June 2017

Steemit gets richer every day as more people join. This month has also seen the long awaited announcement of Steemfest 2017. I will get to meet some of the people from Steemit in the flesh this November. Are you going?

Never Stop Exploring

The North Face tagline is my motto. I began exploring Blockchains and Crypto-tech about 2.5 years ago and my interest grows with each passing day. I have also travelled all over the world but there are still so many places I have to visit, foods I have to taste, people to meet, cultures to experience.

Image Source: http://www.pixabay.com/

Here on Steemit I write about Crypto and Travel but I have lots of other interests such as charity work and technology which I also like to post about from time to time. I do also enjoy a good rant so if you follow me you might get a good laugh occasionally :)

Steemit is getting more Engaging

I have had several important milestones this month.

@steem-dublin was launched to promote Steemit in Ireland and Irish Content on Steemit. We are having our first meetup this Saturday 17th of June in Dublin. If you around all are welcome.
With the increase in Steem Price, my Steem power has gone up so I have now removed the graphic "minnow on a mission" from this post.
Since my last update, I have written about Travel, Restaurant Reviews, Steemit, Crypto, Technology and I have started a new series of posts on Irish Pubs.

800+ followers

Image Source: http://www.pixabay.com/

In May I doubled my followers again and I have now passed 827, I am building up some STEEM :) A big thank you to all the people who have followed me and read and commented on my posts and a big welcome to all the new people here on Steemit.

My favourite topics

I wrote 40 posts in the last month and the following is a brief synopsis of my favourite ones along with some older ones which may be of interest.

Crypto

I write a lot about developments in the Crypto space. I am currently focused on which coin is going to emerge on top. With the emergence of so many new coins in recent months I plan a series of posts that research the purpose and background to the top coins, so follow me for some analysis on these.

Blockchain Series

I was very enthusiastic when I first heard about Bitcoin, but I have to admit the Blockchain never really excited me until I started this series of posts. With each post I discovered new applications and ideas. The future is full of possibilities.

Recent Crypto Posts

Crypto has taken off this month. There are now 8 coins above 1 Billion Market Cap. Have you missed the boat?
I only got very interested in Crypto a few months ago, since I joined Steemit and the more I read the more I learn, the more I realise that Crypto hasn't even gotten started yet. There is so much yet to come.

All things Steemit

Steemit Help

If your new to Steemit, there can be a lot of new lingo, new things to learn. These posts might help you out

Steemit Is Great

With the skyrocketing Steem price I couldn't help doing a few posts about how great Steemit is

Image Source: http://www.pixabay.com/

Steemit Suggestions

Steemit is still in beta and there are some parts that need further consideration before mainstream adoption. In this post I make some observations about the splash page

New First Impression of Steemit

Steemit Census

It would be impossible to do a regular Census on Steemit and many people may not want to be participate but I have an idea for Steemits first Census. This is a work in progress and will take some time to complete but it will help to build a picture of our community.
The original post is A Steemit Census
And this month I published a summary of the results
A Steemit Census Results

5 Minutes

I have started this series of tips, shoutouts and reminders of things everyone can do on Steemit to help make new members of the community welcome and help them get up and running. Everyone can help with just 5 minutes each time they log on. It will make a big difference.

Image Source: http://www.pixabay.com/

Do you remember how you felt the first time you got some encouragement from an established member of the community, or your first upvote from @ned or @dan?

Some Older Crypto Posts worth a read

Travel

I am experimenting here with my posts a bit to find the format that works best so please feel free to give me feedback about what you like and what is a swing and a miss.

Life After College
A regular series which chronicles a trip I made many years ago
The Irish Pub & a Dirty Old Town
A regular series about Irish Pubs in Dublin
Reviews about Recent foreign trips I have made.
A fairly regular series where I review places in Ireland, where I live; restaurants sights etc.

The last two are intended to be an alternative to posting reviews on Tripadvisor. I use Tripadvisor all the time but I wont be posting there any more. I am exclusive to Steemit now.

Life after college

When I finished University in 2003 I was faced with the same life decisions many people are faced with. What to do next? I chose to spend some time travelling in some hard to reach places.

This series of travel posts is about the places I visited, the people I met and the life choices I made along the way. Only one new post this month, but so much more to come. I am currently writing about some great experiences I had in Yemen.

The Irish Pub & A Dirty Old Town

This is a new series I started this month which I am having great fun with. It will take me all over Dublin in search of the best Pint of Guinness. I have visited 6 Pubs so far and each week I will be trying out a new place and rating my experience. It's also a chance to promote Steemit around Dublin.

@boxcarblue has even taken this journey global by visiting a pub in Japan. Check out This Is Japan meets The Irish Pub & A Dirty Old Town
I would love if people let me know about Irish pubs from around the world and I will feature them on a monthly roundup. Is there a Pat Murphys Pub near you?

Day Trips & Restaurant Reviews

I currently live in Ireland. I often visit places at the weekend and this Day Trip series is for people who are looking for trip ideas.
I had started posting fairly religiously on Trip Advisor but I quickly got fed up with the engagement, feedback and lack of a reward system. You get nothing in return for posting great content on that platform besides an email saying your in the top x% please post more. Read why I think Steemit is better than tripadvisor, Why Steemit is better than Tripadvisor my experience

This month I visited some great Restaurants in Ireland and a wonderful Art Exhibition in Dublins Stephens Green last month.

Recent Trips

I still travel and see new places every chance I get so I will post about more recent Journeys in this series. This last week I have been quiet on Steemit as I was on holidays in Belgium eating Waffles and drinking Beer. I had such a wonderful time and I have some great posts about the trip there to share. Stay tuned for some mouthwatering pictures of Waffles and Frites. Find out why I queued for an hour for Chips.

Older Trips

Charity

Many countries around the world have strong traditions of charity work. Ireland is no exception and I have been involved at various stages all through my life. I am not actively involved in any charity at the moment but I would like to give back in some way. Just before Christmas I thought of using Steemit to raise money for a charity close to my heart, "The Children of Syria". Thanks to the Steemit community a donation was made to UNICEF for 60 Euro following this post Vote for the children of Syria this Christmas on Steemit.

I want to develop this idea further and use Steemit to raise further funds for Charities. It can be a win win for Steemit and for the Charity. I have noticed that there are a few other authors who have similar ideas and I will be contacting them about this.

When it comes to charity there can be many arguments against raising and donating money. For example paying the inflated salaries of C level executives, corruption, fraud. These criticisms are not without merit. If you donate money how do you know where its going? what its being used for? Is the charity real? Is it being used as intended? How to verify donations have been paid to the charity?

In this series of posts I would like to strike up some dialogue on how these issues can be addressed and how best to use Steemit and Blockchain technology to increase transparency in the NGO sector. I am really excited about this space and it could be another big use case for Blockchain.

Lots to Come

Technology

I like to think of myself as an early adopter. I love trying out new things. I would love to be driving a Tesla Model S now but I hope soon the Model 3 will become available where I live. This month I wrote about Tesla coming to Ireland and the imminent transformation of the Global Car Market.

Image Source: http://www.pixabay.com/

Some Older Technology Posts worth a read

Other

I write a lot of posts on things that catch my eye. These posts are all available on my blog page @eroche but recent ones I would recommend reading if you haven't yet are:

Thank you for reading. I write on Steemit about Blockchain, Cryptocurrency, Travel and lots of random topics. I am also on twitter where I mainly write and tweet about Data and Data visualisations. Follow me on twitter @ed_roche