So I got into Bitcoin back in 2011, and it wasn't about the money, it was about something I had learned over the first 21 years over life until then... something with Bitcoin just resonated with me, but I didn't understand it yet.
At first it seemed like a very interesting project, having heard about Bitcoins a few times prior, but I usually blew them off as some internet fad, I started getting curious. I finally decided I would take a leap and purchased my first Bitcoins at roughly $100 per coin if I remember correctly, and I didn't really plan on investing more at the time, I still wanted to fully understand bitcoin, and its capabilities before spending my hard earned paychecks on the stuff. After months of research, huge price hikes, and a few key folks along the way, I started kicking myself for not buying more, I finally understood Bitcoin, but now it felt like it was too late to "get involved" the rocket had taken off, or so I thought.
But still, I intended on telling everyone I knew about bitcoin and for a few years I did, until I realized it just wasn't working, every single time I would talk to people about it I would find myself ending up explaining the currency monetary system rather than explaining what Bitcoin could do for them. People were always worried, it was too complicated for them to simply put their trust into it. They would always agree it sounds promising, and say I hope it goes well, but not many people were ready to put in the hours of research, 10+ some odd steps to obtain Bitcoins let alone monitor the value to ensure they weren't losing their money. Bitcoin just wasn't easy, and although companies like Coinbase, Circle, Shiftpayments and so on have made the space alot simpler for the average consumer, it's still not easy enough to blow the doors off the current financial stronghold we have in place.
In comes #Steemit, the social network & accidental the crypto currency on boarding platform.
For years I kept trying to find ways to "simplify" Bitcoin for my friends and family, I even made paper wallets for people and tried explaining it would be a good side bet on the economy as well as a nice small investment fund, but even that was a hard sell. People just couldn't see what I saw in Bitcoin it seemed. I felt hopeless and eventually got back to real life and sort of "gave up" on the idea that I could change the world 1 bitcoin user at a time, Bitcoin was effectively just another internet fade to everyone I knew and the mainstream media & world. I still love Bitcoin and kept pursuing different avenues of achieving my dreams of crypto currency paradise, I eventually got very heavily involved in Dash in an effort to spread merchant adoption as I believe Dash is best poised for that sort of thing, but even Dash wasn't the cure to my crypto needs...
I even made a power point about Bitcoin one time....
Then a few weeks ago I found the best website of my life of course, Steemit really is a game changer.
There is no barrier to entry with Steemit, there is no 10 steps to signing up, acquiring coins, putting a bank account number in or anything remotely hard. This is the golden recipe for success, not to mention all of these people will just keep stacking their cash, not just dumping like traditional "bitcoin investors". Most won't even know how to when the time comes, which is a whole new problem to have in the crypto space...
You LITERALLY just sign up, and start earning. That is the bread and butter here. There is no barrier to entry, no learning curve up front, and no one needs to know how it works! They are just stoked to be earning for playing the game that is Steemit!
The proof is in the pudding; when my girlfriend signed up after 30 minutes of hearing about Steemit, but she couldn't be hassled to use Bitcoin even though she knows how much I love it and push it on the world, it all made sense to me.
She wrote a wonderful intro post and everything, without a single Bitcoin to her name.
Steemit is simple, Steemit is crypto on-boarding. Crypto needs Steemit. Thank you @dan and @ned for making a wonderful platform! You've done the whole space a huge favor.
also be sure to check out my new post: @thedashguy/why-i-am-basically-doing-a-steemit-ama-on-my-personal-facebook-and-why-you-should-be-to