I have been here since the beginning, since the Steem days...lurking in the background observing this network and community grow into what it is today. It's amazing to see where we have come since then...Here is my long overdue introduction post.
Who am I and where do I come from?
I was born and raised in Washington State, USA. Prior to me being born, my father was a deep undercover LAPD investigator during the 70s/80s. He ended up relocating to Washington in the early 90s and taking a job as detective there with another police department. Shortly after that he met my mother in Seattle who had just recently been hired at Microsoft. My entire life I have been around and used computers. Some of the earliest memories I have are running around the halls of Microsoft as a kid. I'd hang out in the empty cubicles and play Minesweeper and Pinball on the old Dell dimension PCs while waiting for my mom to finish work...It was like Disneyland for me there. Thinking back and reflecting on how much things have progressed in the computing world since the 90s and early 2000s still blows my mind. Especially in regards to computer graphics.
I was a big gaming nerd as a kid, my first console was the original Nintendo. One of my favorite games was Duck Hunt...man those were some good simple days, that game was the best! I also had Super Nintendo. Some of my favorite games on that were Starfox, Donkey Kong Country and Mortal Kombat. I'll never forget my parents tried to ban me from playing MK. They took the cartridge and hid it in their room (didn't hide it well enough, I quickly found it hidden in their closet). I would have to sneak in there and grab it when I wanted to play but always ended up getting busted by my dad and scolded for it. I don't blame them for this now, those were times when the news was constantly pushing the narrative that if you let your kid play violent games they'd turn them into a complete psycho.
Later in the 90s N64 became my main console. Golden Eye 007 was by far my favorite game next to Super Mario 64. After that I moved on to PS1 before switching to Xbox for good in 2002. In addition to console gaming, I would play Age of Empires 1 on my dads PC... this was my first computer game and is still one of my favorite PC game franchises today (next to Starcraft). This was back during pre Steam days, when people still used GameSpy. After I got a bit older and built my own PC some of my go to games were: Battlefield 2, Day of Defeat Source, Counter Strike Source and World of Warcraft to name a few.
How did I get involved in crypto?
I still remember the day I first heard about Bitcoin. I was sitting on the rooftop of a hotel in Rome, Italy eating breakfast back in summer 2011. My parents and I had planned on going to see Europe a few years after I graduated and had just embarked on our month long trip. I remember being on my laptop and reading about Bitcoin in the news, about how it was being used on the internet to buy all kinds of shady things. At the time I thought it was interesting but was occupied with other stuff and very quickly forgot about it.
We traveled all over Europe that summer. Italy, Spain, Turkey and Greece. 2011 was a crazy year for economies around the world. When we were in Greece their government was going through its debt crisis from the aftermath of 08. I remember being in Athens and seeing massive protests in the streets. I thought to myself there has to be some way the world can get out of this madness, not realizing the Bitcoin network I had just read about weeks earlier was there in the background growing.
Fast forward to 2013, I was working graveyard shift as a security guard for various companies. That lasted a while before I eventually decided to quit and opened a medical Marijuana dispensary, it had just been legalized in my state. I know pretty ironic being my father was an ex narcotics detective, but he always supported what I did (he will even share a joint with me every now and then). Around that time I started hearing more and more about Bitcoin again on the news and YouTube, so decided to dive down the rabbit hole. Lets just say after hopping in there I never came back out. After taking the time to get a grasp and understanding of what it was, I went all in and sold everything I had, converted it all into Bitcoin. Everyone I knew told me I was nuts, no one understood or even cared to learn more when I made an effort to try and explain it to them. They just gave me this crazy look and told me it was some kind of scam or wouldn't last.
I didn't end up holding on to the Bitcoin for very long. Shortly after buying it I had heard about Bitshares and Dan Larimer and thought it was an interesting project so I invested a small amount of my coins in early 2015. Bitshares was actually my first altcoin investment (didn't end up being the greatest) but no regrets there. Then in July of that year I started hearing more and more about Ethereum. After doing my research I was very intrigued and anxiously awaited for the launch. That was a crazy summer...ill never forget watching that order book on Poloniex. Thousands of BTC on the books scooping up ETH. I sold all of my Bitcoin in August 2015 and converted it to Ethereum while it was around $0.60 and the rest is history. My life has never been the same since. I attended Devcon 1 in London November of that year. Met all sorts of cool and interesting people there who actually understood everything going on in my head...it was a time I will never forget.
How did I discover Steem/Hive?
In May 2016, I was visiting my grandmother who I now greatly miss (she passed a couple years ago) in Provo, Utah. I was on my laptop browsing the Bitcointalk forums as usual and came across this post https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1466593.0 -- Immediately I was hooked on the idea of a decentralized social network. I fired up Steemit blog for the first time and began posting and playing around with stuff... it blew my mind at the time and felt like magic, earning money to post things. I didn't make much (my first account was https://hive.blog/@kingjohal) but saw the value in a decentralized social network controlled by its community. I was no expert on crypto back then as you'll see from my posts. A few months later I ended up losing my keys and lost access to that account forever. That is when this account @thejohalfiles was created.
I fell in love with Steem pretty quickly and eventually ended up selling a bit of my ETH to purchase a chunk of it. I have always had plans to post on this account but instead began curating on the network shortly after powering up. I was hooked. Id wake up in the morning and monitor literally every single post on the chain and vote on content. I would be up early in the morning and late hours into the night just curating.
It's been a privilege to witness what has been built here and how the network has evolved into what it is today. What a wild and stressful ride its been along the way. I will never forget the day Justin Sun took over Steem in early 2020. I was in Mexico attending a conference when I had got the news. I didn't even attend most of it as I was in my hotel room trying to monitor the situation and contemplating my next move. After seeing how things played out and hearing the plans to fork I knew I needed to get my funds out of there ASAP. After the fork was successful, I began powering down and managed to get out without losing any coins. Very thankful for this after seeing what happened to some others. It's really hard seeing good people lose their money, I pray somehow justice is served one day and folks get their funds back.
What do I plan on doing with this Hive account?
For now I will be experimenting with the various applications being built on Hive such as Speak Network and Dbuzz. In the future I will be documenting my progression in the gym. Since discovering Bitcoin lets just say I have not been exercising nearly as much as I used to. Crypto has fully consumed my life since then, and I've lost all the gains from my younger days. My goal is to really start taking my health and exercise seriously again. I have been involved in martial arts since a kid (Karate, Kung Fu and MMA), and this practice also fell out of my life. So ill be documenting my return to training in that regard as well.
In addition to all this, I plan on exploring the world over the next few years and will be posting about my travels on this blog. I have a huge list that i've been building for many years of over 400 places that id like to visit.
It has been incredible to see what Hive has become and to think about what the future holds for us all. The way Hive was born was literally a gift from God. At the time Justin Sun taking over Steem seemed like a horrible thing to many, but I believe it was always its destiny and God had a plan. A truly decentralized social network is really needed more than ever right now. Governments and corporations around the world are censoring information at a massive scale and it will only get worse. Freedom of speech online is incredibly important and needs to be protected. Hive is the best shot we have at fighting back to protect the human races freedom and creativity online. I'm looking forward to sharing my life journey here with you all.
Awesome to see you post, I appreciate the story on how you discovered this crazy crypto stuff.
Wanted to share with you something you did for me, and you may not have even known it...
I was streaming Call of Duty back on Dlive....urgh a few years ago, trying to figure out my path on the old blockchain. I was literally, earning 10 cents or something each post I was making and after about a half a year or so, I was getting pretty discouraged.
You gave me an upvote back then, and it changed everything for me. Inspired me to keep creating, and keep building here. Almost 4 years later, I am forever grateful for your vote because it changed my approach here on the blockchain.
Thats really great to hear brother, thankful I am in a position to help creators like yourself. Good to see you're still here grinding along during these times. Good luck and stay focused on your goals.
good to see u still have 1M hive
have you seen telos? Its proposal system is a great chance for you, and you could get in TLOS cheap now at 14 cents and its gone to $1.40 and i got hive and telos a strategic partnership and now eos telos an wax are all part of antelope.io unified code base
also, wanna ork on a hive proposal to pay sales people who can convince others to buy target quota amounts of hive and power it up , and make a post giving credit to the person who convinced them to buy it, who would then get paid from hivedao ? I think t is what hive needs
totally
Finally!
WOW your story is inspiring. What a great vision. I hope to have a similar one in a few years when the Hive is worth $100.
Also thanks for all the votes you gave me on my account @splinterdany you really made an impact on my channel and thanks to that I can cope better with the bearmarket with what I was able to save.
Hope to see you soon with the curation. Many people miss seeing your name in the votes list.
I was on vacation in Spain in September-October 2011, maybe we will cross paths 😃 Greetings from Venezuela.
Don't mention it @danielvehe, glad to hear that my votes helped you out. The work you do for the Splinterlands community in Venezuela is incredible. Keep up the hustle man, for sure would be cool to meet one day when I am in Venezuela.
Wow, of course. In fact if you come and don't let me know you'll break my heart. 😅
If you need a guide, count on me
I wanted to say six years is a long time to be plugged into the Matrix, because of your Matrix-inspired profile background. I decided against though, I thought it might be a somewhat trite remark.
OK, so I actually said it...I don't know, it seemed right.
Your story above is incredible and pretty cool also, thanks for exiting the Matrix long enough to share it.
There I go again with the Matrix references...
I've been around since June 2017 and I'm still here, posting and all...To me, well Hive is something special, and it means a lot; I'm pleased to read you think so also as do many others.
Glad to see you finally publish around here, very good stuff mate. Share those dope pictures and videos when you were at Hawaii.
Thank you @belemo, good seeing you here. For sure brother, keep an eye out for more posts.
Wow, that's a great story, and I'm happy to see you posting. I'm thankful to you for the support I was getting from you in steem. I also remember how I won $400 worth of crypto when you had a contest about ledger. I powered that all up. I will never forget your support. To me and many people who were active. I hope you'll be supporting people in hive as well. Looking forward to your content here. I'm also happy that we can provide more freedom to people here. Share more truth about the world. And help the world to get much better. ☺
Man, hadn't see your name in a looooooooong time. Cool story, followed my gaming pattern almost identical growing up. Still think I could beat anyone today in golden eye or mario kart....maybe we can play someday ;)
Wow, that's a blast from the past! I'm glad you decided to come back to us.
Yeah, we've been through some crazy stuff with the fork.
I hadn't been very active after Steemfest, and only showed up every other week or so.
Of course I knew that Justin Sun had taken over, and I was just as concerned about that
as many of us. When I came back after a week of no activity, all of a sudden there was all
this crazy stuff going on, and I had to get back up to date quickly haha.
Those few days, and then mere hours of voting, getting everyone else to vote for the witnesses,
and then the fork, that was mad! But very exciting!
But yeah, it was terrible to see some people lose it all, and I hope the same, that somehow
justice will come, and that Sun will get some karma his way.
And I think you're right. I believe that all that happened back then is the best thing that could have happened to us. He did us all a favor. Not that we have to go and thank him now though, that would be a bit much hehe.
Anyway, great to see you here again. I hope you have a great week!
Agreed, what goes around comes around Justin Sun will get what's coming to him eventually. Thanks and same to you @misslasvegas
Good to see your introduction post. I guess a lot of people were thinking who is this mysterious guy, now we all know :D I still remember all your help towards me and other people on the platform. Especially after we all got fucked by Dtube and Steem dicks. It was very interesting story and some things kinda similar to me from gamer to crypto to gym.
And wow your dad had really serious job, the only time I heared about detectives was from movies. I'm surprised by that part.
oh shit 400 places, thats sounds like a lot. For me the only places I want to see is Japan, Thailand and Korea
I'm looking forward to see those posts. Maybe I'm not an expert in Martial Arts, but I love bodybuilding.
@txmek wow its been awhile bro, awesome to still see you here. Hope the streaming life is going well! I will try to drop in on Vimm again sometime soon. Thanks for the comment.
Stoked to see you posting an intro post @thejohalfiles, looks like you've lived a super-interesting life 'till now! Your crypto story is inspiring, going from graveyard shifts to Eth whale hehehe!
I was in many of those protests you witnessed in Greece back in 2011. Shit was hectic, Athens was burning from clashes with police for 1+ year. Bad thing is that nothing changed and actually we are WAY MORE fucked up here right now!
Hope we get to see more posting from you and if you have some free time and love action you should check out @skatehive, the skateboarding community on Hive. We're building since Steem days and we'd love any support we can get!
Fun fact : You upvoted my birthday post 3+ years ago and it was one of the first FAT upvotes I had revieved since I've joined Steem. This motivated me to try my best on chain so thank you for that 😁
Cheers
Man thats wild to hear you were in those protests, it is unfortunate nothing has changed since then. I will check @skatehive out for sure. Cheers bro, take it easy.
Larimer was a gateway drug to crypto alts for many of us. Good you found your voice again here.
As for many others, I guess that a "finally" is in order. I remember you from the good old days (we had a couple of discussions back then), when this chain had another name.
Nice to "finally virtually meet you".
Cheers!
Your life story is amazing and crypto journey is inspirational. Only had to wait 5 years to find out. Looking forward to seeing more.
It's great to see a veteran making an intro after 6 years. I think your account previously had a leopard (or tiger? idk) as profile pic. Any reason behind that change? :P
Yes, that logo was from the Dodger Challenger "Hellcat", my favorite car. It's the only car I still own right now. I'll make a post about it someday for sure.
Cool man. Personally I'm not a fan of cars, I'll settle for anything that allows me to get around faster than walking or by bus XD.
I saw you like games. It would be great to see you around Hive Gaming someday :)
I could not agree more, although I wish I had more confidence Hive would surmount the internal impediments that make it incapable of resisting financialization.
It's nice to finally learn more about you.
Thanks!
Welcome (back), @thejohalfiles!
I came to Steem because I had asked the Lord for a way into crypto that I could understand as a creative ... Steem appeared, and then Justin Sun took over, so I came over to Hive ... and I have stayed because I know what you know: Hive is a gift from God, in its ups and downs!
The legend has introduced himself. Awesome to read something about you. You've been a mystery to many. Looking forward seeing some Kung Fu stretches and kick-progression ;)
Insane post! I expected this to be a decently small introduction (having not heard of you, newbie here) but man that was an adventure.
It's crazy to hear about you growing up and becoming acclimated with crypto and finding Steem and this platform. I would love to hear more about your background if you are willing to divulge more of your life.
You've got a new follower, I look forward to seeing some of your future posts :)
We are excited to see you finally joined the wining family - Hive! Incredible story about how far you’ve come both in reality and crypto. Have a good one Champ! @thejohalfiles
How amazing to see someone who has been in the world of cryptocurrencies for so long, I am quite new to this world but little by little I like it more and more.
I am very motivated by what you say about getting back to your health, since I also spend a lot of time at home, my goal is to return to play basketball daily.
I remember your account from the old days of Steemit! It was great to learn more about you. Welcome!
Welcome back mate, trust me, you are in the best place where you will find like-minded people while exploring Web3 in growing Hive ecosystem. So sad for your lost account, I think all of us have at least 1 Steem/hive account lost in time :(
Happy to see you there 😎
If you have some spare time, also check LeoFinance, CTP Communities,
Splinterlands, RisingStar Play2Earn games.
Hive Projects by @engrave will help you explore many other projects that I forget to mention 😉
The way you found crypto, it felt as if it was inevitable for you to do so. I guess your experience so far including your losses and gains have strengthened your perceptions. Win or loss now, you already know your goals and aspirations. Good to have you back.
Indeed I have made and lost a lot of money along the way. You learn to be thankful for what you have, it's made me the investor I am today. No regrets, only lessons.
🙏🙏 great to learned your journey so far after so many years....there are many miles yet to cover. I remember you since steemit day and the way you surprise me few times with your upvotes....my bad I took you as an Indian..NRI....😉...Steemit was my first crypto and after its takeover i sold all for
Chunk of btc and then focused on hive .....hope to see more of your post coming...
Very glad to know more about you, it has been about 4-5 years since we are in touch. I myself too hope to have a similar crypto story to tell in the coming years. Btw I believe India is up there in your list for sure, would love to meet you someday.
Thanks a lot for being by my side for so many years, I'm very excited to see you post on hive more frequently and continue working with you as well.
Nice. This is my first time seeing this account and the story behind the owner is very inspirational. The steps you took to explore Crypto is fascinating.
Since you are one of those that were here during the whole Steemit era, your might be interested to take a look at @filmmaking4hive. The project is working on developing a feature-length film based off the events that transpired with Steemit, Justin Sun and the birth of Hive.
Nice to have to here. I hope you also find time for your physical exercise... Kung Fu and stuff... while doing things connected with Crypto. Haha
Hey again Johal. It's a pleasant surprise to see you share who you are with us. Glad I followed you at some point in the distant past! Good call on the BTC->ETH trade. I was not as optimistic as you on it back then :P
welcome to the hive platform, i also heard about you during my days on steemit though we never had any encounter but i do know you, good to have you here on hive with us...
Wow, welcome back! I remember your name from way back on Steemit... I think I was even the beneficiary of a few of your votes.
=^..^=
Hi @thejohalfiles
Such an interesting and inspiring story and I have seen you around but I used to think that you are an Indian NRI. You life has been amazing in crypto and hope to see more content from you. Welcome back
Haven't seen you for a long time.
So glad to see you back on HIVE, Welcome!
.
Great to learn more about you after all these years brother. Looking forward to seeing more posts from you in the future!
Good to see you here @louisthomas.. haven't seen you in a while, always enjoyed watching your content. Likewise --Stay focused on your goals brother good luck.
Finally, We get a story. It's a very interesting one.
I see some of your mountain travels on Instagram. Would be nice to get the stories behind them here.
Welcome ✨✨✨
Ps: (Does your traveling plans include Africa?)
Thanks brother. Yes, I have always wanted to visit Africa. So much to see there, would be cool to link up one day with the Hive community over there...I hear it is thriving.
Nice intro post and nice to hear a bit of your story. Back on the old chain, an occasional up would show up from you and keep the motivation moving to create some videos. Best of luck with the gym work, martial arts, and the travel!
good to see you around here @captainbob...thank you.
Wow! Never thought I'd see the day. Great to see you posting after all these years.
Glad you see it that way, a lot of truthers on here have been attacked by curtain wales who clearly don't support freedom of speach and information.
I would like to personally thank you for supporting my content back in the early days. Much appreciated.
Good luck on your up and coming fitness journey, I have recently discovered the huge benefits that come from focusing on fitness and wellbeing.
Great to hear from you @thejohalfiles
Don't mention it brother. Sorry to hear about that, will do what I can to help. I'll support truth and freedom of speech till the day I die.
I think it's probably still worth mentioning: Anyone picking Oddjob for GoldenEye multiplayer is pure cheese.
hahaha oh man yeah Oddjob was super cheap!
Wow, an OG from the early days!! Welcome to Hive, we share the same love for martial arts. I'm over 40 and still trying out new arts so it's never late to come back. Curious to hear about your progress there. Hive on! !BEER
I agree with you! Freedom of speech is the most important thing in hive! And that's why im here, but even here we have to still fight for freedom of speech for everyone! Thanks for being one fighting back! I do all i can with the tools i have! One thing i have learned is that, the most people in hive the better, the more people around the better, the most projects being build the better! Sadly i have seen powerful people in hive that their sole purpose is to bully people and projects and kick them from hive, so they can keep hive small and maintain power! One of the best things we can do is to support projects that are being build in hive ecosystem, like games for example! I can name 3 of them, Hashkings, Rising Star and Psyberx! Games that are building in this ecosystem, bringing new people to hive, teams that are doing their best and could help all the hive ecosystem to grow and be better! Rising Star has a proposal that is very interesting and you can check it and support it if you find it worthy! Greetings from Paraguay!
I'm totally going to be in the hive movie!
And it's going great here let's hook up! Welcome back!!!!
You pre order the SteamDeck?
Yeah I have one, thing is awesome. Hard to believe sometimes I am able to play these PC games on the go now.
So jealous, I ordered early Feb and said Q2, but then I got pushed to after Q3.
It was indeed a great post and touch the heart of your reader, it was all based on real life experience with narration and settings.
This words caught my attention
I agree that God has a plan for us, I remember when the people(Israel) of God was liberated from a Dictator, it was a same story which was unfolded. I cannot wait to see the documentary on Hive, shout out to @lordbutterfly.
I am interested to know you more in your future post. We need more God fearing people like you in this world. May God bless you brother
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I am not convinced average Steemit fan (as it of now) is a Caucasian type 😜
Wow you have an interesting life for sure
And i for one welcome you to hive :) enjoy your stay and look forward to your various posting
!PIZZA
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Hello! Nice to see an old timer doing an intro! You will have to tell us more about the Kung Fu! I did Lau Gar for many years. Loved it
Thank you for your witness vote!
Have a !BEER on me!
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BEERKING.Wow! I was about to follow you. I didn't notice that I have been following you for months and am surprised to read your introduction post.
I can't wait to read your posts. Interesting journey.