gm frens!
And welcome to the Decentralized Creative blog on HIVE, where we talk with musicians, designers, music producers and any kind of creative human to learn how to incorporate privacy, decentralization, self-custody and peer-to-peer value exchange to our creative passion.
Let me share a #BEER
and a bit of my story!
Florida and my no-coiner period
I grew up in South Florida; in a city called Coral Gables. @taskmaster4450 's alma matter, University of Miami is there. I used to skate, walk and drive by it all the time.
When I graduated from college with a business degree, I decided to move to Latin America to start my career as a corporate employee as a project manager. I didn't have a whole lot of jobs, just a handfull. I mostly stayed with the same companies for many years and moved up the ladder.
2019 The beginning of my web3 journey
In 2017, after dedicating many years to a regional company in Costa Rica, I felt like something was missing in my life. I decided I wanted to do something more creative with my time and figured it might be a good idea to open up a recording studio, so my butt got to painting walls and building sound panels.
After a few months of painting, cutting, drilling and hammering, my recording studio was finally complete. It wasn't much, but it was about to be my very own startup.
in January 2018 Recording Box was officially open for business. As it often happens with any new business, you don't have a whole lot of clients at first, so I started going to live music shows to hand out business cards and reaching out to local musicians to invite them to record in my studio; or at least rehearse. One of my very first rehearsal clients was a band called Jogshuttle. They'd come in every now and then for a 2 or 3 hour rehearsal session. One day, they asked me if I'd be willing to accept cryptocurrency as payment, to which I responded "??????" What the hell is cryptocurrency? I knew nothing about it, so I started doing my research. I started learning about Bitcoin and Ethereum and seed phrases. Sure enough, I eventually made my way to HIVE (It wasn't called HIVE back then yet) where I met some amazing folks like @ijatz and @djlethalskillz.
After a very vague idea of blockchain technology, I thought why not?, let's do this cryptocurrency thing and decided to record a live in-studio session for Jogshuttle.
This was for a Musicoin series called Musicoin Originals:
Since I'd already been bitten by the cryptocurrency bug, I decided to give HIVE a try and open my own account. I figured I'd use this place to upload the music I produce, live sessions, recording tips and tricks and that sort of thing. I went ahead and created my very first @recording-box account.
This was my very first post back in April, 2019. We recorded a little music session with @jfmusic31 who was an active member of HIVE back then:
I slowly started learning that HIVE was much more than a place to post videos. It was an ecosystem made up of humans. Some wanted to know who you are! I didn't know about these #introduceyourself posts until about a year later, when I decided to make this introduction post. This is from May, 2020:
Some Hiveans also visited the studio! Here is a chat I had with the amazing @buttcoins and @starkerz right before Hive Hub Hotel in Lake Atitlan became a reality:
Here is some more recent ones taken by @ninaeatshere upon arrival to Guatemala City on their way to Lake Atitlan:
Please visit her blog and show some support.
Recording Box has its own name and purpose. It's a recording studio. I didn't really want to put my face or name all over my studio's blog, so I decided to create an account for myself to share more who I am.
2020 - MY first personal account
I came up with the name @alex-rourke and started posting with that name. Fortunately, it wasn't a ridiculous name like Bacon Double Cheeseburger, I know some folks regret the name they chose in the very early days of HIVE. I did, however, start wondering what I could do to change my user name, but I was never presented with a solution other than creating a brand new account.
2025 The Decentralized Creative brand
As time went by, my personal brand, Decentralized Creative, started to take shape. I started using this quite distinct color scheme and then started working on my avatar.
You can see some of my ideas here. I knew I wanted to go with a duotone PFP and ideally with yellow and magenta.
I eventually settled on this one and added it to my newly created YouTube channel, X Profile and website, all with the same name and avatar and username. I really feel like it's starting to come together!
My plan is to continue being an active HIVE citizen, learning, spreading the word, using the tech and contributing to the growth and adoption of this amazing ecosystem, now with a name I use across all my interweb channels.
Please feel free to check out and subscribe!
https://www.youtube.com/@decentralizedcreative
https://decentralizedcreative.com
https://x.com/web3creative_
I also I started powering up my HIVE to spread the love:
Feel free to leave a comment and I'll be sure to reply!
Genial, de una me voy a suscribirme a todo amigo, me gustan los colores pues conservan tu escencia que ya compartías, súper apoyado tocayo, atento de tus actualizaciones.
!PIMP
!PIZZA
Que onda carnal! Hace ratos que estaba viendo como lograr que mis redes tengan congruencia, así que vamos a probar. Estuve fuera de HIVE unas semanas también, pero ya regresé a web3 y al web2 también para hacer ruido 👊
🤜🏻🤛🏻Genial.
We each have a different journey to Hive so it's interesting to hear how people got here. I have been pushing it as a place for musicians for ages. I hope to see that side of it grow.
Rock on!
!BEER
I think HIVE a great place for decentralized creatives like musicians, when used in conjunction with other #freedomtools. I've found incredible support from the @dashpay community and Litecoin folks too. I love those blockchains and their people.
@v4v.app and soon @zypto are making it possible to spend HIVE at shops, @hivedebit is on its way.
@vsc.network is helping create a multi-coin ecosystem. Hive is great for musicians; blockchain technology is great for musicians, but like anything in life, TANSTAAFL.
We've got to be willing to push that boulder uphill for a while :)
Hey Alex, great post about your Story. I am having thought about changing my Hive username but since it is saved in a Blockchain, that is not possible.
Btw I Like your new look/Account! Great you made the step and wish you good luck!
Greetings
Thomas
You can open a new account like I did. Some could argue that you lose your history and reputation. That's true, to a certain degree, but OGs know who you are and you'll build back your following before you know it. I'm experimenting.
Will watch your example, maybe I will take a leap too. We will see
The worst that can happen is you go back to your old account. Try it.
Hace mucho que no veía un Post tuyo. Me da gusto leer de todos tus avances. Saludos amigo
!HBIT
Hola Armando! Qué gusto leerte! Acá seguimos. Desde un punto de vista de "marca personal" necesito tener un nombre que sea congruente en todos los canales tradicionales (YouTube, sitio web, etc) y no encontré otra manera de actualizar mi nombre en HIVE, así que tomé esta decisión de crear un usuario nuevo. Veamos qué pasa.
Excelente - cuenta con mi apoyo. Ánimo Quizá podemos hacer otra entrevista y hablar de todos tus proyectos 😀
Claro que sí! he visto que has estado bastante activo con las entrevistas amigo, felicidades! Encantando de platicar contigo nuevamente.
acgalarza, you mined 0.9 🟧 HBIT and the user you replied to (web3creative) received 0.1 HBIT on your behalf as a tip. When you mine HBIT, you're also playing the Wusang: Isle of Blaq game. 🏴☠️
Sorry, but you didn't find a bonus treasure token today. Try again tomorrow...they're out there! Your random number was 0.4895104587157366, also viewable in the Discord server, #hbit-wusang-log channel. | tools | wallet | discord | community | daily <>< Check for bonus treasure tokens by entering your username at a block explorer A, explorer B, or take a look at your wallet.There is a treasure chest of bitcoin sats hidden in Wusang: Isle of Blaq. Happy treasure hunting! 😃 Read about Hivebits (HBIT) or read the story of Wusang: Isle of Blaq.
It is an amazing time to be alive. I feel like a broken record, but this is a big deal. We have the tools to give each and every one of us the means of production and access to the market through open source and decentralized tech. That can't be overstated, imo.
We are really lucky just to have all the mainstream platforms like YouTube and the others you mentioned, but building on Hive means you actually own your account. Obviously, that's not true on the other platforms.
I'm glad to see you here. I look forward to seeing what you get up to.
It is an absolutely amazing time to be alive! And I've been dedicating a good chunk of my time lately to hanging out (online) with folks like @thedessertlinux of @dashpay, Vlad Costea and the folks at 84 Million Podcast (about Litecoin). These guys are really knowledgeable and don't hesitate to share knowledge on privacy tools like Dash's PrivateSend and Litecoins MWeb. I still use legacy platforms for the reach, but I'm committed to #freedomtools like HIVE and the ones mentioned above.
Glad to hear, yes it's really the best time!
Congratulations @web3creative!
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STOP$PIZZA slices delivered:
@steemmillionaire(1/5) tipped @web3creative
gr33nm4ster tipped web3creative
Come get MOONed!
I'm so curious to see what this new channel is about. You know, I found out about music NFTs because I was looking for alternative ways to bring my music directly to the consumer. It's something so important for independent musicians, being able to create diversification for your income. While I was learning about NFTs, I found Hive and I'm so glad I did.
Not just for the community and the environment, but also because there are opportunities like this one of yours, to open the mind to new ways. The more we know, the more we are able to choose what's best for us, try out different things, building our own path.
I'm an independent musician. I MUST find my path through my own effort.
I know almost nothing about crypto and how it could sustain my music career. But I'm willing to learn, if it's giving me more chances to accomplish that.
I'm sure you have a lot of fun here! Love this amazing community!
!PIMP & !PIZZA
Great post. Yeah . I had to change my Hive name back in 2020. I’m glad I did. @Offgridlife was a really bad choice for a blog name. I’m much happier with my new blog.
offgridlife rolls off the tongue a bit easier than offgridlife. The devil is in the details as they say. It's a subtle, yet important distinction.