My Crypto Story: How Crypto and Blockchain Technology Impacted my F...

My original plan for this month of #HiveBloPoMo & #NaBloPoMo daily posting was to do it solely through the @exxp WordPress plugin, since I'm blogging on both my WP and Hive blogs simultaneously (and easily - thanks again, #Exxp team!). I've done a few extra posts on Hive through a different frontend/app/interface for my Hive Power Up Day related things (thanks again, @leofinance team!), but since talking about my crypto story is something I'd like to share on both, I'm posting this first through the awesomesauce & aforementioned LeoFinance interface, then copying it to my WordPress blog (and hoping I remember to uncheck the "publish to Hive" button before I hit, "publish" 😂 ).

My Crypto Story inspiration & initiative

Last week, I saw @nickyhavey's post, What's Your Crypto Story? and thought it would make an awesome excuse to once again regale my non-crypto readers with tales from the ~~cult~~ currency that's turned me from a fan to a fanatic. Then as added incentive, a few days ago @theycallmedan posted his, #CryptoFinance Initiative: How has Crypto and Blockchain Technology Impacted your Personal Finance? - how could I resist?

What is crypto and blockchain?

I think by now pretty much everyone has heard about Bitcoin, that first cryptocurrency launched in 2009 by the well known (yet still unknown) persona called Satoshi Nakamoto. Since that time, many other cryptos have entered the market, but even though I saw mentions of them on my various social media accounts over the years, it wasn't until I joined a blockchain blogging community (okay, not a technically accurate description, but that was my impression at the time) back in 2017 that I figured out what it was about. Well, mostly kind of sorta...

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Blockchain is essentially the technology that cryptocurrencies are built on. For a smarter explanation, check out this article, Making sense of bitcoin, cryptocurrency and blockchain, which breaks it down into easy to digest bits, with some cool charts & graphics to boot.

How Crypto and Blockchain Technology Impacted my Finances

So, short story long, how exactly has investing my time and a small amount of cash (like, less than we've paid over the years for our World of Warcraft subs) impacted my finances?

The quick answer is - it hasn't.

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Yes, I admit that when @pixelfan shouted out on Ello in September 2017 that he'd found a way to monetize his photography shares, I was more than a little intrigued. It wasn't particularly easy to get my blog going on the blockchain (and as I've said before, my first posts there consisted of brief summaries of my WordPress posts with links "to continue reading" on my WP blog...lol), but once I figured out the mechanics of it all, I was sold.

At first, by the potential income. Then, by the passionate community.

I've also mentioned before that other than withdrawing about $70 worth of crypto in the beginning (just to see if I could actually turn this cryptic cyber cash thing into real dollars) that I haven't cashed out a penny since, and have in fact invested (my very first, crypto or fiat wise) around $800 over the years. Not because I needed to, as I was earning on my content as well as curating (aka, upvoting) other people's content, but because I wanted to grow my account faster, and I believed so strongly in the potential of what we were building.

I know it's reasonable to expect that someone like me that shills so hard for Hive on social media must be doing it to make money. However, any time I tell someone to join Hive, I'm not doing it because it will make my wallet bigger. In fact, unless people use one of my affiliate links, I don't directly benefit (and if they did, I'd most likely get pennies for anything they posted) other than having more awesome people to interact with. Kind of like when Facebook was new and fresh, and you'd haunt all your friends to sign up so you could ~~poke 'em~~ follow them & share your stuff while they shared theirs. 🤣

I want other people to have control over their social media like I do

As I said on Twitter over the summer, "Why am I such a fangirl of this crypto thing? #Hive is the place that I can follow the content creators I like & actually see everything they post, without some algorithm deciding for me. I also share my #nature #photography, #Tarot readings, #witchcraft spells, occasional bits of #fiction #writing & my followers see it all. While I feel we’re still very much in Beta mode (with kinks to be worked out) the power of owning your own data & controlling what you see & who you interact with is priceless."

But my crypto story is only one of many

I consider myself lucky that I haven't had to cash out at all and I can let my investment grow, because I have lots of friends on Hive who have made it through this crisis that is 2020 in large part to their earnings on the blockchain. Some are buying their groceries and paying their rent with their Hive. Still others have used their crypto to make purchases big (computer/gaming things) and small (coffee mugs & silver coins).

While I joke with my husband that he shouldn't worry about his upcoming early retirement in February because any day now, I'm going to be a crypto-zillionaire, I've really stopped thinking of this alternative blogging side hustle as a money maker (and not just because I suffer from blog envy 😝 ), and I'm seeing it as a long term investment in my content, which is finding an amazingly engaged audience (even though I've been seriously slacking in the commenting thing as of late) on the Hive blockchain, while it may or may not eventually make me some moola.

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So that's my story of how crypto has impacted my finances, which somehow turned once again into my fangirling over Hive... LOL! As always, please feel free to shout out if you have any questions/interest in how this whole thing works, and thanks again to Nicky & Dan for giving me another excuse to break out the pom poms!

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