not an actual photo of me
hey fren
I honestly cringed at the thought of writing a self-shilling post, but I would be dumb not to as there is an opportunity to win Hive Fest tickets. I've wanted to attend one of these events for years, since the before-Hive days. Back then, I really had no specific reason I wanted to attend, but having the opportunity to attend the virtual Hive Fest event was pretty amazing. I met some great people and had a blast. That was in VR, and it was awesome.
So who am I?
Well, my name is Phil. I go by Nifty, as many of you know, and I have been on the blockchain since May of 2017. That's right. I was around back in the Steemit days, writing some extremely cringey content that I wish didn't exist at this point, but it is what it is. Everyone spent time finding their niche and figuring out what they were going to focus on. I sporadically posted, taking months on and off, and never really found my place on Steemit.
Fast forward to the birth of Hive, and I found my way back. I was posting 3D printing videos, and really anything I found interesting. When I discovered LeoFinance, I felt right at home. It has been my hub for everything Hive since, and it has definitely evolved in an amazing way. I found my niche, writing about NFTs, crypto scams, blockchain gaming, and really anything related to web3. After creating content and plugging along for a couple years, I decided I wanted to get more involved.
I noticed that LeoFinance was in need of someone to take on the Technical Support role, and I knew I had to pursue it. I shot my shot, and ended up talking to Khal... Then shortly after, I joined the Leo Team as the Technical Support Lead. While this might sound like a really unimportant role, it's actually a very important role with anything technology related. I was able to take the tech support (or lack thereof) to another level with crazy fast response and resolution times. I've now been a Leo Team member for over a year, handling all of your tech support needs in Discord.
In addition to this, I was a twice-weekly writer for Leo Backed Investments (LBI) for about 6 months. During this time, I continued to hone my educational content skills and spread a ton of knowledge related to NFTs through my serious "What is an NFT?". This is an 9 part series that explored all kinds of use-cases for NFTs, and I personally think the whole series is great. I also wrote a ton of other "How To do X" with crypto articles that showcased all kinds of different things you can do with crypto. You can check both of these series at Learn Crypto Stuff. This is a master index of my best educational content, and I highly recommend checking it out.
I could go on about different things I've been involved in on Hive, but these are some of the things I like to highlight.
How have I made an impact on Hive?
First off, I show up every single day. I may not write an article every single day like I used to, simply because my limited time does not allow it. What my time does allow, though, is being active on Threads, the micro-blogging side of LeoFinance. Threads went live right around my birthday last year, and I was using it a couple days before it was live as a tester. I was one of 3 testers at the time, making sure that it worked well enough to launch into alpha. I've been active on Threads every single day since its birth, and that will never change.
Shortly after the birth of Threads, I launched a project called GM:FRENS that was aimed at encouraging daily interactions on the platform. The project encourages users to say GM every day on Threads, and incentivizes this interaction through a second (or third?) layer token on the WAX blockchain. Using the #gmfrens tag allows users to earn tokens on a totally different blockchain daily. The project has evolved a lot, and remains one of the top trending tags on Threads every single day. Yes, we are cooking up some more awesome stuff for the project that will be great for Hive, but I can't really speak much about it yet.
Over a year ago, 
These are just some examples of the impact that I've personally had on the Hive ecosystem. I have plans to expand the GM:FRENS project, and start doing more with it on Hive as opposed to the WAX blockchain. This is not going to be easy, but the framework is being laid out. That's all I can say.
Why do I want to go to Hive Fest?
Well, I want to put a face to the names I've been interacting with on a daily basis on Hive. I want to be part of the presence of the LeoFinance team, and finally meet my podcast co-host in person for the first time. I've never traveled outside the US, and this is an opportunity for me to change that. I want to see what life is like in Mexico, and experience the once-in-a-lifetime event that is Hive Fest. Why should I win a ticket? Well, I hate to brag on myself, but I do feel like I've earned the right to experience this. The amount of different things I've done and gotten involved with on Hive, along with my constant activity and promotion of the platform... It should speak for itself.
I'm no better than anyone else that may enter this little contest, and I'm sure there's other people that have done way cooler shit than me... I'm just shooting my shot as always. I've learned so much over the past couple years being active in this ecosystem. It has quite literally changed my life, and I want to be there in person for this event to show my appreciation for all of the beautiful people here. Whether I win a ticket or not, I really want to go. This would just make it much more financially feasible.
Thanks for your consideration, frens.