When I arrived at Steemit 13 months ago I quickly made the decision to do this for my living. Getting rewarded for creating content has liberated me like nothing else. The path was not easy and I have worked hard to sustain myself with Steem and other cryptos like SmartCash which I can earn with posting. You, the readers, have decided that my content is interesting enough to consistently upvote me until I have now finally climbed to reputation 70. A milestone that means a lot to me.
The Reputation System
The Steem reputation system is something that takes the upvote value and reputation of the upvoter to create a special reputation score that can grow or sink with each new vote. A flag can lower the score and the most powerful reputation rise comes from a large whale upvote with a high reputation him/herself. You can read more about the functionality here.
The pace at which the reputation grows is pretty hardcore: Each new reputation point needs ten times more than the previous one. It took me half a year for this last point to grow from 69 to 70! I am humbled that you have elevated me into this small group of people on the Steem blockchain. Here is the current reputation distribution from 
Instant Gratification: The Byteball Airdrop
I was twice as happy about my new reputation when I heard at the same day about the Byteball airdrop for Steemians. The announcement post has so many comments that it makes problems to load. I had never heard about this crypto before. It is listed as GBYTE and was worth over $1000 at its peak in January and is still worth well over $100. You get free GBYTE worth according to your reputation score:
- Steem reputation above 30: you get a $10 reward
- Steem reputation above 40: you get a $20 reward
- Steem reputation above 50: you get a $40 reward
- Steem reputation above 60: you get a $80 reward
- Steem reputation above 70: you get a $160 reward
Half of that is locked in your Byteball wallet for one year while the other half is free to trade right away. Although, the wallet on Bittrex is currently offline so I wasn't able to trade it yet.
Start by downloading the Byteball wallet (referral link). You will need 0.0006 GBYTE (about 7 cents) to activate the Steem account registration. I can send you that for which I will be rewarded as well when you register. Just post your Byteball wallet address in the comments below and I transfer you the amount so you can get started.
You Can Do It, Too
Building yourself a Steem account with a nice amount of Steem Power and a reputation among other Steemians is possible for everyone. It requires consistent work and creativity and a massive amount of patience and trust into the system. This doesn't come easy and most people give up too quickly.
After just 13 months I can already support 100 people with 400 USD per year with daily upvotes from my account which cost me nothing and grows my account with curation rewards instead. Steem has already proven itself to work incredibly well. Now is the time to build your future by growing your own Steem Power while it is still relatively easy.
At this point I am super excited to be here at this time. With my animated projects like 
