras because I could see clearly that what he had given me was going to change my life forever and I wanted very much to express my gratitude.
The Gateway Platform
What Steemit offers us is a way in to the massive world of crypto. Needless to say, once we are earning steem, we must investigate more to learn how to sell it.
...and once we are selling it, it doesn't take long before we see how much more there is going on in this space.
Three years later
What we have now is a plethora of crypto based social media platforms, all of them jostling for our attention, seeking to push further, improving on that which has come before.
It can feel a bit overwhelming at times will the ever expanding crypto universe but we must follow our instincts and see where we feel most at home.
I do love steem, but I also love Whaleshares where I have found a more select group of friends and less spammy type comments.
In recent weeks I have been warming to Weku where @gavvet & @richq11 have been offering their support during my new found quest for consistent sobriety.
I love Bearshares because I was there on day 1 and have amassed what appears to be a huge sum, 160,000 Bear Dollars. Fingers crossed it will one day shoot to the moon with the rest of crypto!
Minds.com I toyed with for a while but struggled to keep up because it was not a simple copy/paste system like the others.
Now we have #palnet & #creativecoin who have enhanced on the steem system by permitting us to join them by simply including their tag.
I recently downloaded Appics on my phone (like a crypto instagram) and now that I have exercise and sport back in my life again, I am testing out sprtshub.io which narrows the focus to a specific subject. This makes a lot of sense to me and I look forward to seeing where this goes under the guidance of @derangedvisions
Who knows what comes next?
The key is keeping your ear to the ground and always being ready to adapt & change.
Okay, that's me for now.
Onward & Upward into the unknown...
Who is @samstonehill?
Sam supports @naturalmedicine because they are seeking to help us in ways which go far beyond money. Please come and join us on Discord
Happy Anniversary, Sam!
Stop supporting the banksters is the way: let's do it!
Cheers!
Thank you for your amazing consistent support my friend!
Traditional stocks are looking more volatile than crypto these days...
and those banksters will get what's coming to them in the end ;)
Happily Anniversary.
Thank you for three years of support my friend! You can't be far away from your third birthday too?
Just over few weeks back.๐
Nice! Belated happy birthday to you :)
You were there right at the beginning hey! How times have changed...
Thank you.
Yes, things continue to change.
Happy birthday to you steemit..!
Posted using Partiko Android
thanks ;)
Happy Birthday #![](https://steemitimages.com/0x0/https://media.giphy.com/media/3ov9kaW3wyiefU3GGA/giphy.gif)
Thank you! It's good to be threeeeee!
Class of 2016! Congrats btw
Posted using Partiko iOS
Appreciated. It has been a great ride ;)
Happy 3rd Birthday on Steemit! I was doing a search on the tag #palnet when your post popped up. I've been away frpm Steemit till a few weeks ago, and someone encouraged me to use the tag. I was not sure why, but now I have a better idea. I love your photo of the ruined abbey, and feel like I have been there. Which one is it?
It is Fountains Abbey in Yorkshire, not far from where I am currently based.
I included the picture because it has changed my life.
If you're interested I wrote about it here: https://steempeak.com/history/@samstonehill/today-i-went-to-fountains-abbey-in-yorkshire-with-my-drone-because-it-has-been-calling-me-since-i-arrived-in-the-uk
...and this is how it changed my life:
https://steempeak.com/sobriety/@samstonehill/facing-my-greatest-fear-total-sobriety-and-going-back-to-rehab
All the best to you!
I knew it was familiar! Back in the late seventies I was a schoolteacher in County Durham and some of us attended a teachers' retreat there in one of the stately homes on the estate! I just remembered Ripon, but when I looked it up it made sense. I remember one of the teachers being convinced a ghost came into our room at one point. Then it was hard for the rest of us to sleep!
I'm glad you are getting rid of all your addictions. I can't really relate, because I never started to smoke cigarettes, and only have the occasional glass of wine with dinner. And on very rare occasions like holidays, I'll have a cocktail. BUT, and it's a big one, I am hooked on my morning coffee after being caffeine free for many years.
Your paintings are awesome! I hope you manage to sell some.
@samstonehill, thank you for supporting @steemitboard as a witness.
Click on the badge to view your Board of Honor.
Once again, thanks for your support!
My pleasure. Like I said, you've been with me from the beginning and without you I wouldn't be celebrating my third birthday ;)
Happy 3rd birthday - and may the next bull run serve you well
Hey @pandamama it's funny when I see people from Whaleshares pop up here. I suppose you've been here all along, I just didn't get to know you till I started Whaleshares ;)
All the best to you and thanks for the support!
Glad to read you and know im part of your crypto journey as you're part of mine's!.
Happy anniversary brother. I'm glad you are still here for I love reading your life stories and the wise words you bring us from Abraham. I send all my loving vibrations your way. I am also so glad you will be enjoying the weekend with your beautiful family. It is well deserved.