It is crazy. Four and a half months ago, I'd never heard of steemit and the idea of cryptocurrency was a grey area in my peripheral vision! There's something that says to 'become a habit', you have to do something for a month or six weeks I think, so when you 'do' something like steemit every day for 4-6 months, it really does become a part of you. Although I really do believe it's the relationships that keep us here. The guy who introduced Brian and I to steemit was really in it for the money (quick rich scheme...the big dummy;) and he hasn't been on for a few months now. Your $1,700 would be gone long before these relationships are ;) It also makes me wonder, if I started another account now, knowing what I know, would it be any different? could you duplicate this journey? I don't think so. Maybe I'd meet other people?
Just rambling now, but as I typed this, I really began to imagine re-doing it all. I won't. But I wondered what it would be like. I know that @simplymike did and funny enough, I found notes from when I first started on here, with names of people who I wanted to re-visit their posts regularly, and she was one of them, but it was her old name @mike-with-a-crazy-long-number after it. So it goes to show you that her authentic self came through with both names...even though I thought she was a guy for a long time haha
although I wouldn't have the account anymore, so that would be a downside.
...and you'd have to come up with another name ;)
I agree, it's the people that keep me here. I like the friendships I've made here, so it's fun to check in and see how people are doing. That's strange that the person who referred you was gone so quickly. I never even found out how you get referred. Yes, the money would be spent quickly. It seems that's the way of things, especially since I'm working on my silver collection. That would be 85 ounces of sweet silvery goodness before you could say, "boo!"
You could probably duplicate it to a certain extent. Especially if you knew where to start. I think part of the reason people see success is that they form friendships with people and then mutually upvote each other and see those votes grow. That's how it's supposed to work. I think if you could do well to have a cryptocurrency tied to a platform like this, but the only way to get the currency would be by being on the platform, at least for a few years. That way the people there are ones who really want to see it grow. I don't really like upvoting people who are taking the money and running. It feels better to upvote someone who is investing that value back into the platform and helping others grow. Then you could release it after 3 years and see what happened. The incipient demand might cause the price to skyrocket... provided there was enough usage of the coin and platform.
I would have to come up with another non-name if I started a new account. Ha!