Hello Steemians,
Recently I got a non-crypto friend into steemit and he made some decent money posting about his life, today I received this message from him:
I am locked out my account, I am not making any moneeey!!
My answer, was simple:
It will get fixed, send an email to [email protected] and create another account meanwhile if you want to post stuff.
However, this conversation made me realize that common people are not used to the volatile and crazy drama surrounding crypto in general. Sadly for us, crypto-nerds know very well about what I like to call the first basic rule of crypto: “what you have today you may not have tomorrow”.
This is coming from a guy who has seen MT GOX disaster, Paycoin, LTCGear, Cryptsy or should I say craptsy!, etc, etc, etc!!!
Don´t get me wrong, I am not saying by any means that Steemit is a scam, far from it, but what I am saying is that you should not rely on crypto to make your everyday living. Take Litecoin for example, another crypto-coin that has standed the test of time, LTC went from $40 to $1.80 U.S dollars!... how about Ethereum from $20 to $10 in just days. Of course you could have bought cheap and also made 500% profit, this is the nature of crypto and to some of us it is also the beauty!
So before you quit your job and tell all your friends that you are going to get rich posting on steemit, please consider this:
- As more people join it will be harder for you to get the attention of voting whales.
- The price of steem can have crazy 200% swings and so will your payouts.
- If you are unsure about trading, try to always hold Steem Dollars.
- If you convert a lot of Steem and Steem Dollars to your local currency, make sure to consult it with an accountant first, this is a lot of unregistered money entering your bank account and some goverments will find it fishy (bastards, I know).
- Be humbild and be greatfull (this is more an spiritual advice but it’s a rule I try to remember)
- @craig-grant made a good video about the importance on commenting posts, do it and try to be helpful, teach others what you have learnt.
- Keep your Bitcoins safe and diversify them: Coinbase, Electrum, Offline paper wallet, BitUSD, etc.
- If you still want to quit your job, do it after you have safely secured a good amount of money on your bank account, this way you can make sure you have your livings expenses covered for at least 6 months!
This is not only my advice to you but also my strategy, if I can secure 100k USD then of course my day job will become irrelevant and I will look for ways to construct a business around steem, but until then play safe, remember that someone has to pay the rent next month :)
Great post! I agree completely with your article and since this is many people's first mainstream experience with cryptocurrency, they need to realize that there will be ups and downs to value. The influx of new users who don't take the time to create meaningful posts and comments don't realize that they are reducing the value of steem. If content isn't educational, engaging, or entertaining, people will leave. A lot of people jumped on the bandwagon late. Does steem have the ability to gain another 2000% in the near future? Absolutely, but I don't see that happening if quality blogging doesn't become the norm. Not everyone is a great writer and some will never make high dollar posts, but everyone can make meaningful contributions through comments and voting on content they actually like instead of clicking and hoping it goes viral.
This is a very level headed post, we need people like you to pop the euphoria bubble and bring us all back to reality. Reality and moderation help created long term stability and wealth. I think another good piece of advice in ligh of possible hack is just like you should not leave any money or Bitcoin on an exchange you should not leave any Steem dollars sitting around here for too long. Either get some steem or steem power with the or trade them in for Bitcoin. Check out my latest post here: https://steemit.com/steemit/@bitcoinmeister/steemit-users-need-to-break-their-coinmarketcap-price-checking-addiction-and-work-more-on-marketing-steemit-to-the-masses
Very good points that any new crypto troll and steemit member should read. #Introduction
With the "passphrase" requirement being so long, I can imagine some people are going to forget what they chose assuming there is a basic "I forgot my password" button. My cousin almost lost an initial investment of $400 because of this, but fortunately he remembered the "pass phrase".
Happy #steeming
Nice to read a good pragmatic approach, you have enhanced my thinking sir.
The Steem platform may shield people from the complexities of Crypto but there are still exposed to whims of the market and good old fashion hackers.
"from a guy who has seen MT GOX disaster, Paycoin, LTCGear, Cryptsy"
You have to remember that the times have changed, also within cryptocurrencies. Acceleration rates of new startups are higher, block-chain technology is reaching more and more people on a daily basis. And with Steemit being its own company, there won't be much room for "scandals" and with the investment opportunities like Steem Power it also takes away a lot of the possibility and profitability for hackers to try and get a hold of your accounts and considering the action that is taken against them makes it even more dangerous.
But with time it will become more stable, secure and amazing. Remember the beta text under steemit. :)
Good post in general though! I am inviting a lot of real life friends to steemit as well and helping them out to create their wallets, save their keys properly and make their introduction post. Everyone is amazed by it so far and can't believe something like this exists.
Steemit truly is revolutionary, something that no1 thought possible only weeks back!
I think the basic rule of everything is: "Use your head!". It applys to everything. Extreme decisions, like leaving a job for something new, but not yet totally reliable, are generally bad, so i think that's a great advice. That's why parents always want their children to have a nice education or some education in general. You need to have your basic ground to stand on so that you could start your experiments without much of a risk.
Nice post. So true about here today gone tomorrow. I had a good amount of money in HashOcean and was set to make a nice monthly income and then it was gone over night. :(
I hope you have crackers...hard to depend on one thing. But best of luck.
Can [email protected] help me get my job back? :)
Never think that you can put all of your eggs in one basket. The idea is to diversify your lifestyle like you might your financial portfolio.
Just want to notice that "secure good amount of money on your bank account" is not a safe proposition at all :) I would say it is much safer to secure yourself some bitcoins on a hardware wallet than to rely on what can be taken from you at any moment.
And if you have never lived through a fiat system crisis - certainly good for you, but take my word for it - it happens instantly, you just all of a sudden have numbers in a bank account that mean nothing and can buy 1/100th of what they could yesterday.
So yes, secure your crypto! And don't trust no bank especially if you quit your job.
We need more education on cryptocurrency
But It's perfect for students and hobby writers :)
Like we do :) https://steemit.com/blog/@cultura.bitcoin/firts-steemit-vhdl-tutotorial-bringing-nerd-power-to-steemit-part1
Very good points, thank you for sharing.
Too True
Nice practical advice!
the answer is simple, not invest it not you are willing to lose
Preach Brother, Preach!
Great post, and thank you for you advice.
I don't know a lot about cryptocurrency but I've always had a big interest in it, but I've always had an interest in its development. Wrongfully, I never dedicated enough time to fully understand how crypto works. However with Steemit, it seems to have become easier for me to grasp atleast some of the basics.
You've very astutely verbalised a lot of what I was thinking after encountering a lot of posts on the topic.
My vote is currently relatively worthless but you have it nonetheless, sir!
I must admit the whole "locked out of accounts" stories are unnerving. I've seen stories on the steem subreddit where people have been locked out for four to five days which must be upsetting if you have made real money.
I've tried to find the full story about the lockouts but can't get a handle on it. In some cases people have had their coins stolen, but in other cases the lockouts have been totally random, with no way to contact steemit (apparently they are responding to emails with a form letter saying they will respond in "ample time".
Can you or someone else knowledgeable do an investigative journalist piece where you detail just what went down, and explain why recoveries are so slow? There is a lot of discussion about this off-steemit (for obvious reasons the affected can't post here), but they are speculating in the dark.
People seem to have a poor concept of risk and volatility in general. All anyone wants to do these days is win the lottery. While I am sure it must be nice, I do not mind putting in work to improve my life. This platform is a excellent way to monetize our contributions to the human discourse. We are all learning and growing from each other, and it is wonderful to be able to put at least some kind of quantitative value to that.