Recently one of my first recruits to the, then, STEEM Blockchain and old buddy from the @devcoin project posted to the tagged chained topic of their Hive Story. His tagging me in his post inspired me to follow his example and offer my hive story.
You can find @papacrusher's story via:
https://hive.blog/mancave/@papacrusher/q-and-a-challenge-answered-and-obeyed
What follows are the question format of the My Hive Story theme:
How long have you been on the Blockchain?
Seventy one moons, or for the more Gregorian minded since August 2016.
What was your background in Cryptocurrency when you first came to the blockchain?
It was before the 2015 crash. Don't have the exact year off the top of my head. My registration on bitcointalk.org happened on May 09, 2013, 03:18:35 AM; so it was some time before then.
My vagueness may surprise some, yet cryptos were really not my number one interest at the time. The blockchain technology was interesting to me, as a programmer, yet it was not money... at least in my mind.
Yes it could be said that my introduction into the crypto space was with a great deal of kicking and screaming, while being gently nudged along by an old friend. Me and that person go back many years. The first time rolling a d20 was at his place. But this story picks up about 25 years from our first meeting.
He was staying at my house at the time, being a bit down on his luck. A few others lived there as well. They paid rent and we shared internet, pizza, hash and beer. He was in his room pumping out bitcoins on graphics cards. Anytime he would catch one of us sitting down he would extol the virtues of the BitCoin. Whenever sharing pizza deliveries, making beer purchases, lending him my credit card for graphic card purchases and the like he would ask, stressing for our own good, to take BTC in repayment. Humoring him (or so we thought) we largely agreed. Just before the 2015 crash was the first time the value of what had been giving me was understood. After the crash, with blood still on the streets, it seemed time to buy. It turns out it was.
Been a HODLer ever since.
What was your background in writing when you first came to the blockchain?
Used to write songs and before that poetry in my younger years. Enjoyed the required English 101 in University and actually had a short story of mine read in class by the Prof; yet did not dig deep into writing other than that.
How many people did you know when you first came to the Blockchain?
None.
How did you meet people when you first came to the Blockchain
My first year on the blockchain was pretty much as a lurker. Still active on FaceBook there would be occasional visits to see how things were developing as my interest was primarily the technology from a programmer's perspective and not that of a content creator.
That changed in 2017 when @lynds moved her tribe from FB to STEEM; or a lot of us anyway. Then there was a community here and folks which were real online friends. That is when my posting became more active.
Who did you look up to when you first came to the blockchain?
Probably the absolute first was @dollarvigilante, as it was on Jeff Berwick's YouTube channel that STEEM was first mentioned to me.
How would you describe your first three months on the blockchain?
Although a lurker content-wise, it was very exciting to see a novel development in crypto technology in the form of Delegated Proof of Stake. Someone had finally demonstrated that scalability was possible! Since then the Lightning Network has proved itself and ETH 2.0 promises similar scalability in its Proof of Stake; yet STEEM was the first chain to demonstrate the possibility to me.
Has being a part of the blockchain changed you in any way for the good?
It opened up my shell a bit; coaxing me to share thoughts and my musical endeavors publicly. It rekindled such creative endeavors as well as they seemed to have been fading, somewhat, in later life.
What is your favorite memory from your time on the blockchain?
Probably when @lynds first brought her tribe over to the Chain. It was one of the strongest feelings of community which had been felt by me online; even though there had been many from long term MUD gaming to things like the @devcoin project.
If you could give advice to a new person signing up to Hive what would it be?
Never make it about the crypto rewards. Find your community here and that will be reward enough. It's what has kept me coming back.
It was so great walking down memory lane with you! If I remember correctly, it was actually on bitcoin talk were we first met when I found the devcoin thread. And that is some of the best possible advice for a new person. It should be about the community and interactions. That can end up being a very powerful bond!
Yes, pretty sure it was bitcointalk.org. Would double check but that thread is too damn long!!! 😁
Thanks for inspiring this post, Papa, and thanks for checking it out.
Hey @novacadian! I really enjoyed reading your hive story. Thanks so much for sharing! That @lynds sure has a great tribe! She's who brought me onto the blockchain! Good times. And, surely many more to come!! Puff puff pass ❤✌🎵
Yeah that was a great FB group, wasn't it @yogajill! Appreciate you dropping in. Puff puff pass. LOL! (Its munch munch swallow these days by doctor's orders. 8+ years tongue cancer survivor.)
Great post. I joined Steemit back in June 2017. I loved the Art and music communities on Steemit and I entered many of the drawing and music contests. I built up a pretty good stack of Steem, almost 20,000. Just from sharing my Artwork and Photography.
I worked very hard to bring some of the 300,000 people from my Offgrid Groups on Facebook but every time I posted about crypto everyone said it was a scam. I think I was finally able to get 1 person to join. They are still here and doing very well. @annephilbrick … she helps run a lot of fun Photography contests here on Hive.
Anyway.
When Hive split off from Steemit I started posting here and did ok… I slowly moved my Steem to Hive, like everyone else. But then the Downvote wars started on Hive and I was told to stop posting on Hive by a bunch of big Hive Whales. ???? Around the same time Blurt.blog started up so I started blogging over there. Again, just posting my Artwork, music and Photography. There are no downvotes on Blurt so that was great. I have been able to accumulate over 1 Million Blurt since July 2020… Blurt is around .04 cents … so about $40,000 USd. I sold some for Bitcoin, Dogecoin etc on Ionomy in May and bought a Car. That was fun. So I post more on blurt these days. Follow me over there for some big 1Million Blurtpowered Upvotes. See you on Blurt. https://Blurt.blog/@offgridlife
This is the car I bought with my Blurt…
My son built a Blurt car for Xbox Live and GameState.
This a video we made for Blurt, Xbox and GameState …
🤗 Hello..👋
@offgridlife
Thank you for introducing,encouraging and supporting me. Gratitude. It's been an amazing journey.
😍Wow...a brand new car...Totally Awesome 😎!!
I joined the Shadow Hunters Community hive-179017 and have been hosting a Reflection Hunters Contest📸 to help support this Community I enjoy.
🎑☃️🎄 Wishing You and your Family a Merry Christmas and a Healthy..Happy..Prosperous New Year..! Cheers🍻
Glad you stuck around. Everyone else I got to join Steemit or Hive eventually quit. Keys too complicated, can’t upload profile photo, lost keys, etc etc… it’s good you found a friendly supportive community on Hive. That is the secret.
The keys are complicated. There were a couple of rough hardforks.
The transition to Hive was a challenge as well.
I think some got lost and discouraged. I almost gave up.
Thanks for dropping in @annephilbrick. Was checking out your blog and the reflection theme was very captivating. Following with interest!
🎄🌞🎄
👋 Hello..!
@novacadian
Thank you for checking out my blog and following.
👣🐾 Now following you too 👣🐾.
Keep an eye out🧐for some Shadow and Reflection photos📸 to share.
Wishing You a Happy Holiday
and a Healthy..Prosperous New Year..! Cheers🌠🍻
It’s so strange that we could not get anyone else to join from the Offgrid Facebook groups. I guess people are happier on Facebook and Instagram.
I'm rarely if ever on Facebook anymore. My family and friends no longer post.
🐝 Hive keeps me busy in my spare time.
I haven't checked into Instagram and more than likely won't.
🤔 Maybe some from the Offgrid groups joined and have a different username.
A great afternoon and weekend too you.
:-D
My FB account was terminated in the #DeleteFacebook campaign a few years ago. Waiting for the Open Source version of the Meta before deciding about going offgrid or not. 😎
Alot of people I know
@novacadian stopped engaging on Facebook. Disappeared.. Evaporated.
To many changes and not for the better.
Meta...will see..I might return...🤔😊
😎
You advised me on getting over to Blurt some time ago. Was there during my deep dive through the night following a posting from @lucylin who was pretty much chased off of HIVE by downvoting whales here. The whole fork thing took the wind out of my sails for about a year, yet as mentioned in this post, the community keeps bringing me back. Will definitely check things out on Blurt though... just would like to come in with an overall game plan this time. My landing on steemit was pretty fragmented; being there for the technology more than the content.
Thanks for the great feedback!
Good Music community over there … use #blurtmusic #blurtart #instablurt for some bigger upvotes. Use #helloblurt tag on your Introduceyourself post for a big upvote from @helloblurt