I remember thinking six years ago that I'd not stay around on Hive for long, I just don't like social media.
That changed very early on, driven by relationships I formed and the enjoyment I gained from writing and sharing images that reflected my life, general thoughts and experiences. I've put a lot of me into it and gained a lot back.
I decided to approach it with passion, personality and effort and that paid dividends.
I started with no investment or injection of Hive (I began on Hive's predecessor, but I'll refer only to Hive.) I had nothing except those aforementioned words and images, thoughts and experiences. I began to earn Hive rewards now and then and, unsurprisingly, found that the better the quality of my posts and the more I engaged with others the more relationships opened; I've replicated that for six years and am, still doing it.
My stake has grown in that time because I've powered up, a lot.
I've earned around 100,000 Hive Power through author-rewards and some 32,000 in curation. The rest of my staked amount has come from trading Hive back and forth on exchanges, making gains and powering it up.
Powering up is something I believe is incredibly important if an account intends to grow here. Hive isn't a personal bank to continuously take from, some investment is required - a stake. It determines one's upvote amount and considering one's stake is used to upvote others in the community so they can share in the reward pool I think it's an important element of the Hive blockchain and one everyone should embrace.
For new users, powering up (staking) can make or break the early weeks and months on the blockchain and overall journey of course. By staking, users earn resource credits (RC) and that enables them to comment more, outbound on other people's posts. It's what I did from the first day I started and I know it works well to attract interest from others and to open relationships. Engagement, relevant, respectful and valid engagement, is one of the great account-builders on this platform.
I had a thought today, about powering up, and wanted to share it.
Hive Power Up Day is an awesome initiative revolving around the concept of powering up on the first day of each month after which each person receives a little badge, its size commensurate to the amount they powered up. A fantastic initiative!
I wonder though, is holding back tokens from staking to wait for the first of each month costing the account potential revenue? Well, yeah, it actually is.
We earn curation rewards by upvoting other people's posts and the amount of stake, what we have powered up, determines the size of the vote we have at our disposal. So to me, it makes sense to power up more regularly to get the Hive working harder for me.
Furthermore, for new users who need RC's (resource credits) to be able to comment and engage, it makes no sense to hold back for an entire month, or any length of time really. The first weeks and months are critical to a new user and all efforts should be made to engage more.
I'm suggesting people power up more often.
Let's say you were going to power up Hive on Power Up Day, the first of the month, and you were reserving Hive in your wallet (in liquid) all month for that purpose. Great, you earn a badge and feel good about being involved, as you should.
But what if you reserved some of that Hive for Hive Power Up Day and powered up the rest right away? You'd be earning additional rewards through having it staked and can still participate in Hive Power Up Day. For newbies, the RC would become available. It sounds like a win-win-win situation.
If you have 100 Hive to power up in thirty days time, wouldn't it make more sense to power up seventy five percent of it right away to gain additional earnings all month rather than earn nothing from it? You'd earn passive income during the month, and still be able to get involved with Hive Power Up Day. Passive income folks, income you have to do nothing for, other than read a post here and there, and vote on it.
I'm not suggesting people do not involve themselves with Hive Power Up Day, you should be involved, but there's different ways to apply it to your personal situation.
I've been looking for downsides in this particular strategy and can't see one. I can see upsides though:
I tend to power up when the Hive is there in liquid as you can see from the image above; I don't see any point in holding back for the reasons I've listed above. It's just how I choose to do it and not the only way of course. Waiting for Hive Power Up Day is perfectly fine, however it's almost certainly costing those who do it that way possible curation rewards and removing the chance for the other benefits.
There's no right or wrong way.
We all think differently, and that's how it should be, so there's no right or wrong way to power up. The important thing is that a user powers up!
Let your Hive sit liquid (not earning) then power up on the first of the month? Legit, no problem.
Power up as the Hive becomes available and earn more curation with it then power up on the first of the month as well? Legit, no problem.
The take away is: Powering up will help your account grow more rapidly and that's a good thing for you. Have a power up focus and support Hive Power Up Day...and engage with others on their posts.
Design and create your ideal life, don't live it by default; tomorrow isn't promised so be humble and kind - galenkp
[All original and proudly AI free.]
Any images in this post are my own.
