Yes... 20 freaking grands! :-)
Here's the story:
After something like 9 months without a post, I decided to write again. I was away mostly because of work and lack of time, but also because I wanted to observe more than participate. See how it grows. Take time.
(FTR, I joined steemit in July 2016, wrote almost 600 posts, and some of them went good enough to allow me to accumulate roughly SBD500... which I did not know what to do at the time...)
But, as you probably already know, Steemit is more than just a blogging site with a fancy technology powering its wheels. It's a community, a great community, and its memebers opened my eyes on the world of Alt-coins.
Reading the articles on Steemit had me convinced me that I should re-invest my SBDs in Altcoins.
So, after I got my very first earnings, I decided to move-on, and to invest in these Alt-coins: I opened a Bittrex account, and a Kraken one (why not 2?) , and started to read more about these strangely named Ether, STEEM, SYS, and all the other coins.
I converted my SBD in BTC on bittrex, learning about the addresses, and learning about the difference between SBD and STEEM wallets the hard way (1 bad transfer did cost me a bit...)
At first, I bought a bit of everything, mostly ETH, ETC, some MTR and KR (zero value today)... and some STRAT, just because of the name... which in the end was a lucky move.
I started to read more, built my expertise, and I did learn A LOT more. It helped me invest better and ultimately made me do some good moves, maybe mostly by luck... but still good moves.
I started to see my initial investment, freshly transformed in Alt-coins, grow day by day...
A few months ago, I had something like the equivalent of $4,000 in various cryptocurrencies, and, with the help of a couple good investments and the very recent surge of the BTC, my portfolio weights today about $23,000.
(see HOLDINGS, acquisition cost is on the 30th of May when I started using this system to track my gains)
A few days ago, I took $4,000 out and bought this:
Steemit is probably the only reason I could have paid myself this beauty.
Conclusion...
First of all, I want to come back and to THANK STEEMIT, and especially the community for, sort of, changing my life and making me discover this brave new world of crypto-currencies.
Now it is my turn to return the favor:
The best advice I can give new members, is to learn about cryptos. Jump in and give it a try.
Steemit is a great way to get into this world, without having to link a bank account to your exchange market.
(note: you may need to if you want to get some real cash out!)
And now is the time to strat investing. (actually, last month was... but there is more potential). SO jump in, and learn about STEEM, ETH, ETC, SYS, DGB and all these new technologies. The journey is worth every gain.
If you win money, or if you lose your bet, at least you would had learnt something, and would have been part of this new revolution.
THANK YOU STEEMIT, and THANK YOU ALL HERE.
--Sebastien
(Damn...if feels good to be back!)