To Buy or Not to Buy... Steem?

The end of the month is getting closer and I have yet to make my monthly purchase of Steem as this has been a busy and demanding month for me financially. The majority of the funds I had set aside for cryptocurrency investments have been used to deploy into my portfolios as the attractive prices have continued to be available. However, I have continued to allocate resources into the ecosystem in different ways as I continue to believe that they could become the foundation to a great future both in my portfolios as well as my stake here on the ecosystem.

My 2019 goal was to reach 25k Steem Power and the last couple of months have been challenging to get there but not because of not having the appetite or will power to continue. In fact, I have purchased almost 10k Steem over the last couple of months given these great prices but have not powered them up. Instead, I have used the liquid Steem to strengthen my Splinterlands Collection in order to improve my ability to compete and achieve great earnings by way of capturing Dark Energy Crystals (DEC) and Reward Edition Cards which have continued to have great value in the Steem economy. The investment has worked very well as I have been able to maximize my resources with great returns from my gameplay as well as seeing the value of cards increase during the same time. The value of my Collection has grown substantially during this time as well despite Steem not doing much.

One of the financial commitments I made this month was participating in the latest Kickstarter for Splinterlands. As I had mentioned before, I pledged a pretty large amount given how well the investment in my Collection has gone as well as having the experience to get the family involved as I will be helping design a special card for the games latest version of cards called Untamed. The experience has already been fulfilling as seeing my daughter excited about designing the art and the character story as well has been great as she is quite creative. This is what probably held me back buying more Steem as the pledge is worth about 36,000 Steem as I write this!

This has broadened my view about Steem in general as it has truly become an ecosystem as our account values are not the only thing that has value. My collection in Splinterlands is value more than twice my Steem stake which makes me surpass my ultimate goal of being an Orca here. Throw in the increasing amount of Steem Engine assets we earn in addition to the pure relationships and networks we create with community, there is no doubt we create value here and the potential to build upon it is incredible. It also allows us to diversify our exposure even within the ecosystem which is another great opportunity for us to allocate resources that are not always measured in value or money. Instead, allocating time to play Splinterlands, engage in blogs, curate content, among many other activities provide us a way to broaden our reach across the ecosystem.

In addition to these considerations, there are a number of reasons why my delay to buy more Steem make sense. First, I still think that the price still has both fundamental and technical headwinds that will make it a challenge to overcome in the short-term. Considering the continued weak market in the cryptocurrency asset market, Steem needs to demonstrate externally its potential to attract engagement that is sustainable and able to create value. Being still in the Top 100 (although struggling to remain) is a sign of its potential but the journey to climb to where it once was is increasingly challenging giving the competition of attracting capital when compared to the others available in the market.

Despite being a big believer in Steem, I have found myself more attracted to add to other positions given the prices we are seeing. Some assets that remain in the Top 25 continue to have my attention as they seek to expand in adopting the technology. For example, the whole DeFi movement has garnered my attention as one of the assets I hold, DAI and the Maker DAO have made some upgrades recently that sound really interesting. While I have yet to review the details, looking for a way to decentralize our assets and earn from them is very attractive. On the other hand, I am not very technical in nature and I may hesitate to participate until I better understand which may provide an opportunity to move some of these assets in Steem or others.

The coming days will be interesting as I have always looked forward to buying some Steem every month. Breaking the cycle is unlike me but there is still much to consider. However, having the mindset to have it as a consideration continues to encourage me that Steem remains a passion of mine. I still have the long term view of not only Blockchain technology but Steem as a protocol so it will only take time which is not a bad thing considering the amount of activities we can engage in here in the meantime. While I do not know my answer at the moment, I know that buying more will not be far behind!