You may be familiar with the concept of staking, which is a huge advancement over Proof-of-Work validation. It isn’t perfect though, since the „rich are getting richer“ - that’s why Harmony introduced the EPoS Introducing Harmony’s Effective Proof-of-Stake (EPoS) system.

Before this becomes a reality (and we are close), I want to make you aware of another form of mining & staking that’s called „social mining“. This concept isn’t new, since you are already on Steem. I have been very active here for over a year. The problem with Steem though was (and maybe still is - I was away for the past months) that the system was played by members to maximize their own earnings. This is not a problem in general, but when your influence on a community is solely based on your token holdings, it opens the doors for narcissists and bullies. They won’t have the community and platform in mind, but are just on a mission to enhance their own power over people and the system. This is ruining every project and also happened to Steem to a large degree. That’s why I left. People like Bernie Sanders are toxic and others enabling his ass-holiness ruined the platform for me.

When I got in touch with Harmony Social Mining, it took me some days to realize its potential and similarities to other existing platforms but also the main differences.
Let me first tell you what initially prevented me from recognizing the power of Social Mining on this platform. Most of these things are a critique on MakerDao, who are the software providers for this community.
First I associated the name „Maker“ with the company of the same name that issues the DAI stable coin. I couldn’t see a relation (and this article wasn’t written yet) - so I lost interest. ;-) Then, after realizing that this is something completely different, I signed up but didn’t read through the Social Mining Welcome Guide - Social Mining

My fault, but on the platform I was only told that I needed 10k $ONE to be staked and linked to my wallet to participate. What took me another day to realize was (and that should be much more clearly articulated!), that the amount of your stake is responsible for your voting power and influence on the platform! This is similar to Steem, but it’s luckily not the biggest or only factor.

The thing is, that I previously have held my $ONE on Binance because it is at the current time the only platform that offers staking rewards. So I didn’t see a reason why I should transfer more than the required 10k off Binance and miss out on rewards. This is crucial:: With staking on Harmony Social Mining instead of Binance (or other staking services in the future) you are giving up on the rewards there, but you will be able to earn a lot more when you are being active and contributing to the Harmony community anyway!

So for me, this is an easy decision to make. If you are more the passive guy and community engagement isn’t your thing, you may better leave your $ONE at Binance. Most of all this gives you options. Chose the one that fits your time and personality. For all the possibilities to earn $ONE please read the Wiki pages Payouts & Workdrops - Social Mining

I like the idea of building a DAO around legit projects. The downside to this is, that the vast majority is in crypto because they want to get rich quick. I can’t tell you how many people I met over the past years in this scene, who had absolutely no clue what they were doing.
The reason why fundamentals don’t play a big role in crypto is simply because 90% lack the ability to comprehend them nor know how to interpret them. This made me sad for a long time - just seeing people looking for a cult-like religion and the feeling to belong to some group of believers instead of researching and comprehending the basic facts of this economy and the value propositions of different projects.

Anyway, if you have read this article to the end, you will most likely belong to the small group of people who are different. You are not a sheep but someone who wants to make a change. Earning money is a great thing, but it will only make a difference when you are actively involved and seeing the bigger picture.

We have endless possibilities with Harmony right before our eyes. Now let the team work, show results over the next months and in the meantime be an active part of this community. Social Mining is one step into this direction you can make today!

Cheers,

Atmos