My birthday is at the end of December. The last time it happened was in 2022. Today I'm celebrating the birthday of a platform that greatly impacts my life. Kind of changed my life, actually. Made a blogger out of me. I mean, I made a blogger out of myself to grow here on HIVE, but without that incentive, I would have never blogged about anything. I wouldn't have learned English or had the motivation to drive around and photograph something almost every day.
Now, the incentive is still partially financial, although I'm only accumulating HIVE POWER since 2019 and I turned only about a 1000 - 1500 HIVE into EUR last year. But what started as a way to earn some real money online, became more of a lifestyle, a gaming experience, and a social experience too because I feel like knowing a bunch of people here without ever meeting them. After this opening text, that ended up being longer than I expected ...

... is time to add a decorative opening picture to the post. A simple pattern artwork I drew and assembled in Adobe Illustrator last night.

I never invested any money in HIVE, or in any other cryptocurrency for that matter, because I usually have a few bucks less than I need at the end of each month, not a few more. But my HIVE POWER isn't a joke. 53,274.041 while writing this. Almost an Orca. If that's not proof that you can succeed here on HIVE with no initial capital, only by investing your, time, work, skills, and talents, then I don't know what it is. That's why I celebrate.
I never celebrated Facebook. Or Twitter. Those things are there, you can use them, but why get attached to that shit? It would be like developing Stockholm syndrome. Celebrating a platform is something new to me, and I'm doing it only because HIVE really is a new kind of platform.

Some things about HIVE can be measured by its price, but not everything. When I started, I didn't care much about decentralization. I considered it just a new funny Internet buzzword, one of those that come and go, in and out of fashion faster than, I don't know, pants or shoes. Now, four years later, that's something I'm pretty passionate about. Of course, decentralization was and still is used as a funny buzzword and an empty advert in most cases, but not always. I have seen it in practice.

Blogging on HIVE also gave a purpose to many of my old artworks that were made without a clear idea where they will end up and with a serious doubt that they'll give me any other satisfaction besides the joy of creating them. I haven't published many art-related posts yet because the daily routine of exploring and photographing my surroundings takes most of my time, but I will. I also sold a bunch of those artworks in the NFT Showroom which brought me a few thousand HIVE to grow my HIVE POWER faster than I expected.

When I started in 2019, I was pretty much convinced that would take me at least 10 years to get a thousand HIVE ... or whatever it was called back then 😆 Don't wanna ruin the birthday atmosphere by mentioning the old, defeated nemesis. When I take a look at my wallet through the eyes and the mind of my four years younger self, the scene looks kinda surreal.

I adore the feeling when I write and publish a post on HIVE. When I select, edit, and organize the photographs that will be part of that post. When the Internet search or sometimes a search through some old books and encyclopedia here in my room, is done. That gives me a sense of purpose and closure. I can delete unnecessary pictures and give a narrative to the remaining ones. That process is much more fun and rewarding than just accumulating images that will be then immediately forgotten and never properly explored.

From 2010 to 2016 or 2017, I was fairly active in the city of Pula. In contact with the people in the art scene. I used to follow the local exhibitions and exhibit my work from time to time. In small galleries and cafes, in photo clubs and multimedia centers, I used to meet people, chat a lot and talk about what I'm doing. After Covid, my habits changed, and going to crowded places annoys me quickly. I don't feel chatty at all, and when someone asks me, on Facebook, for example, what I'm into nowadays, I send them a link to my blog on HIVE. A link to PeakD or Ecency. I create more than ever, and I feel incentivized and rewarded more than ever.

I was totally ignorant when it comes to blockchains and cryptocurrencies before HIVE. I'm still far from being very knowledgeable in that stuff, but I do understand a thing or two now. One thing I noticed is how well decentralized social media can reach people that aren't into finance and introduce them to crypto through their own interests. While all that people around other cryptocurrencies do is shill, scream "To the moon", and wait to get rich with an investment of money, here on HIVE a man (or woman, of course) can blog, be creative, improve some skills, and eventually get rich one day in a more thoughtful and elegant way.

You can do great on HIVE, but only if you let the platform change your social media habits. This isn't just a "selfie or political rant machine". It's a place to work, explore, communicate, and grow. A place where your real life and genuine interests can find a way into a virtual existence unpolluted with aggressive trends, brands, and adverts that tend to annihilate your unique human experience.