1 year on Steemit - creative commons & crypto currencies

Now it is my turn to write the obligatory 1 year post - in itself maybe not that interesting... so I will write about something else.

For some years now I have, under the pseudonym Katharsisdrill, created digital artwork published as Creative Commons, which means that it is completely free both to use, modify and sell. I did create a Patreon and later a Liberapay subscription-account, but until now none of them has really paid me much.

What has worked for me is crypt-currencies.

Janus, The Roman God of the new year.

The first bitcoins I owned was a generous donation from a user of the free decentralised social network Diaspora (@herzmeister) and I used them to make an anonymous account here on the Steemit using @someguy123's Anonsteem.

I have indeed made some money on Steemit, but having bitcoin addresses also gave me a possibility for direct donations which has also paid quite well, mainly because of the Alexandria.io project.

The truth is that artists have been suffering from the ways of the internet and only now does it really look like there will be hope for creating directly for the internet again. Most artist I know have returned to old media like vinyl-LP, hand-print and painting. The internet is merely seen as a failing marketing platform. A bit sad to see for an old cyberpunker like me.

So I am following the development of all the different projects that are being made based on block-chain database and encryption with big interest, and even though I am not sure which one will work there is no doubt that Steemit until now has been the one that has worked best - mainly because it is free to use and do not demand that people pays out of their own pocket.

Another Janus image

I believe that the approach where people pay directly for content they like in many ways is the most healthy, but also the one that is farthest away from the rather unhealthy every-thing-for-free mentality that dominates the current internet. Thanks to Facebook and Google people has gotten used to unknowingly paying with a complete stripping of their private life.

But I am, for the first time in many years, optimistic on behalf of art on the internet, and Steemit has been a great introduction to the new possibilities. I have been happy to be here and happy for all the comments, support, translations of my comic etc.

Building a community on-line is a large undertaking and the people who dares go outside of the ugly mainstream is pioneers. So it has been a fun and instructive experience to write, draw and invent stories for you.