Nothing is Free
I would like to starting discussing the fact that most of the stuff we use on the web is probable thought to be free but in fact it isn't. This is one of the main issues I've see with the misconception of free software and software that is given for free, which if you pay attention is not the same.
The problem started the same time it was defined, because even if it was tried to be self explain as the saying goes:
Free as freedom and not as free beers
Most of the time it was referred to as an alternative to use software that needed a license and hence you needed to pay some monetary value for it. I remember those old days of cracks and patches and removing software registry to be able to extend the trial period but then I found the other side. Linux which I fall in love not really for the open source model but because its superiority and specially outperforming in software development and other areas. I found myself quickly dragged into this new world of endless alternatives and options, I feel like I experienced freedom to chose my own software for the first time.
Google, Android and the case of Huawei
So I'm not going to start trying to argue the political implications here as I am not a US citizen, on the other hand I suspect many more will think that clearly every major country is spying its citizens and people of the world which is clearly affecting our freedom. I would like to see a new operative system for mobile that hopefully is going to be community driven and opensource. I know some might tell me that Android is open source but the same development model tells different, I think there is probably a opensource version of it just like there is a Chromium browser and a Chromium OS which lack of pretty much all the useful stuff. Anyways back to the case, if this specific situation would be a new opportunity for a new mobile OS to be born which hopefully will be real opensource and community develop will be a good win for freedom.
More money or more time
There is another problem that is related to money, cash or as people will probably tell in the crypto world fiat. Given I started to fear a economy meltdown or some major events breaking pretty much every economy and specially the financial system I started to look around for alternatives. That's where I started to collect old coins and then buy some silver coins and managed to get some other bartering stuff. (Yeah you read it right some how a prepper related term). But it was just until watching my favorite homesteader at the time 
I keep on growing my crypto holdings and it was my primary source of crypto income as being in Costa Rica really sucks for crypto, it was really hard to buy directly from an exchange and buying from localbitcoins seemed very risky and still now a days, is like you will probably get scammed sooner or later. I patiently waited and kept growing, then I managed to get my brother from another mom 
Trading
Trading to earn more to be able to hold more #STEEM to at the same time boost my crypto trading and everything seemed to be the only option I had to keep increasing my crypto holding. I then started posting about what I was buying and at what price I bought and how I lost X amount because of the volatility of the markets and everything. I also tried to keep helping new steemians to survive those times and I can tell first hand that some of those who made a lot of progress and even tripled their holdings because they followed the #SBD bull run and sold high and bough #STEEM when it was like 1:10 ratio to the #SBD where rewarded with probably 10X time amount of #STEEM they owned at the time but sadly I could also see how those steemians were also fleeing the crypto winter that lasted probably a year an a half where #STEEM and #BTC could not even break even. I lost more #STEEM and #SBD that I would really like to admit but it was all a learning curve. In this process it was about the time when I met 
He helped me explore different ways to earn some crypto and that's how I earned the #XLMs from the blockchain airdrop and then I also earn some #BAT for the coinbase and eventually #byteball or some airdrop (I don't even know that I still hold that as I did not back the tokens up and I had formatted my laptop).
Case for money vs time
I just recently talk with a friend that is getting into a new company to earn less money that he was earning but indeed it seems to be a great deal. Think of this for a moment. I'm currently working 40 hours a week, I work from home 4 days and I could change my schedule according my needs at the moment. My friend on the other hand was earning 20% more than me, he was working from 50-60 hours a week, he has to commute everyday and be stuck in traffic. I know that he is not very careful with his money and not even manage a budget, he is the kind of guy that if you go have some beers he would tell you he can't go because he has no money. I know every situation is different, but I'm glad he is managing to trade some fiat for time now that he is probably earn the same, but will work 40 hours a week and work from home is an option in the near feature. If you value your time more than you value money you will eventually try to get as much free time as possible and that does not always has to do with earning less but actually choosing what fits best.
So this is why I'm learning how to actually #trade to be able to invest few more hours a week to earn some extra crypto/cash/resources to eventually free up more time. I think that financial independence is something you have to work on everyday until you decide that is enough and you could retire early if you like.
Financial Independence retire early FIRE
The kind of skills you need to build up for trading are not the same you need to be financial independent, but if you are constantly working towards a goal no matter what goal it is, the fact that you are willing to improve is something that will help you develop new skills and expand your mindset. So learning about #crypto was not purely about the #financial part of it but also to learn the skills and managed them properly to eventually be able to set myself to be financial independent. #Trading on the other hand seems to be a nice vehicle that I could use to get me a income source.
Is Money freedom?
The question should be easily answered accordingly to what you value but the real treat is that most of the society and specially banks try to promote other values that drives the economy specially in their own benefit rather than an equally inclusive and justice society. So money in my opinion is not directly related with money but rather how the values and skills you have can get you further with or without money. For example I always like to think that knowledge is free but in order to get it you have to spend something call it time, money, both but it will require something from you. Same as time, knowledge once acquire will be with you forever, time once spend will never be with you. Time is one of the more unappreciated assets that is given for free, if not used properly is wasted, if you do not have enough you will not do what you want.
Steem is not free, but interact with others is
How much time, knowledge and interaction with others are we investing to make a post here in steemit is correlated with the amount of rewards we will be eventually get. One of the problems I started to point when new people join the platform is that they expected to make a lot of rewards for content without much effort behind and then bad habits from other social media where a meme could make lots of likes was not as appreciated in the platform at least not for everyone. Sure thing there are different groups that appreciate different types of content, there are different initiatives that support different formats, topics and even kind of political views, the main source of growth was equally correlated with the amount of engagement, time spend writing,editing or creating the final product that was shared with others. The main idea of the community and the projects is that you invest some of your resources with that to support like minded steemians, support voting for long term growth and be part of the change by interacting and participating. Not many will do that and I guess that's why we usually find the same steemians in different communities supporting each other and growing at a faster pace, this seems in my opinion to expect an A+ but you are not doing your homework nor studying
Steem and universal income, access to financial institutions and transfers with low fees
An the under value benefits that steem (the blockchain) and with the different #dapps and #projects have manage to achieve without much effort: UBI (universal basic income), access to financial systems and transfers with low fees. As dummy as this might sound I'm a witness on how this amazing platform has allowed me to plant and support conservationist efforts in Cameroon, allowed me to be part of the change for kids in Bangladesh and also let everyone has access to a universal income through 
 @kedjom-keku | Conservation Association | |
 @treeplanter | Fund-raising upvoting bot | |
 @forestfriendly | Water Saving bees |