Greetings Steemit Community,
My name is Adam Abraham, and I am new to this space... not only to Steemit, but to bitcoin and the blockchain universe. While I have written for many years, on WordPress (now self-hosted) called Thought For Food (almost 700 posts), and with a YouTube Channel with almost 400 videos, 9,500 subscribers, and 3,100,000 views, I still have butterflies in the belly starting this now.
My missives tend to be longer than average, which flies in the face of trends where we now have a president whose primary and most effective tool for shaping world opinion come in messages that are no more than 142 characters long. I used to think of communication on Twitter as "twitting" rather than tweeting. Would that make president Trump "First Twit"? Here's my original blog site:
Like posts, my videos tend to me on the longer side too, covering subjects, or perspectives on subjects, that aren't often seen, or don't get much attention. They tend to require more than a Twitter-level depth of attention on the viewers' parts.
Natural water enhancement, health and healing, sustainable farming practices, environmental restoration, are just some of the subjects that I touch upon.
But this bitcoin thing, and the "cryptocast" of emerging supporting currencies, is the elephant that has been "in the room" for quite some time; and we still haven't noticed it enough, in my opinion, given what it represents for us all.
All the "currency"-related discussion surrounding bitcoin and its alt-coin cohorts overshadow a larger opportunity for humanity to liberate itself from a menace that we know, don't love, but have grown so comfortable with (or tolerably uncomfortable) to cope. I refer to a vampiristic monetary system that has, from its inception, been designed to suck and erode the "value" from individuals and nations around the world. The monetary system isn't alone in the incessant siphoning of vitality, hope, optimism, and health. What do we have left after all that?
Privacy, and they want all that too.
Rethinking Money
The monetary system operates as an "inventory management system" for governments, which are not actually "for the people", but for the management of the people. See Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States: 1492 - Present (1980) or History of the Great American Fortunes, by Gustavus Myers (1903). Other interesting reads are Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion, a book that Henry Ford took great exception to before he was told to be quiet, and Silent Weapons for Quiet Wars. All of these titles are available as free downloads on various site.
I was first introduced to bitcoin about 2 years ago. It was selling for $600, and immediately outside of any thought of being able to acquire them, nor any conception of how I could earn a living by dabbling in the cryptocurrency arena. So I immediately put it out of my mind.
It wasn't until March of this year, I received a call from a guy who lives somewhere near the Arctic Circle, telling me about a group that had just formed that helps people accrue bitcoin via an "MLM" structure. The appeal at the time was that it required a fraction of the cost of a bitcoin to get in, which you "donated" to the person who invited you. You, in turn, found two people to donate to you, then help them, do the same, and so on. It's called Bitcoin Funding Team. It was just getting started. My partner Della and I among the first 6,000 to join.
Personally, I've never cared too much for MLM programs. This one I could tolerate because it was pure. In most MLM organizations, the people tolerate the product simply because they're trying to make ends meet. At least, the currency was the product. I also liked the fact that we were helping introduce bitcoin and the cryptomoney space to people who were generally unaware that it existed.
As I had begun to discover, bitcoin had become a viable currency unto itself. Unlike IBM's OS/2 operating system of yore, which proclaimed its intent to be a better Windows than Windows, bitcoin had truly become a better money than money. Indeed, bitcoin was exposing fiat money for what it was, instruments of debt, designed to erode value, and increasingly subject to control or confiscation without our consent.
In spite of organized rhetoric about the criminal activity that could be done with bitcoin and other emerging altcoins, as reason for vigilance, restricted access, and government control (meaning the total loss of privacy), the true motive is control over the herd, making sure that the ruling class, through the interfacing government, could maintain its ability to determine and continue to control who "had" and who "had not".
With a monopolistic money supply such discernment is not possible because choices are not options. Due to the lack of options, we have had no choice but to accept what the government and the Fed tells us is "true". Money's behavior, as well as theories on interest and other elements of monetary policy, are only "true" because that's what they want us to think. We "trust" also because we have had no other options, and nothing to compare monetary behavior to.
Bitcoin was showing an entirely different set of potentials, and given the choice, I preferred that.
I still didn't care for the "rah rah" of MLM initiatives, because their intense focus on money and its acquisition leads to judging people for their ability to "recruit" others. This isn't a criticism. It just wasn't how I wanted to approach this opportunity. First of all, I want to see everyone enter this new domain, not just "go getters".
I want everyone engaged and involved in a movement, an exodus (acknowledging the very appropriately named wallet program). I didn't want to dismiss people because they might not be active recruiters. What about our parents, or kids... neighbors and community?
I watched a LOT of Andreas Antonopolous' presentations, and was surprised to see the infrastructure that has grown up around bitcoin to make it possible to function monetarily in the society with it, while protecting the value that our interactions had with others in ways that fiat money has never done, nor will ever do.
Chris, the man from the Arctic Circle called one day, most apologetic. He said had done the math, and at the time, there weren't enough people in Bitcoin Funding Team yet, to make it possible to make the earnings, up to 84 bitcoin that they suggested were possible. That may have changed, by now, but my enthusiasm had already waned. He had found something else. Another system came along that had greater appeal. It is called Gladiacoin.
Gladiacoin purports to earn profits through bitcoin trading on world crypto markets. They offer 7 "investment" plans, ranging from a minimum of .05 BTC to 4 BTC, which they promise to double in 90 days, a 2.2% daily accrual rate. (We have little appreciation of the power of interest, particularly when we're receiving it.)
I preferred Gladiacoin's approach because it did not require one to recruit in order to earn a handsome "interest" rate. (Have you seen the rates offered by banks for "high yield" deposits? 2% annual percent yield?!)
However, if you did share the site with others, and they enrolled, you could significantly increase how fast your bitcoins would accrue. So Della and I both got positions in Gladiacoin, and just as I prepared to shoot a video about the platform, she found another that we liked even more. It's called Wallet Pllus.
Based in Brazil, the people behind Wallet Pllus must have looked at Gladiacoin and other platforms and asked how they might make it even sweeter. There are a number of differences, most notable of which are that the doubling is in 60 days instead of 90 days (3.3% daily accrual), all of the Wallet Pllus plans will double. The entry Gladiacoin plan, Spartacus 1 (0.05 BTC), does not double. It serves more as a placeholder until you can upgrade to Spartacus 2 (0.1 BTC). Referral bonus percentages are higher in Wallet Pllus as well, topping off at 25% on their Premium 4 (4.0 BTC) plan.
The other part of Wallet Pllus that I thought was... let us say, interesting, was that there was virtually no information available on the platform in English. There was an English-language page on their site, but when I looked further, such as for a Wallet Pllus community in Facebook, English wasn't spoken.
So while most people would take that as a deal breaker, I saw it as an opportunity. In the Wallet Pllus facebook community I obtained a pdf document that explained the program in Portuguese, and translated it into English. I then created a Wallet Pllus International Bitcoin Community, did some personalization, recruited some of my Facebook friends, and started feeding it information. It's starting to grow.
I'm not rolling in money yet, but the platform itself is producing as promised, and ahead of schedule. I started on April 15 with a Basic 1 (0.05 BTC) plan, and one month later, my account has doubled 4 times, and I've been able to upgrade to Basic 4 (0.5 BTC). When it doubles the next time (in the next day or two), I will upgrade to Premium 1 (1.0 BTC).
Part of the speed is that some highly motivated people have signed up under me. Every time I look at my "network," the numbers are higher.
Upgrading the plan allows a higher percentage of the referral bonuses. Basic 1 paid 5%. Basic 4 pays 10%, and Premium 1 will pay 15%.
There will always be controversy around the "legitimacy" of programs like Gladiacoin and Wallet Pllus, whether they, and other such programs (some of which pay higher rates, such as this one), are scams, or will be around. Some will, and for various reasons, some will not. However, it would be unwise to use existing monetary theory and dynamics as the litmus test of legitimacy, because from where I sit now, the existing monetary system is the scam.
The one thing that "money" as we know it, does not do, is hold its value. It will always lose value, as surely as your new car will be worth less the minute you drive it off the lot. And that is just the beginning of what's wrong with the present monetary system, as its purpose is control and management of the masses through the trusted medium of money.
So I am learning quite a bit about bitcoin, the cryptocurrency environment and culture, as well as some of the avenues that are available now, that are mature enough to allow me to earn a living in or with bitcoin and other coins, and help others make that transition.
I created a web site called Bitcoin Accrual with the intent to introduce the many sites and services that are available to help transition into crypto-functioning internet environment. That includes where and how to buy bitcoins, wallets, business integration resources, bitcoin accrual platforms like the ones mentioned above and much more.
So as I said at the start, i can be long-winded, but I hope you found something here that sparks an interest in hearing more, as well as saying hello. I have much to learn, and to share.