STEEM truly is the blockchain of opportunity.
This tagline was coined pertaining to the desire of the blockchain to attract developers by providing a lot of materials that makes it easier for coders to get started on here.
Of late, I am noticing how it is an opportunity for the rest of us.
Bear in mind, as I write this, we are still more than 6 months away from the release of the Smart Media Token protocol. That will turn STEEM into a cryptocurrency factory, similar to what was witnessed on Ethereum. People with ideas can create a currency to support their projects.
The last couple days I came across a few different ways to earn extra coins from some of the more common applications that are already issuing them into a database.
Every user is eligible to run the lottery one time per day based on KST, and the winning tokens will be directly registered in your wallet transactions.
https://steemit.com/steemhunt/@steemhunt/shuffle-button-lottery-is-live
The contest is simple (but not easy). Video submission is required to participate. Anyone simply needs to submit a video of him or herself doing a plank. The one who is able to do it the longest wins.
The prizes are 10K for 1st place, 3K for second and 2K for third. There are also upvotes from the 
What is nice about their contests is that one is not limited in the number of submissions. As long as the content is your own work, you can submit photo after photo.
The decision by these applications only makes me like them more. Engagement with the community is crucial. By offering other ways for people to get more cryptocurrency, these apps are generating some excitement among the user base. They are also showing their followers that they desire to help them succeed. This is vital.
Of course, contests are nothing new on the STEEM blockchain which shows how valuable they can be. Giving people an opportunity above the standard content/reward system is really motivating. For a couple months now, part of my mantra to all newer people is to get involved with the applications.
It is easy to look at the payout in STEEM and get discouraged. While I maintain people should realize that we are very early, I understand how seeing others getting bigger payouts while one gets little can be upsetting. Applications level the playing field a bit.
The apps seek to increase the size of their user base. For this reason, they are looking to get their currencies in the hands of as many people as possible. They are also offering increased payouts effectively rewarding early adopter status. Plus, an upvote from these accounts does also pay out in STEEM which can help on that front also.
My overall level of excitement keeps increasing because, as I see what is taking place now, I know it is nothing compared to what will happen in another 6 months. We are still dealing with a handful of applications. Wait until there are 50 more on this blockchain. SMTs are going to open up another level of creation among people.
For me, the focus is on cryptocurrency accumulation. I have no idea which ones will be valuable versus the ones that do not amount to much. For this reason, I like to amass whatever I can. Also, I look to support as many of these different projects as I can since they all enhance this ecosystem.
As always, the future of STEEM is very bright.
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Pictures from article posts linked.