Announcement HivePUD January 1 20212.jpg

Merry Crypto Christmas & Happy Hive Holidays! Speaking of, before I get down to the Power Up Day fun, be sure to check out the Yuletide awesomeness from @hivebuzz and their Christmas Challenge where you can offer up to ten of your friends a wicked cool Christmas badge (like I did for @streetstyle)! But you have to comment before New Year's Eve so hurry!

Now back to the announcement that in a little less than a week,, the very first Power Up Day for the new year will be here! Since @streetstyle continues to be AFK (away from keyboard), I'm continuing to run this initiative in his absence, as well as sending good thoughts in his direction. Hope to see you back on the blockchain in 2021, Street!

We had some cool things happen over the course of the past eight months, like the merging of #HivePUD with the Spanish #HPUD initiative, as well as some AMAZING new badges for Power Up Day courtesy of the @hivebuzz team, as well as more people contributing prizes to the power up day pool. I know this year will bring even more fun to this initiative, which has been going since May 1st 2019 (with thanks to @jamerussell for his post last month that included a mini PUD timeline, which is where I got that link).

Now, for all the Power Up Day details...

What is HivePUD?

Hive Power Up Day has been taking place on the first day of every month since it's inception on that other blockchain back in early 2019. Essentially, we ask that...

On the first day of the month...

... anyone who is able to, powers up some Hive on the first of the month.

... accounts that are powering down, pause during the 24 hour span of the first of the month.

... anyone who is trading/selling Hive, pause those transactions during the 24 hour span of the first of the month (and possibly even cancel any type of sell order on any exchanges during that time as well).

Why Power Up Hive?

When you power up your liquid Hive, it gives you a number of benefits. I especially like how my dear friend @nickyhavey laid it out in his post from August 2020 -

Stronger votes on content & witnesses - although you may not see this in the first instance, if you stay for a longer time and keep powering up like I have over the last 2.5 years, then you will notice the accumulative effect

Earning more curation rewards - kinda goes with point 1 but the way it works is that if you upvote content, you will earn as well (known as curation rewards) so the more Hive Power you have, the more you can potentially earn back

Earning "interest" by holding Hive Power - maybe you didn't know this but you will also earn HIVE passively at about 3% per year of what you currently have powered up so the more HIVE you have, the more you can earn from just holding!

Earn by delegating - delegating is effectively "loaning" out your HIVE Power to others and some accounts may offer you a daily payment for doing so. If you have more to delegate, you can earn more by delegating which helps grow your balance even more!

How to qualify for prizes

For those who have done Power Up Day in the past, please be aware these requirements changed a bit starting with the September 1st 2020 PUD, so please read carefully:

Your reputation must be above 39 and below 70.
Your total Hive Power (before the 1st) must be more than 100 and less than 8000.
You must power up at least 10 Hive on January 1st.
You must write a post about your power up on January 1st with the tag #HivePUD (International) or #HPUD (Spanish).

To be included in the winners list, you must meet all four requirements above. The order of the list (first place, second place, and so on) will be determined by the biggest PERCENTAGE of Hive powered up, not necessarily the most Hive powered up. As @streetstyle always explained it...

If you have 1000 HIVE Power already powered up prior to JANUARY 1, and on JANUARY 1 you complete steps 1-4 with a 100 HIVE Power Up,

and

another HIVE member has 300 HIVE Powered up prior to JANUARY 1, and on JANUARY 1st Powers Up 60 HIVE Coin, then this 2nd user would be winning with a 20% power up versus the first example with a bigger power up but smaller percentage of only 10% based on their account.

HIVE POWER UP DAY Prizes

In addition to making your own vote more valuable and adding to your curation rewards (as well as earning interest on your stake), some amazing members of the Hive community are offering prizes that include delegations, Hive giveaways, and other cool stuff listed below.

And once again in @streetstyle's own words...

The prizes are meant to incentivize the smaller members of the HIVE, the young bees looking to turn blogging nectar in honey for the HIVE. By Powering Up Hive coins into Hive Power, members of the HIVE show support for the HIVE BLOCKCHAIN and the HIVE Community while helping to grow their own account as well.

If you'd like to jump in and offer a prize for future #HivePUDs, simply shout out either in the comment section, or on Discord (traciyork#4860) and I'll be sure to update the prize list accordingly!

And no worries if your account is too big/small to qualify for an "official" prize - remember that any time you power up, you "win" a bigger upvote and more power on the blockchain. Can't go wrong with a prize like that! 😍

Prize list

For now, based on the past few months, I'm leaving all the prizes marked as ✔️ (CONFIRMED) as they seem to be fairly consistenly awarded. If that changes, I'll update the prize to ⛔ (NOT CONFIRMED) until I know for sure. And sponsors, if you'd rather I left your prize marked ⛔ each month until you shout out, please let me know and I'll be happy to change it.

Special shout out to @sgt-dan who significantly increased his delegation prizes last month - thanks so much for the added support, dear Sarge!

1st Place -

~~500~~ 1000 HIVE Power delegation for 30 days - Sponsored by @sgt-dan ✔️
300 HIVE Power delegation for 4 weeks - Sponsored by @traciyork ✔️
5 HIVE Basic Income units/levels Gift - Sponsored by @improv ✔️

2nd Place -

~~300~~ 500 HIVE Power delegation for 30 days - Sponsored by @sgt-dan ✔️
200 HIVE Power delegation for 4 weeks - Sponsored by @traciyork ✔️
5 HIVE Basic Income units/levels Gift - Sponsored by @improv ✔️

3rd Place -

~~200~~ 250 HIVE Power delegation for 30 days - Sponsored by @sgt-dan ✔️
100 HIVE Power delegation for 4 weeks - Sponsored by @traciyork ✔️
5 HIVE Basic Income units/levels Gift - Sponsored by @improv ✔️

4th-20th Place Each -

5 HIVE Basic Income units/levels Gift - Sponsored by @improv ✔️

ADDITIONALLY -

9th & 15th places on the power up list will each win 1 HIVE Basic Income unit/levels Gift - Sponsored by @cmplxty ✔️
Three delegations of 100 HIVE Power each for 3 weeks, based on her usual criteria - Sponsored by @fionasfavourites ✔️
200 HIVE Power delegation for 4 weeks to 1 person who often posts under the #naturalmedicine tag and power up (as stated by @riverflows in her comment here and details can be found in the recent post here ) - Sponsored by @naturalmedicine ✔️
100 HIVE Power delegation for 3 weeks (as announced here, criteria TBD) - Sponsored by @hiveph ✔️
All HivePUD Prize participants who qualify for the prize pool will be entered into a giveaway for a delegation of 500 HIVE Power for 4 weeks (3 lucky winners) - Sponsored by @theycallmedan, and distributed by @eddiespino through the @aliento account. ✔️
All HivePUD Prize participants who qualify for the prize pool will be entered into a giveaway of 10 HIVE POWER (5 lucky winners) - Sponsored by @traciyork (courtesy of Hive supplied by @theycallmedan) ✔️

PLUS -

All HivePUD Prize participants who qualify for the prize pool will be entered into a giveaway of 10 HIVE (1 lucky winner) - Sponsored by @traciyork ✔️
Winner of @traciyork's prize will receive 100 HIVE Power delegation for 3 weeks - Sponsored by @jeanlucsr ✔️
All HivePUD Prize participants who qualify for the prize pool will be entered into a giveaway of 10 HIVE POWER (1 lucky winner) - Sponsored by @livinguktaiwan ✔️
Winner of @livinguktaiwan's prize will receive 100 HIVE Power delegation for 3 weeks - Sponsored by @jeanlucsr ✔️

Special #HPUD Prize pool

As I've said before, when @victoriabsb started her #HPUD initiative, she wanted to make sure the smallest Spanish participants were still able to win some delegations, even if they didn't qualify based on the above rules. Last month, she had an exciting new bunch of delegation prizes added, thanks to the awesome generosity of @walterjay! The details can be found in her post, but essentially those winners will receive:

1st Place - Total 1100 HP Delegated

600 HIVE Power delegation for 21 days - Sponsored by @walterjay ✔️
250 HIVE Power delegation for 15 days - Sponsored by @victoriabsb ✔️
150 HIVE Power delegation for 4 weeks - Sponsored by @traciyork ✔️
100 HIVE Power delegation for 21 days - Sponsored by @r1s2g3 ✔️

2nd Place - Total 850 HP Delegated

500 HIVE Power delegation for 21 days - Sponsored by @walterjay ✔️
100 HIVE Power delegation for 15 days - Sponsored by @victoriabsb ✔️
150 HIVE Power delegation for 4 weeks - Sponsored by @traciyork ✔️
100 HIVE Power delegation for 21 days - Sponsored by @r1s2g3 ✔️

3rd Place - Total 550 HP Delegated

300 HIVE Power delegation for 21 days - Sponsored by @walterjay ✔️
150 HIVE Power delegation for 4 weeks - Sponsored by @traciyork ✔️
100 HIVE Power delegation for 21 days - Sponsored by @r1s2g3 ✔️

Random Winner

100 HIVE Power delegation for 21 days - Sponsored by @walterjay ✔️

How do I earn some HiveBuzz badges?

Check out this post from September by the @hivebuzz team called, Hive Power Up Day - Let's grow together! for details. There's also the Power Up Day Helper Badge, and I've heard a buzz that they have even more fun planned for us in the new year! BEE sure to also give their new proposal a peek and show it some support if you appreciate all they do to bring good cheer to our blockchain community all year long!

Timeline Reminder

Power up Hive on January 1st, 20211
Post about your power up on January 1st, 2021
Unofficial winners list will be posted January 2nd or 3rd (allowing time to correct for errors/omissions)
Official winners list will be posted on January 5th, after which sponsors will disperse prizes

That's it for now!

Shout out to the (still in Beta) UI from @leofinance, which is what I used for creating this post. While there are still some kinks to be worked out, overall I really enjoy using this interface. Well done, Leo Finance team!

Oh, and be sure to follow @hivebuzz (here and on Twitter) so you don't miss upcoming announcements about some other fun features they're working on for Power Up Day, as well as other awesome initiatives like the Mental Health badge for the Natural Medicine Community and the Papillon Charity badge to support @papilloncharity and @combination's amazing fund raising efforts. And of course, the Christmas badge gift magicalness I mentioned at the top of the post.

Thanks once again to everyone for all you do to make our new blockchain space a home. Special shout out to my numbers guy @abh12345 for always pulling together the data when the time comes - Asher, you're a ROCKSTAR!

And here's to another awesomesauce Hive Power Up Day!

Image Credits: blog thumbnail created on Canva, using a graphic created by @nateaguila in his Free HIVE Social Kit post. #HivePUD GIF created using both Giphy and ezGIF.