HIVE and some thoughts
on picking up the pieces...
.
writing and photos— by
@d-pend —
Introduction
Why I invested in HIVE
and my history in STEEM
When I joined STEEM in June 2017 and began posting regularly, I fell in love with the concept pretty much instantly. As a creative individual wanting to be able to make a career out of my various pursuits, it struck me as a great opportunity — though I did not understand most of the mechanics behind how everything worked. I had made some profit from buying Ethereum at $13 and Bitcoin at $500 and decided to invest in some altcoins. I began buying quite a bit of STEEM around $2.50 along with a bunch of other tokens.
Gradually, my interest fixated on STEEM because it was the only one that had a direct impact on my daily life; I was able to simultaneously get the enjoyment of the gamification of posting my poetry, music and other writing, along with meeting tons of awesome people and being in a much more supportive environment than on Facebook and other social media platforms. Over time, even though I knew it was risky and not smart in terms of the common advice to "diversify," the vast majority of my holdings were in STEEM.
This was my first experience of the euphoria of a bull market, being an investor for the first time. I got swept up in it and failed to take any profits. My first impulse was not to take profit but to use my Steem Power to support as many people as I could. I never wanted to hit that power down button, but only keep building towards what I saw as an imminent new paradigm of free speech, value distribution, and rewards for the inherent worth of each human being. My portfolio lost 97% of its value in the ensuing crash.
Losing it all
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The experience of losing practically everything when I was essentially doing STEEM full time with little back-up plan was soul-crushing. I went from living the dream of being able to be creative full time and assisting others to do the same to not being able to pay rent. I made a lot of poor personal choices. I moved back into my parents' house. I had an extremely hard time pulling myself out of the depression that ensued, but experienced a lot of personal growth and it all ended up being a net positive event somehow.
Everything transferred to HIVE
I got a lot more engaged around these parts when the whole saga of Justin Sun's acquisition of Steemit began. Being involved in such a diverse community united by the principles of decentralization, immutability, and working towards a more equitable financial future for humanity on a global scale reignited much of what had become inert in me in 2018 and 2019. I had a great feeling that this was my opportunity to put my money where my mouth was since I missed that boat in 2016 when STEEM was only a few cents. It was completely surreal once I became an orca on HIVE, which was something that seemed completely unattainable before, though it was always one of my aspirations.
The danger of celebrating too soon
Just as the intense despair of an economy crashing can mislead one and cause one to forget that true value is something inherent to oneself and not something that can be actually lost, the euphoria of success in an investment can blind one's eyes to the long-term common sense needed to have successful financial longevity. The remedy is cultivation of logical faculties, keeping one's head down, and being involved in endeavors one truly believes in instead of chasing get-rich-quick schemes. Also, for me personally, having a powerful core tribe of like-minded individuals is indispensable to one's mental, emotional, and even physical health.
Some lofty dreams
The more I have educated myself on the mechanics of cryptocurrency over the years, the more I become convinced that it is a true revolution in the realm of currency and not a simple speculative bubble. A prodigious inventor from the twentieth century I have a lot of respect for, Buckminster Fuller, often referred to humanity as "the Billion Billionaires." He was quite adamant from his scientific perspective that based on the abundance of the physical universe, each individual was in actuality incredibly wealthy beyond their wildest imaginings. What is needed is the advancement of human consciousness alongside the growth of technology; we need to develop the wisdom of how to use the unbelievable resources at our disposal for the highest good of all instead of caving to primordial animalistic greed and infighting caused by fear.
This time it's different
In 2017 on STEEM, there was a continual elephant-in-the-room in the form of Steemit, Inc. This time around, there is not an enormous unknown potential selling pressure lingering in the background. The Decentralized Hive Fund is available to anyone who can make a good enough pitch for how they can contribute to the ecosystem. We can build this place together, allowing for personal freedom and divergent paths as long as we are vigilant in protecting the core principles that allow us that opportunity in the first place. I have a lot more to say about all this, but I don't want it to get too long. There's nice weather this morning and I would like to go outside! I am very grateful to be able to connect with all of you, and appreciate more than I can express the support shown on my work recently.
With love,
and wishing you all the best,
.
Daniel Pendergraft
April 26, 2020
Some links to recent
.
related articles of mine:
What does HIVE mean to me? — Building Bridges
.
HIVE and STEEM — Freedom and Necessity
.
Through bull and bear — endless potential through endless chains
.
Decentralization — reverse-engineering nature
.
All writing and photos are original content
created by me to be posted on HIVE.