As I said yesterday, while I usually do these Hive specific posts only on my Hive blog, since I'm in the homestretch of doing NaBloPoMo & HiveBloPoMo, I'm trying to work smarter and not harder, so I'm posting this on my WordPress blog as well. I'm also hoping that when my non-crypto blogging friends see posts like this, it will help demystify this cryptocurrency blogging I've been doing for close to four years now. And speaking of years, I just realized that we just passed the two year anniversary of when this started on that other blockchain, and the coming Hive Power Up Day on May 1st 2021 will mark the almost one year mark since I took over managing this initiative after the originator went afk. Fingers crossed he decides to pop back in to the community very soon!

Now, to get to the business at hand, in a little less than a week, the next Hive Power Up Day (aka #HIvePUD) will be here! In fact, the @hivebuzz countdown timer has already started ticking down the days - be sure to check it out on the HiveBuzz site so you don't miss your chance to earn a badge while you build your Hive account!

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 creation by @streetstyle on that other blockchain back on April 13th 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 (who is also a WordPress blogger) 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 Power Up Day, 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 May 1st.
You must write a post about your power up on May 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. For example, if the top two people were...

Hive Person A - who had 1000 HIVE Powered up before May 1st and met the four above requirements on the first by powering up 100 HIVE.

...and...

Hive Person B - who had 300 HIVE Powered up before May 1st and met the four above requirements on the first by powering up 60 HIVE.

... that means that Hive Person B would would be in first place with a 20% power up, versus Hive Person A who had a bigger power up, but with only a 10% power up.

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.

As @streetstyle said in his announcement post for the May 1st 2020 Power Up Day ...

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 consistently 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 "NOT CONFIRMED" each month until you shout out, please let me know and I'll change it.

1st Place -

600 HIVE Power delegation for 30 days - - Sponsored by @theycallmedan, and distributed by @eddiespino through the @aliento account. ✅
300 HIVE Power delegation for 4 weeks - Sponsored by @traciyork ✅
5 HIVE Basic Income units/levels Gift - Sponsored by @improv ✅
150 HIVE Power delegation for 21 days - Sponsored by @alokkumar121 ✅

2nd Place -

500 HIVE Power delegation for 30 days - - Sponsored by @theycallmedan, and distributed by @eddiespino through the @aliento account. ✅
200 HIVE Power delegation for 4 weeks - Sponsored by @traciyork ✅
5 HIVE Basic Income units/levels Gift - Sponsored by @improv ✅
150 HIVE Power delegation for 21 days - Sponsored by @alokkumar121 ✅

3rd Place -

400 HIVE Power delegation for 30 days - - Sponsored by @theycallmedan, and distributed by @eddiespino through the @aliento account. ✅
100 HIVE Power delegation for 4 weeks - Sponsored by @traciyork ✅
5 HIVE Basic Income units/levels Gift - Sponsored by @improv ✅
150 HIVE Power delegation for 21 days - Sponsored by @alokkumar121 ✅

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 (who is another WordPress blogger) ✅
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 this more 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 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. The details can be found in her HPUD announcement post from last month, but essentially those winners will receive:

1st Place -

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 -

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 -

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?

Take a peek at their post from last month, Hive Power Up Day - April 1st 2021 - Hive Power Delegation as well as their Power Up Day Helper Badge post for all the details. And don't forget to follow @hivebuzz on Hive and on Twitter so you don't miss any announcements about upcoming HivePUD fun, 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.

Timeline Reminder

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

That's it for now!

Thanks once again to everyone in the Hive Community for all you do to make our 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 to my friends outside of the Hive Community who made it this far in my somewhat-confusing-if-you're-not-familiar-with-cryptocurrencies post, thanks so much for checking this out and please feel free to shout out if you have any questions. I promise I won't try to sell you something, or get you involved in some kind of crypto-cult - I'll just try to explain why I ~~think~~ know blockchain blogging is so amazing!

Here's to another awesomesauce Hive Power Up Day!