Pele23's Hive Story... and yours?

After seeing @dragosroua and @acesontop telling their journey on Hive and crypto and blockchain in general, I decided to give it a go for myself. It may inspire others, and I am sure it will inspire myself too!

1. How long have you been on the Blockchain?

August 1st 2017 my Steemit account got active, that is 58 moons in Hiveblocks language. I remember that back then it took a week or so before your account got active, that week sucked! ;-)

2. What was your background in cryptocurrency when you first came to the Blockchain?

I had been mining some LTC and FTC on my PC since 2013, and traded them on the very shady website BTC-e, and then later on Cryptsy. At some moment I had 2000 LTC, which had like a value 0.01 USD at that time. Eventually Cryptsy went rogue and I lost every single coin I had. Not a good experience. But I never gave up, and have a decent portfolio right now.

3. What was your background in writing when you first came to the Blockchain?

Mmm, I love writing, but I am from Belgium, so my native languages are Dutch and French. So it is pretty hard to write in fluent way, which makes your posts nice to read for people that have English as their native language. But I get better at it every day. Writing in English is a skill, which some people, like @whatsup, @cryptoandcoffee have, that I am very jealous of, but who knows, in a few years, how good my writing skills will be...

4. How many people did you know when you first came to the Blockchain?

Zip, zero, squat, I thought I would meet some other Belgians, but there were very little that were active here. So, I met other people, from all over the world. Like @smasssh, @nathen007, @surfermarly (who left a while ago),... There are too much to name. But, there was a new world opening for me. You can watch television and Youtube videos, but when really can interact with people from all over the world, then you also learn a lot more about their lifestyle, interests, and especially the differences, which makes this place so unique.

5. How did you meet people when you first came to the Blockchain?

Oh, I think that went quite organically, I am not a shy person, so I interacted quite quickly on posts that interested me too. Like sports, crypto and conspiracy theories ;-). I found loads of people who are digging that subject too, so that kind of lured me into some communities. And boy did I learn a lot about that on this blockchain. Hehe!

6. Who did you look up to when you first came to the Blockchain?

I had no starting point to search for, I just posted about things I was interested in and read a lot of crap in the new section. But gradually you start to follow people and then you're off, into the unknown.

7. How would you describe your first three months on the Blockchain?

Very uncomfortable. At first you think, now I have written a true gem here, this post will surely get me started and earn me 300 dollars. Think again, the full 0.09 USD was your return for two hours of writing. Those were disappointing days. Especially because back then, there was more voting done by bidding bots, and the true value of your content was of very little importance. That has luckily changed a lot now. And of course I have a network now, which gives my posts a lot more visibility.

8. Has being a part of the Blockchain changed you in any way for the good?

It sure did, as I said before, I have learned a lot by other people all over the world. Discovered new channels of information, other news, news that isn't available in the mainstream media. I have discovered the true value of crypto, the decentralization, the independence, and especially, you don't have to be politically correct on here. That is a true bliss.

9. What is your favorite memory from your time on the Blockchain?

This is something really strange, and I really don't know why it happened, but after about a month and a half on the blockchain, one of my posts got an upvote from @blocktrades worth about $ 100. I was completely shocked, didn't know what was the reason, and I still don't know. I think it was just random curation by @blocktrades. But it gave me courage to sit it out, and keep on posting. Eventually you will get a following, as long as you don't try to hard to get the votes. Write about what you want to write, not about what you think people want you to write about.

10. If you could advise a new person signing up to Hive, what would it be?

Two words, consistency and perseverance. They seem the same, but they aren't. With consistency I mean, do your curation every day, post every day. There is always something to write about. And with perseverance, I mean, don't get discouraged when you don't get the upvotes you think you deserve. Hive is a snowball, the bigger you grow, the bigger your curation gets, the bigger your upvotes get. At least, that was my experience.

I could have written a book about the last four years, but don't mind asking questions. I am happy to answer them.

Sincerely,

Pele23

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