@themarkymark had a post a few days ago asking us How did you get here and why are you still here? Today it's my turn to share y story, tell you how I got there ans why I am here.
How Did I Get Here?
Actually I got to the old chain first in 2017. I registered, posted a few times and quit because I had no confidence. English is a foreign language to me, although it's becoming my every day language now. I wasn't sure I could do decent post and stopped posting.
Then one of my Fb friends posted a photo of a camera they bought with STEEM, that motivated me to give it another try. So on 20 January 2018 I registered again and started posting regularly, hoping to practice my English and learn as much about crypto as possible. I knew crypto is going to matter a lot in the future and wanted to accumulate as much knowledge as I could.
At first everything seemed so complicated and confusing, it took me some time to figure out how things work around here, but it's not rocket science, so after some practice everything became clear.
Over the years I've met a lot of good (and bad 😛) people, have participated in a lot of projects, have been a curator, translator, bug hunter, referee, contest judge and so on. I like to believe my contribution here has helped the blockchain to be a better place.
Old Chain / New Chain
After the fork there was no question where I want to continue my journey. Decentralization and freedom is what I chose. No way I can accept what went on on the old chain after Ned sold us to the highest bidder. I grew up having my freedom severely limited, no way I can accept that again. It was a tough period for all of us, but in hindsight it was the best thing that could happen to us. We got our freedom, independence and don't have to deal with Steemit.inc anymore.
After the fork, I brought all my stake over to Hive, plus the airdrop we got on Hive, helped me start my journey on Hive. Curation has always been important to me, I believe it is the only way of helping good content creators. My stake is not a big one, I'm still a dolphin, but I'm trying to do my best with what I have.
Communities have changed a lot, for me it is definitely a good thing, very inspiring and motivating. Thanks to #NeedleWorkMonday community, I started to learn sewing and opened my very first Etsy store, selling my creations in the US as well as in the country. If it wasn't for this community, I don't think I would have ever tried to create anything.
Then my focus has shifted towards crypto markets and DeFi. It's been fun blogging and learning different things, but one of my goals has been to learn as much as I can about crypto, markets, trading etc. #LeoFinance community is the perfect place for those interested in crypto, DeFi etc. I'm still posting about various topics, but half of my time, if not more is allocated to finance and crypto.
Image by WorldSpectrum from Pixabay
Why Am I Still Here
The short and cheeky answer to this question is Where else would I be? Do you know a better place than this? Because I don't! This is the best community!
It's been three years and a few months since I'm part of this community, it has become part of my life. I've rarely missed a day, except from when I'm away on holiday, but even then I'm trying to spend some time in here. This is one of the huge advantages we have here, the great community. We stay together, build together, fight together. The community gives value to this place.
I've been blogging since 2008 on different centralized platforms and I think it's time to push decentralization hard. Giants like Google, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube are ruling social media and using people to get richer and richer. It's time to change that, this domination must come to an end. Web3 is the future and we are already part of it. It's a great opportunity to make this community bigger, onboard as many people as we can.
The other reason I'm still here is that even though I've learned a lot, there's a lot more I have to learn regarding crypto and markets.
Life is changing and we're changing with it as we have no choice. If you don't change, chances to encounter great difficulties later in life are high. The current financial system is not going to last long, most governments are in great difficulty and the pandemic has made things even worse. The current pension system is already collapsing. Waiting for the government to take care of us when retirement comes is a huge mistake.
LeoFinance has made it possible for us to participate in DeFi. CUB DeFi has been my first decentralized finance playground. I call it playground as I've used it to figure out how things work and learn.
Starting from day one I've powered up every penny I've earned here and used all my resources to grow my portfolio. I've never powered down and never used a penny for my own personal needs. Lately I have redirected some of my funds to CUB DeFi, to provide liquidity to farms.
Monetizing content is not the only activity here anymore. The banking system is going backwards, the negative interest rate is chasing people away. That cannot be called saving anymore as your savings are not yours anymore. I believe with a little bit of dedication and knowledge everyone can lay the base of their future in here. We have so many opportunities waiting for us. We have Leo Backed Investment (LBI) that gives us the possibility to invest our savings.
Development is mind blowing. If you look back where we were one year ago, when the fork happened and compare it with there we are now, it's unbelievable. We're getting new things every week. Dapps, frontends, new platforms are appearing to make this place even better. I believe soon we're going to have a market that will give us the opportunity to buy and sell products using whatever currency we like. This again will be a huge step forward, towards freedom.
The bottom line is, we're the bankers now and our future is what we make of it. Being here can change your life. How many cases we've seen in which people from struggling countries like Venezuela and Nigeria are living off crypto earned here. This place can change your life.
My stake is still not a huge one, as i said before, I'm still a little dolphin, but even so I can use it to curate and help good content creators stay motivated. The good news is with the upcoming hardfork (which I hope will happen soon), this crazy rewarding curve will be replaced with a better one that will help curation a lot. Till then I'm going to stake as much as possible to be able to give bigger upvotes and incentivize good content creators.
Even though I've been here for three years and a few months, I still have a lot to learn and a lot to contribute to here.