So, since my plan was ruined by Coinbase's 72h delay, I decided I would have to sell something else and get some Steem to power up for #SPUD, the Steem Power Up Day. Selling for Steem is fine because Steem is going to outperform most others anyway, right?
There are some interesting numbers here on 
You will never become a Dolphin unless you open your pockets and invest -
Leonidas
I don't completely agree but I would say that very few people are going to have the grind in them to make it, 
Of course, there is also the engineered competition of bidbots on the pool that isn't going to change anytime soon. For those who are whitelisted, I still recommend using the no-middleman 
While it is not as much as I had hoped, it is always a good feeling for me to be able power some up. I can't remember the last time I have actually powered down but in 2017 I used to have it on a powerdown cycle, even though I continually powered it back up each week. The reason was that it means that I was always closer than 7 days away for the powerdown in case I needed it. These days, I am not that close to the edge that I won't be able to wait seven days and to this day, I still haven't used any crypto for life expenses.
What the powerup does do however is bring me to 44K Steem which means I am 6000 away from becoming an Orca. I really wish that I had the 2000 dollars available to do it but, I don't mind grinding it out either. While I have bought in and traded up a fair bit of Steem Power over the time, most of my earnings have come through post earnings, which has been largely driven by engagement and conversation. I am pretty sure that if I continued on writing and commenting the way I started here, I wouldn't have done nearly as well, but I would have done, okay still.
What changed for me was I started learning about Steem, trading, blockchain a bit and talking about it as I learned. Some of my positions on the platform changed, some solidified as I learned more about the tech and the community. It has been a very interesting mental journey for me and hopefully, for others who joined for the ride. It is interesting that for those who didn't learn much and decided to stay the same, they are largely in the same position they always were.
It has been pretty awesome to watch people over the last two years come on and start evolving into a different mindset, becoming more creative, more risk-taking, more thoughtful about their own and other people's future. The core players here are going to be an effective force to take Steem forward and gather more along the way.
While I do recommend people powering up for the future, only those who can should buy, while those who earn should do all they can to lock as much up as they can for their own and their community's future on Steem and perhaps, increasingly in the real world. Continually relying on others to provide is not the point of a decentralized network like Steem in my opinion, which means that we all need to develop the possibility to provide - That is Steem Power.
Anyway, just some quick thoughts for #SPUD
Taraz
[ a Steem original ]