Phew, what a year we've been through eh fellow eSteem(ed)ians? Most certainly so for those of us who have been here for a couple of years or more; we who will have experienced the roller-coaster in all its upside-down and inside-out glory!
I am delighted with the result, the outcome and where we are today. I love where I find myself in this moment as an FTS (Full Time Steemian), one of so many! I'm currently spending the winter months in India, visiting friends and family and sorting out a few things. I bought my ticket with the payout from a photography post on magic mushrooms ha ha. It's a new feeling this complete liberation from the Matrix that blogging on the blockchain has enabled for me and I'm still very much adjusting to it. This is crypto-financial freedom such as I have never experienced. Never again will have to exchange my time and energy for Fiat - a truly wonderful feeling!
When I first came onto the blockchain almost two years ago in January 2018, I was excited, but my accumulation of Steem was limited to what trickled in organically through posts and comments. The price, at around $4 (and going up to $8) was too high for me (I know it sounds crazy now lol). I didn't mind crawling along as the prime motivator for me was having found an outlet for creative self-expression, and this in itself was spellbinding. I also believed in Abundance being part of the fundamental dynamics of blockchain activity - 'earnings' an inevitable side-effect requiring no management as such. During the Summer, Autumn and Winter of 2018 with the price falling further and further under $1, I started purchasing Steem. By the time New Year had kicked in, I was not far off Dolphin level!
Do you remember the mood at the time? Folk were leaving in droves as Stinc appeared to flap in distress, laying off most of their staff and playing hide and seek with us; oh the gloom! And what about the big offload of Steem - the multi-million SP dump that lead to the suicidal (for some) Low of $0.07 cents at the end of January this year? How did you feel at the time if you were even still around? Did you keep blogging and buying when you could, as I did, confident that there was plenty of substance to the grand Steem experiment? I had some idea of what Blockchain Technology represented by way of potential to disrupt the mainstream system, and I also felt it in my bones (whatever that may mean to you). As we are now seeing, the old system is kicking and screaming in its death agonies, pumping out smelly odours of FUD to those who still fall for it as it dissolves into irrelevance and disuse. Steem is not only still standing, it is flying! This is vindication.
Amidst flailing Stinky CEOs and crashing prices in the New Year, Steem also witnessed the big Coming Together of the community to take on the responsibility of how we were going to move forward - the @pennsif series of group discussions: The State of Steem Forums that kickstarted so much activity of consolidated and coordinated development, including the automation of new account creation! Things started to move in different ways. I managed to get a few friends and family on board as even a small investment of $100 or so got you anywhere between 500 - 1000 SP and boy are some of them regretting not having had more faith in my enthusiastic recommendations! Yeah, those of you who left or missed out on easy opportunities to accumulate SP - I don't wanna make you cringe, but it WAS utter bargain basement sales time on this particular crypto baby! How much Steem would $100 buy you today? LOL, I know, not even the value of a fraction of my full upvote!
I chuckled a little at the panic, although I kept my own council on the matter, as tempers had become heated during this past scorching Summer of '19 and the Cryptosphere was bubbling. The Steemniverse seemed to reflect the energies of confusion, anger and despair emanating from Wall street & the Banks - the global system of Fiat currency built on their flaky foundations. The 'Financial Crisis' that hit the streets and corporations and establishments around the world had long been predicted, and predictably, long been ignored. When it came it was utterly devastating for many, and on a much grander scale than 2008! I guess I don't need to say any more, we all remember what happened eh? But yeah, many predicted the death of the Steem blockchain, ridiculous as it now sounds, and when smoke.io (blockchain for the cannabis community and clone of Steem) took off in July 2019 after the big Crash - but Steem did not (until that fateful 15 August when it went from less than $0.17 to over $100 within 24 hours), the worst was declared and many slit their own throats by powering down and selling at those near-ATL prices. Oops!
We're all well aware of what's been happening these past few months and how technologies of decentralisation have blossomed and are sweeping the world in a frenzy of mass adoption, erasing any remaining hope the Control Freaks may have had of re-establishing their centralised hold. "NO MORE" say humanity collectively to the sound of collapsing banks, financial institutions and other household names of bigPharma, bigOil, bigManipulation, bigBullshit. The dust is still settling of course and people are still a little fearful, but predictions of 'violence' and 'chaos' have NOT been realised! Alternative (decentralised) dynamics were already in place at the time of the BIG crash on July 1, and there are examples and guidance in plentiful supply for those who are and were able to maintain a calm head and do their own research. Besides, this time around many folk have got to keep their homes and possessions simply because the banks themselves went under and there were no 'enforcers' left and no working central authority to quantitatively ease them back in - quite funny in a way. The roles of 'middle men' and 'leeches' are being steadily vapourised, and everywhere folk are experiencing new-found freedoms. We are in the middle of bigChange.
So here I am lounging it in free space, a man of means beyond expectations and certainly way way beyond needs or desires. This gives me options! I am exploring them and they are exciting and empowering. There is such joy in sharing bounty and there is now so much of it that I can't think of anything more fun than finding creative ways of using it to empower those I come across as I am now able to do pretty much anything I want and blog about it :). It's boom and moon time this New Year, amazing to think that you can now use cryptocurrency to pay for basic services anywhere in the world, most especially so in former 'third world' countries, which did not have such entrenched vested interests hindering mass adoption. Just yesterday I paid for a train ticket from Delhi to Bombay with Steem, directly on the Indianrail website (0.42 SBD if you really wanna know, and that is for an AC 2nd class ticket for a 15 hour journey which includes meals and a sleeping berth!). Even the dealer I get my supply of hash from accepts crypto payments to a smart wallet on his phone in the shady backstreets of New Delhi!
So, where are you just NOW amidst all this abundance dear reader? Have you quit your 9-5 enslavement with Steem in high triple figures and climbing by the day (see cover image above for details)? We have 4.72 million active users as of @penguinpablo's latest update and @fulltimegeek's vaporchain is smoking away on all fronts, onboarding those who cannot even spell 'blockchain' but are drawn to the paradigm. Ned has mostly downsized and is now your average Joe Blogger - whodathought? ...and that 1-post account (yes 'that' one) has powered itself down and outa the game. Even the whale wars - all the posturing, bullying and shenanigans of ego power-politics have largely ceased as there is a powerful counter-balancing group of middle-class Steemians initiated by a medieval poet who sings in duets, which uses Goodwill and collective Dolphin Power to calm the waters and make them safe for the little guy! And let's not forget that we also have the revolutionary and ever-so-successful DMACS project started by @whatsup & associates, to which I have just delegated 10k SP and wholeheartedly endorse. The list is endless and I'll stop here, DYOR!
What a time to be on Steem, just two days away from a new decade! I am so glad I made such excellent use of those 6-8 months from July 2018 onwards, to purchase Steem and to retain good faith in the vast and only now-being-realised potential of this funky, multi-faceted blockchain that we call home.
That then, in a nutty-shell, is my 2019 Steem Blockchain Experience in review. 'Phew' indeed eh?
Thanks for reading
