The past few days I've been on quite a run of delegating out some of my Steem Power. If you're not familiar with all the ins and outs of the complex Steem system I can briefly attempt to explain what that means! Basically, as a holder of Steem Power you can choose to delegate some or all of that power out to other accounts. This means those others can then vote and utilize the power of those tokens, but they never leave your wallet and you can revoke this authorization when you see fit. This can be used for giving a friend new to the blockchain a helping hand, helping crowdfund a project or community, or seeking investment returns on your stake.
I am not a fan of the "bid bot" system on Steem and have no desire to delegate to these services strictly for profit. However in recent weeks and months there have emerged plenty of new and promising projects on Steem that I have become inclined to delegate to. These projects can offer a variety of incentives, from votes, to regular payouts of Steem tokens accrued from the projects curation and activities utilizing the delegated Steem, as well as custom tokens for certain projects that may have benefits of their own or at least hold speculative value should a new business or community achieve great results!

Some of these projects I'm very interested in supporting for a variety of reasons. One is that the passive income and speculative token accumulation from these delegations is nice. But second and more important, I see these initiatives as great ways of spreading the distribution of Steem further among more people, thereby growing the network and increasing the utility and value of the Steem I hold even as it's delegated out and earns a return.
Most of these projects actively curate within the app or niche they are creating, effectively spreading my voting power to places I wouldn't have put it to use myself. A strong central account can be a huge benefit to seeding an early app or community with value, and helps that project claim more accounts for onboarding new users and setting them up for success and enjoyment. If I can play a small part in that... and make a profit to boot.... count me in!
The only downside is seeing the rewards I'm able to give out directly dwindle a bit. But that only feeds my hunger to acquire some more Steem Power to boost my might!!!
For the moment I've settled on 500 SP delegations to @actifit, @steemhunt, @wherein, @dlike, @vimm, and @supdork!
I am very fortunate to have been on Steem long enough to even have that much SP to throw around. But all of this cool stuff happening on Steem makes me wish I'd been putting in plenty more effort these past few years and had even more!
Are there any other good projects out there I should take a look at? I'd love to hear any recommendations in the comments! There's just too much for any one person to keep on top of and learn when it comes to the Steem blockchain! Likewise, if you're unfamiliar with the accounts linked to above, I'd highly recommend checking them out. There's truly a ton of amazing stuff being built on Steem that isn't getting enough credit!
- Bryan "the Imp" Imhoff



