Becoming a minnow is one of my biggest achievements on steem--now hive. I never thought it was feasible. At the time I arrived here steem was $2 so technically 500 steem was around $1000. Then I earning between $0.5 to $1 per post, so I never thought I would amass that amount of steem within a reasonable period of time. Even the thought of being an established content creator here with any form of clout was quite a ludicrous dream because there was so much quality and people within the ecosystem at that time. I can argue that we're merely a shadow of what we were two years ago and that was not even the beginning of the boom. So much has happened within these two years it seems like a lifetime.
At some point, the price of steem began to drop. There was still a lot of optimism in the minds of various stakeholders. You probably would hear a lot of talk about steem mooning sometime soon. 'Buy now!" They said, "this is a great opportunity." It is really funny thinking about it. I couldn't go a day then without reading at least ten posts about how steem will moon but it never did really. So a lot of people got frustrated and left. The price of the token went down further. I think a lot of people are rational now with their expectations of the blockchain and are less speculative and more about practical ways to build the blockchain and ecosystem.
For me, the downturn was an opportunity to grow and so I did. I worked harder; engaged more and watch my earnings grow gradually. So yes, even though the drop in price was a major blow to many it created more earning opportunities for smaller fish and aided a less centralized distribution of steem token. The middle class was growing. We had a lot of red fishes becoming minnows and minnows becoming dolphins. These set of individuals were instrumental in our fight against the hostile takeover and the launching of a new chain.
Another major opportunity to grow was the dapp boom or era which was massive. We had a more robust social experience and birthed new communities. I was earning close to $50 per week doing different things--vlogging on dtube, answering questions on musing, playing magic dice(which later turned out to be a scam). My account grew exponentially during November/December 2018 and I was gunning for 5000steempower. Unfortunately, Ned and steemit happened. The price of the steem token went down further, steemit was downsizing, withdrew delegation from a few dapps that were doing well. The blockchain was going through one of its worst phases. At the point, I began to lose fate in the project. Then I went through one of the toughest phases in my life as well. All that work and progress began to crumble--I began to power down.
Fortunately, I have been given a new opportunity with hive. It's been a month now and I can proudly say I haven't powered down. Just hit 1000 hive power not too long ago. Hoping to hit 2000 hive power in about 4-6 weeks. So just maybe I can be a dolphin sometime this year.
Currently, I have started posting on other platforms and building my reputation there as well. The idea is to reduce my selling pressure of hive and hopefully start powering up as well. I would like to move to a 100% powerup in six months' time and maintain that for at least 3months which I feel will have a great impact on the value of my account.
Another recent milestone of mine is reaching reputation 70. Rep 70 seems to be the god-like zone for many. It reflects the support you've gotten from the community and your reputation as a strong community member. Yes, of course, it can be artificially reached via vote farming and the likes but in my case, I will say it reflects all the work and time I have put in here. I didn't really talk much about it because there was little to show for it but I am hoping to make up for it in the coming months.
Building my stake isn't necessary to show community support but for my own interest. I have heard people say they're powering up to support the community. Well in my case I am powering up to have a tangible investment here on hive. I still believe the hive token will be valuable in the future especially with projects like openseed in the works.
Hopefully, in six weeks' time, I will have another milestone to celebrate.