Back in early 2018, I used to spend my whole day in Steem. I had around 10K steem and was active both blogging, and mostly reading other's blog. I was earning around 1K steem thanks to inflated price of SBD.
From January to April 2018, though I never sold a single Steem, in USD term I was earning $6K to $3K. On that time, I was looking for fulltime job. For some time I thought about steeming as an alternative full time job. Unfortunately, from June, 2018 to till now Steem's price went to south from $3 to 25 cents. Luckily, I got a job in August and able to buy back in 30K Steem in the dip.
However, in the last six months Steem based DApps have exploded. Though earning side of Steem is still damped, but one can earn TOKENs such as in @actifit, @steemhunt, @dclick, @partiko etc. People who are good at trading card game, can also earn in @steemmonsters or @drugwars. There are few betting DApp where one can spend/earn their Steem/SBD too. Now that we have exchanges for Steem tokens, one can trade them against Steem/SBD, earn more tokens and Steem. It is possible that one can spend whole day in Steem DApps and spend his/her Steem/SBD.
Will earning side of Steem improve when we will see lots of full time Steemian, similar to early 2018? With current trajectory of Steem price appreciation, it may be possible in coming months.
However, for that one has to have substantial amount of Steem in staking (i.e. powered up Steem- SP). Delegating to successful and speculative DApps can earn good amounts of TOKENs that can have significant value in near future.
Earning from blogging (i.e. upvoting from others) will decline both due to decreasing size of reward-pool on lower inflation of Steem and diversion of SP through delegation to bots for passive income and TOKEN earning.
Yes, one can live as full time in Steem right now, for that he/she should have substantial amount of Steem powered up and have extra-cash in hand. When Steem price is down, he/she have to use extra cash to spend daily expenditure and buy up some Steem too. And then he/she has to sell Steem when price is high. It requires good amount of trading skills too.
However, disparity in the living costs in the different parts of the world, amount of Steem earning and Steem powering up can significantly vary.
For example, if one is earning 1K Steem monthly, but he/she can't live off $500 in US. However, if Steem price goes above $2, he/she may able to. Now if one have substantial amount of cash, he/she may now buy up some Steem and live on stock trading.
When Steem price goes above $2, he/she may able to recuperate some of his/her living cost. Interestingly, 1K Steem at current price, is good enough money for a month as a living cost in some parts of the world.
It is still amazing that Steem is the only chain where one can both earn and spend his coins/tokens. If one's living cost is low and skills are high, one can live of Steem DApp full time too. With price appreciation of Steem, more people can join Steem blockchain as full time. This kind of lifestyle is not possible in other blockchains. For example, one can live off day trading BTC/LTC, for that he/she needs substantial holding and very good skills for trading. However, other than trading, there is little else he/she can do in that blockchain.
Disclaimer: This opinion is not a financial advice, it my personal perspective and opinion. Please seek professionals for financial decisions.
Image sources: Most images are open sourced (e.g. Pixabay, Wikimedia etc.) with Creative common license. Some images are used with due courtesy to respected owners.
Thanks for reading.
@riseofth
Cryptominer since 2013, occasional trader and tech blogger