Getting signed up for Steemit took a while but I'm glad to be here. I've been a blogger forever, more or less since there was such a thing. My first blog, around 2001, was with Pyra Labs, which was later bought by Google and re-branded Blogger. I still update my first blog occasionally just to keep it going.
I've regularly used blogs as a personal learning tools through a Masters degree, a doctoral degree in new media studies and into post-doctoral work in digital humanities. I use blogs in most of my teaching, students are required to develop a blog and use it as a central repository for all course work.
I'm currently teaching an English and Creative Writing course in Digital Journalism and blogging plays a central role.
Then there is the cryptocurrency aspect.
I'm fascinated with the whole idea although I only have one Bitcoin wallet with a few bucks in it. I opened a wallet just to try it out, someone sent me the price of a cup of coffee. I checked the other day and it was worth US$45! I looked at buying a bitcoin miner when the price was around $4000.00 but realized I don't have the nerves for that type of high stakes gambling. Not so much into making money for the sake of making money.
I also checked out an outfit called PressCoin that was doing an ICO. The premise was that PressCoin would be used to support independent journalism. I might still try to jump on that.
I was fascinated by a Cory Doctorow book a few years ago called Down and Out In the Magic Kingdom. It was a dystopic novel about a digital future society where the currency is the ephemeral reputational unit, the Whuffie. Kind of like digital karma. A recent episode of Black Mirror S3E1 played with a similar theme.
Anyway, that is what Steemit means to me for the time being. I look forward to learning more and playing along.