When I look at the first few lines of my Cryptocurrency Bank Spreadsheet, I'm reminded of my very first investment in Steem over a year ago (click to view the full version):
As you can see, in USD terms, I'm down over $25,000 at the current price of Bitcoin (-7 BTC on that larger trade). It looks rather silly next to that 1,515% increase I got from BitShares (I wish I had bought more of that last year!).
I Have Zero Regrets.
I have no regrets partially because you can see my wallet and know I'm doing quite well for myself financially and have made back that $25k and then some. But more so because the real currency of Steemit isn't Steem Power, STEEM, or SBD: it's relationships.
I've thought about how much I've benefitted (both financially and relationally) by buying Steem Power and almost always powering up my blogging rewards to increase it further.
I'm realizing there are a lot of people who are not following this same pattern. They claim rewards and cash them out as quickly as they can. They pay a votebot 1 SBD to hopefully get a vote worth a little more than that (and the attention that comes along with an upvoted post). Or they rent Steem Power through delegation so they can have more influence and earn higher curation rewards.
I was reminded of this when I saw this emergency announcement by @minnowbooster. The demand for Steem Power is rising and that's a really good thing! The price of it, in USD terms, is falling. One of the reasons for this, possibly, has to do with exchanges constantly having Steem wallet issues (just use Open Ledger), but it might also be that we're filling our own demand internally instead of encouraging external investment.
Don't get me wrong, I'm a fan of @minnowbooster and have delegated some of my Steem Power to it. I like the idea of spreading my voting around to many different accounts, far more than I could vote for on my own. I just think we have some signals in the market here that many may not be noticing.
If you want more voting power, think long term. Instead of spending some SBD on a vote here and there, why not directly buy Steem and power up yourself? That way the investment stays entirely with you and lasts long term. I've been here over a year, so I can look back and see the benefits of consistent blogging and powering up. Yes, the "interest" (it's really share dilution protection) rate was higher in the past, but the fact remains that powering up your account means you reap the curation rewards and influence benefits directly from now until the future. Or, if you're not active on Steemit voting or posting much, power up and delegate to something like @minnowbooster to earn rewards that way. Currently, even just holding Steem Power gives you 6.7% of the 9% total inflation over the course of a year caused by newly created Steem (thanks to @onthewayout for an important correction here).
That's how you go from being a renter to an owner/lender.
The rich understand these concepts, and it's how they get rich. Those who are living paycheck to paycheck, unfortunately, either don't understand this or are not in a place in their life to do anything about it. Some waste money on pay day loan interest just to get by.
You may be tempted to think I've always had money, but I know (to some degree) what it's like to be in need. In high school we lost our house and lived on a boat for two years. Sometimes we were colder and hungrier than I'd ever like to be again.
When you're just getting by, using every short-term trick you can find to survive, it's completely understandable not to think as a long-term investor. But please, don't stay there. Eventually, over time, get out of debt and think like a rich person if you ever want to become a rich person. I'm working towards that goal because I don't see money as evil, but as a certificate of performance. I've paid off my house (thank you bitcoin!), and I'm planning for a future filled with travel, education, and a desire to improve the world.
I hope you'll join me.
This post was inspired by a comment I just left for @tipU. If you don't know what @tipU is, check out my last post. I've linked to a number of old posts here and though they can't be upvoted for value anymore, if you really like them, please consider leaving a tip comment there so I'll know.
Clearly, I'm not an investment professional, and I've made a lot of mistakes, so don't listen to me for investment advice. Only risk what you're willing to lose. Buying Steem, to me, is more than an investment. It's also a commitment.
I hope you have a great weekend.
Oh, before I forget, we got a nice whale witness vote recently which bumped @lukestokes.mhth up to 29th place! Very Nice! Thank you to all my supporters.
Nice post! Actually, I think having a mixed strategy where you buy a lot of Steem and also rent a lot of Steem is the best imho:) Steem on!
Best of both worlds right there. :)
It's so easy to get caught up in chasing the quick buck (I know I did in my younger years) with constantly trading and trying to "beat" the market. For every success story in the trading realm there are thousands of sob stories.
The wealthy think in "blocks" of time, 5 years, 10 years and so on, why the people who struggle with money think only of today. I think it was Buffett who said it's you're not willing to hold an investment for 10 years don't even think about holding it for 10 minutes. Find something you believe in and make it part of your long term portfolio, part of your life so to speak. By doing this you will constantly be learning more about the investment and eventually you'll become an expert on it, being able to make more intelligent decisions down the road.
Holding your Steem in Steem Power has a multi-faceted profit system built in for the long term holder. No matter your level of involvement, your investment will grow over time. If you don't invest more than you can afford to lose, then there's no reason to not reap those rewards. Time is our greatest ally when it comes to investing, if we can just get out of our own way and let the investment and time do their job. Great article Luke!
Great comment, thank you! I completely agree. Reminds me of another famous Buffett quote:
I think your math might be off. How much inflation did those Steem buys from July generate? Inflation used to be massive until the end of last year. Also, did you get other financial yields from owning that Steem? One of the best cases for buying Steem is that you get ongoing financial (and other) rewards from that purchase in various forms. Worth factoring those rewards into the analytical model you have.
For example, I don't think I've bought even half current Steem.
2nd point: there are people who denominate trading performance in...ETC? Why?
IMO, one should only value trading in their local FX or real world reserve currency but I understand the arguments for measuring in both BTC and Ethereum. But a volatile smaller coin seems like a poor way to contextualize performance.
Yes, that's true the inflation earlier on was much higher (and I did mention that briefly in the post). I tried to make the point that it was a good investment if you look at my wallet today, even though the price in terms of BTC is down (meaning some might argue just holding BTC would have better). I didn't go into all the details of why it was a good investment though.
There's a lot of ways to look at investments and some have the goal of increasing their local FX and some want to increase their cryptocurrency holdings (usually denominated in BTC, but also ETH as well).
No one has a crystal ball that works well enough to know the future. :)
The spreadsheet I have tracks things in terms of BTS, ETH, and BTC because depending on the market I'm trading in, all of those count as "money" to me, and if I'm going to trade one form of money for another, I like to track over time if that was a good trade or not or if I would have been better off just staying in one currency or another currency.
ETC really counts as "money" to you? That just seems bananas to me. It's worse than Ethereum (same tech, so same risk, but without the good parts and the development or community) in every way and has been proven to be just a marketing exercise as no one uses it for any actual smart contract projects (they all use Ethereum) and its price action has moved it from #3 in market cap to now #10.
The community isn't even strong to raise more than $60k for the one person who is trying there. I almost donated to him out of compassion.
https://dexaran.github.io/ICO/
It never really had a real raison d'etre and now it seems like it's out of pumps because there is just too much competition.
Sorry, I didn't even notice you said ETC not ETH. Nah, I'm not a fan of ETC. I've never owned any, and I don't see any exchange pairs with ETC.
Ah that makes way more sense! I just saw it on the side of your spread sheet and was like "hunh"
Oh wow! Haha. Yeah that's totally a typo. Thanks, will fix. I only recently added ETH pricing to my spreadsheet and clearly messed up that header.
Like this? :)
Yep, that's how it's done.
Sweeet :) little by little (and a lot if it goes to .$08 again!)
Great advice Luke. I bought 250 steem at $4 each when I first signed up and I have no regrets. I've multiplied that several times over by powering up nearly all my earnings. I don't think I would have done as well without some skin in the game.
That's a great point, Jason. When we have skin in the game, it changes our motivations.
Unfortunately i barely have money to pay my colleague for he's work (Gaming Stuff) but every thing i get on steem is invested in my Steem Power for the Future !
I cash out Sbd every month but I leave sp here (it's actually investment for future!) and talking about vote bots they are actually good, we minnows don't have as exposure as you or other authors and no one likes to vote on empty bowl so we use them and get roi + some extra.
Great post @lukestokes well done for making all your money back, wish I had that kind of money to invest in, but I am on path with your advice I feel like steemit is a great investment I believe in it and so far I have not powered down at all which I am very tempted to because I am desperate for a new computer as mine gets the blue screen of death, making writing posts for steemit incredibly difficult and time consuming, like my diana post took 8 hours.
But not only that I am also trying to get enough money for tickets to go steemfest as this would most likely be the easiest and closest one for me to get to, but your advice seems to point I am doing the right thing and holding my SP I am planing of spending my SBD on more SP once I have a working computer and possibly a steemfest ticket, thanks alot Luke.
mu gusto , me gustaria aprender mas como saco provecho a la pagina de steemit y estoy nuevo en esto, pero quiero seguir por mucho tiempo, buen post !!!
Buena suerte y gracias por comentar.
(google translate)
This is great info, congrats on your success!
Hi Luke, congratulations on your progress on the witness list.
I was wondering. I voted for you when I was a minnow. I've powered up since then and thought it might help if I unvoted and revoted for you? Your thoughts?
Thanks for the tipu tips too. tip!
Thank you for your witness vote! No need to unvote and revote. Your current Steem Power holdings always go towards the strength of your witness vote. This is also why sometimes the witness list changes so much without people changing their votes. Every 7 days, if a whale is powering down, their witness votes will have less impact.
Thanks for the tip. :)
Okay cool I'll leave it as is. I voted for several other people that I see doing good things around the network after reading your other post about the lack of participation.
Thanks for explaining this. Useful to know.
It is definitely a good idea to buy some steem now. Despite the fact it has started increasing it may drop in the comings days or you can look at it that the price now is relatively cheap compared to in the future
As the platform grows people will be more desperate to get some SP due to the huge powers and benefits it has driving the price up. I know steem will do well; it is just a matter of being patient.
I've been trying to get as much steem as I can including converting most of the SBD I have earned into Steem Power.
First time I've come across you @lukestokes (well you have never seen me) and you seem like a great guy trying to spread a positive message. Followed and Voted as witness.
I hope you have a great weekend.
Thank you so much for your support!
Sometimes I wonder if in the future the community here will be completely different. Will it be like Facebook where we only really interact with our existing friends? Will it be like Reddit where relationships are built within walled communities? Will it be like Medium where some relationships between commenters and bloggers exist alongside other friendships?
Either way, I think it'll be interesting. :)
This is exactly the Steemit experience people need to see, @lukestokes. I myself am invested, though when I joined almost a year ago, I hadn't seen the potential so left it alone until last month. I landed on one of your blockchain journal posts and peaked my interest. Since then I have been learning more everyday about steem and the potential.
I also learned about witnesses from your page and you were the first vote I put in. Always learning something from your blog.
Something else I didn't realize. Thanks for inspiring.
Thank you!
Unfortunately, what I said there was incorrect. I've edited it to read:
Like most blockchains, Steem is creating new currency all the time. Unlike proof of work systems, delegated proof of stake gives a big portion of the newly created Steem to authors and curators. The 6.7% number isn't a direct interest rate, but the percentage of the total inflation amount created by new currency (currently around 9%). I hope that makes sense. Takes a bit to wrap the head around it all. :)
I'm really encouraged to hear you're learning from my blog. Thank you!
If only my fiat wallet paid that much in interest! I would appreciate 0.01% versus 0% - which ironically is about what a savings account pays lol. Just seen that you live in Nashville, I'm 20 minutes up the road in the city sharing a name with the nations capitol. Congrats on paying off your house! That's also encouraging to hear.
Very cool! We should get a Steemit meetup going eventually.
That's a good idea. We may open the area up to awareness at the same time.
That was a nice read. Insightfull information.
Minnowbooster is paying 18% APR for leasing sp which is anyday better than what our banks provide at measly 2%.
Heck yeah! That's the thinking of an owner. :)
The great thing about Steem over other cryptocurrency investments, is that we actually use Steem via Steemit, and it's an actual platform that we use and love everyday.
Think about it... how many cryptocurrencies do you own and don't even use? Hell, I bet some of you have some that don't even have a finished product yet! 💰
YOu cant compare the bank to crysto, because if steem go down to zero you will lose everything, ur money in bank wont go down to zero, or fdic will back it up 250k max.
I was comparing it to other cryptocurrencies mate, not money in the bank.
Always an informative and good read from you my friend! You are right about the relationships being the real currency here. I had no idea about minnow booster? My concept so far has been to put everything into steem power and just grow although the $ isn't why I'm enjoying being here in the first place. It's, as you stated, the people and the community. Thanks as always for excellent content.
Yea I do have a regret, when I got on steemit the price was 14 cents and I was so new here I didn't know if that was good price or not. So I didn't buy any right away. then a month later it started climbing and it never went to 14 cents since then. Well steem at this price I feel is still a good investment like you said. I don't understand what you mean when you say the more steem power you have means more steem? Does that mean if I have more steem power someones upvote to me will give me more steem power then if I had less steem power?
No, it means as new currency is created by the blockchain, 6.7% "interest" (6.7% times the total 9% Steem Power inflation) is paid to you based on your holdings in the form of Steem Power. To view this in real time, load up the wallet of a whale, note the amount of Steem Power they have, then reload the page a few minutes later and watch it increase.
This is incorrect Luke. The current annual inflation rate is about 9%. The stats from Steemdb.com represent the allocation of that 9% across all the participants in the network. So the actual annual "interest" of holding Steem Power is 9% x 6.7% = 0.603%.
The distribution of the new tokens is currently still distorted by HF 19 the actual Steem Power interest should be 9% x 15% = 1.35% per the new blockchain rules enforced since HF 16.
Ah, shoot, I certainly don't want to spread incorrect information! Thanks for the correction. Yes, I see that's just the percentage of the newly created Steem that is allocated to Steem Power holders compared to other groups.
I will edit my post.
oh ok that makes sense now thanks for explaining. I like your posts all the time.
Excelente mensaje, hermano. Me identifico con sus palabras y por esa razón le doy mi upvote. apenas tengo un mes en Steemit y estoy aprendiendo acerca de las criptomonedas actualmente.
Felicidades por tu publicación. Leeré tus antiguas publicaciones y aprendere a seguir tus pasos
¡Excelente! Me alegra que la hayas encontrado útil. Mi español no es tan genial, así que voy a dejar que Google traduce hablar por mí. Espero que continúe aprendiendo sobre la moneda criptográfica porque es una tecnología increíble.
Excellent! I'm glad you found it useful. My Spanish isn't all that great, so I'll let Google translate talk for me. I hope you continue learning about crypto currency because it's an amazing technology.
@lukestokes -Looks like I had missed this post. I have been unable to access the net from my laptop during my travel. Finally, today I made it. I am not you will see this comment in the flood of comments but I would like to share my experience. I have, from day 1 reinvested all my meager earnings in to powering up because I believed that having Steem influence and long term Steem outlook is best for the platform as well as for me. I put a lot of my liquid earning in normal investments before I found Steemit and crypto world. Unfortunately, in my location, we had no exposure till very recently. I wish I knew about Bitcoin last year or before that. Anyway - I have started saving whatever liquid earning I get from my work in to Bitcoin and intend to purchase Steem from time to time. So far, it has not accumulated to much but I will keep building it up. Thanks for sharing your story with concrete examples of your journey of building wealth. Also - thank you for sharing those sensitive moments in your life when things were less than optimal and then sharing the good financial status you managed to achieve in life. I am sure that it will prove inspirational to a lot of underprivileged folks from around the world. Thanks. Cheers. Upvoted
Regards,
As always, thank you for your thoughtful replies. I like your signature. Much less aggressive. :)
Thank you so much for reading my comment even in the flood of 100s of comments.
About my putting a signature block - is it still aggressive ? Should totally remove even the signature? To be honest, I hate trying to seek attention but I di not think anyone will even notice posts with the hugely increased posts. I always try to provide meaningful feedback or share my thoughts in my comments but only a comment ( which I tried early on) really failed to get any visits to my blogs. Then, after the initial aggressive and zealous mentions of my posts in the comments, I designed thus signature block which, if clicked would link to my latest post. Sorry if I irritated you with my signature block. Your honest feedback always has helped me learn a lot so, would appreciate your opinion.
I'm not really sure. Steemit is what we make of it. Currently, I'm not seeing many signature blocks in comments, though some are doing it and it is possibly an effective way to get noticed. For me, personally, I usually just click the user name and head over to the blog and check it out that way. No link in the content needed.
Maybe that'll change over time. Maybe, like many forums, signatures will be included by default. Or maybe that could be implemented on chainbb and people who like it could use that interface.
Nice, if you have the money to invest. Also, we newer Steemians aren't fortunate enough to be able to buy Steemians at 7 cents. Lol. I am trying to buy some delegation from with my Steemians, so that I can at least be able to add some extra cents to those that need and deserve it. I applaud the many good Witnesses who are constantly working to better Steemians, whether it's by delegation/ voting bots, raising APR, monitoring bandwidth,and a host of other things. Thanks for giving a heads up to those that can afford it and should invest more.
I'm treating my steemit account like a long term savings account. As tempting as it is to take my money out and use it (I could really use the extra cash sometime), I'm being disciplined and keeping my hands off my money and my voting power ;)
That's a nice approach which I hope serves you well over time.
You have a good positive outlook on this whole thing. We invest in some alt coins but Steemit is our favorite. And like you, we invested in the platform and the people and not to make a ton of money. The relationship building is one of the best parts and are in it for the long haul and to support something we believe in. Keep on Steemin'
I'm following the same strategy you are in powering up 100% from my own posts as well as buying STEEM at these bargain prices. I'm pretty new here but I've managed to scrounge up over 1000 SP in a few weeks. I like your renter vs owner analogy. I hope you're right that those of us who are reinvesting and investing in the steemit community will someday reap huge rewards from it.
My strategy here is long term and I thankfully don't need my gains here in order to survive. I have a good job and I have enough money to put some of it here and know that even if I lose it all (which I doubt will happen) I'll still be fine financially even if my ego would be a bit bruised lol.
Sounds like you've got a solid strategy going so far. Good stuff. :)
I must admit, I have no idea how the delegated SP stuff works. I really need to look into it and figure it out. When I first started, I had about 145 delegated SP. I have no idea where it came from. Now it's down to about 8. I have no idea where the rest of it went. Yeah, I'm a nube on that stuff. I just need to trade some of this stupid fiat currency that I have and get some SP that way.
The way the Steemit blockchain works is based on bandwidth. Unlike other cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin or Ethereum where you have to pay a fee to do anything at all with the the blockchain, here a portion of the bandwidth is available to Steem Power holders. The more you have, the more of the network you can use. This prevents spam by new accounts, eventually they run out of bandwidth with their low Steem Power.
Steemit, Inc, the company behind Steemit.com, delegates Steem Power to new accounts so they can post. As they earn their own Steem Power, they remove that delegation.
Trading stupid fiat for crypto is always a good plan, in my book. :)
I think I had my first run-in with the lower bandwidth the other day. I couldn't vote, couldn't even view my account, like the system didn't recognize my account or something.
But on top of the bandwidth issue, my author and curation rewards are going to drop like a rock, right? It hasn't been 7 days since that happened, but that's what I'm expecting to happen. The way I understand it, an account with little to no SP would struggle to get any traction whatsoever.
How do you define "traction"?
Comments? Votes? Curation rewards?
Base your actions on your intended goals. If you want more Steem Power, buy it or work to get votes from whales to earn it over time (but if you beg for votes instead of just creating great content over time, you'll most likely just get flagged).
First of all, thx so much for taking the time to respond. That's not something I take lightly.
Traction, in my mind, is all of those. By votes, I'm thinking about having value to my votes that I can give out that would have some decent value - not votes that I receive, which has little to do with my traction, as I'm thinking about it. I really enjoy the thought of encouraging good content on the platform by rewarding thoughtful/useful posts and comments.
Right after HF19, my vote jumped up to a value of $.14, now it's a big fat nothing burger. I know there's a little value there - just that it rounds to less than $.01. Don't get me wrong - I didn't deserve having the $.14 in the first place, and I have the means to remedy that soon enough.
Nothing seems to disgust me more on this platform than the vote and follow begging that goes on. I will continue to just ignore the voting bots and schemes like randowhale and minnow support project, or the paid resteem opportunities that have cropped up. Although I don't begrudge others using them. I'm just not interested. I thought that minnow booster was just another one of those, but maybe I'm wrong about that.
Btw, what part of my comment led you to think that I would beg for a vote? I'm going to assume that you are just so used to needing to hand out that advice everywhere you turn because it is so rampant. You are much too reasonable in your comments for me to assume otherwise.
I remember when my vote was worth less than a penny also. It's much more fun to see money there. :)
I'm glad to hear that.
My comment wasn't directly at you specifically (it was a parenthetical) but more of a public service announcement for others reading the comments (a surprising number of people do, which is another reason why I love Steemit). It's also why I asked what your definition of traction is because, clearly, vote getting/begging is not your focus.
Minnow booster is only slightly different in that it limits the amount to 1 SBD which I think is a good thing. That way it won't be abused but it also serves the purpose of spreading votes around which is a helpful service for whales (while providing them with direct rewards for their delegation).
@tipU - send tips by writing tip! in the comment and get share in service profit :)
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Hey @lukestokes, from what I've read on this post I think your advice on buying steem then converting to SP is the right call. I have a tiny minnows account and I converted all my steem to SP, though it's been a short time since I sill earn a little everyday and my voting power is much better. Thanks for the post and enjoy your weekend
Thanks for commenting! I hope Steem continues to do well for many years to come.
Welcome Luke, that's my hope too. We all need to work hard and contribute a little on this platform so we can have a bigger & better Steemit in future. Cheers
Very inspiring. You even included some of your hard times. Glad you're doing well now. Long term is what I am here for as well, I am just saddened seeing some fellow minnow Steemians powering down draining all their SPs and just relying on their posts to make or break. I can't blame them, they may have reasons why, possible to pay a long due bill.
This hits the spot. I only have a few Steem and not even that technically inclined but I've powered up and will plan to power up some more in the future should I have the money to do it. Steem grows on its own as you particitipate in the community. Hopefully when this grows to be much more than it is than now. I'd have a substantially bigger Steem value.
I project steem to be somewhere between $5-10 on its next run up. If celebrities and high profile personalities endorse it.
This post received a 4.6% upvote from @randowhale thanks to @lichtblick! For more information, click here!
and resteemed. That was a very good post.
Thanks so much! :)
Nice shirt! Upvoted and resteemed!
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Verry good shirt!
Awesome post! So cool btc paid off your house!
@lukestokes this is an excellent post which motivated me to work even harder on my steem power here, upped. Thanks a lot for sharing your thoughts and I wish you a blessed weekend.
Another rich with quality content post. Thanks for taking the time to post this @lukestokes many in the community appreciate your efforts.
Written with good choosen words! Sometimes difficult to understand what the meaning is, but at the end it was clear for me. Have trust and do what feels good, keep the faith and dare to invest. It paid out in the good direction; and Yes there is a lot potential here on steem. Thanks for sharing, it confirms again that everything is possible!
meep
meep
meep
MEEP!
meep
Great read. I am just getting my feet wet in this world and its very helpful to hear your train of thought around the long term aspect and how it relates to what you do now. I too am a business owner and have known what its like to struggle at times but I feel its an invaluable experience to say the least. Thank for your insights.
Thanks for sharing.
VERY Good Post Luke...
Many insights with this post and of course the Title is well chosen.
BIG Kudos to You...
Hope You're having a Good Weekend with the Family...
Cheers !!
Quick Edit:
Congrats on Your position on the Witness List... "the Cream ALL=ways Rises to the Top"... !!
About 98% of my SP was purchased & made another recent purchase but having issues with wallet maintenance, so the recent purchase of STEEM has not been transferred to Steemit yet...
Thanks Again Luke for sharing Your Insights !!
Consider buying steem!
Very good post!
The sharing
Lucky you for whale witness vote ! Waiting my turn :) BTW bought some SP recently :)
Very Good Post @lukestokes
These are more than banks..........
Great ! 👍👍
Great article @lukestokes Thumbs up..;)
great advice !:)
appreciate you ! done good work
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nice post thanks for sharing @lukestokes
One day I hope to be in the position you are in, I will be following you to learn from your success and failures, I really want to master cryptocurrency
Excellent! I suggest starting with the videos here: http://understandingblockchainfreedom.com
Also, you may find this post helpful as far as finding success on Steemit: Last Week I Made $1,500 Worth of Cryptocurrency Blogging on Steemit. Here's How.