So as my regular followers will know, I decided to buy my younger brother STEEM for Christmas this holiday season. With the recent surge in the price, I must say it has worked out even better than anticipated! (Although I think we're only seeing the beginning of where STEEM can go in 2018).
No more than 20 days ago, STEEM was at 1.50$ and I wrote this article on why I think it was the perfect time to buy STEEM cheap, why giving someone STEEM as a gift would be great for the token, and also how you could do the same.
A few days later, @howo and I launched steemgifts.com, an online service that lets anyone create a new STEEM account, with an amount of STEEM that you want to give as a gift, and where we will send you a holiday-themed gift card by mail. You can read more about the STEEM giftcard service in my post here.
Anyways, on Christmas eve I had packed the gift card that I printed using our new service and packed it in a box for my brother. I was still very curious to see his reaction and whether he would understand what he had received.
My brother Trygve holding his STEEM Gift card that he got from me for Christmas
Picture taken by me on the 24th
At first, he seemed rather confused. It is important to know that for many years I've been pranking him with different presents that made no sense, only for there to be some money or a gift card hidden somewhere. This time, however, there was no catch. Behind the gift card was a closed envelope with all the different keys he will need for his new account and also the email I set up for him. It was funny to watch him open it, probably expecting to find some cash or a letter telling him what the "real" gift was going to be. It's safe to say all the letters didn't make a lot of sense to him, but as he knew I had been trading cryptos for a while he did eventually guess that it had something to do with it.
I could then brag that his gift was now worth twice as much as what I had originally purchased it for (going from 1.5$ to 3$), making it the most expensive gift he had ever received from me by a long shot! Looking at coinmarketcap again this morning in sheer disbelief, I believe that gift is now more or less the same that I've spent on all the gifts I have bought him for Christmas before, combined. Safe to say that the little man is starting to realize it was a pretty awesome gift indeed!
STEEM at 6.25$ this morning
Screenshot from my phone
As mentioned, I still think we're just getting started to see STEEM go up, and can expect a lot more in 2018. Looking at the market cap of cryptos, most currencies above STEEM have very little to show for relatively speaking in terms of users, a working product and new developments. So my bet is that we will see STEEM in the top 15 by the summer. So I look forward to seeing where we will go when Smart Media Tokens gets launched together with Communities early this year. How much fuel can it add to the current fire you think? Can we see STEEM in the top 10 by the end of the year? If so, what would it take?
I hope you've all enjoyed a happy new year and that you will have a great 2018. From the point of view of a steemian, I guess the year is looking great so far :D
First time hearing about Steemgifts from reading this post and I have to say that it's such a great idea! Really good that you saw an empty spot on the market, took the opportonity and made it.
Really! I am amazed!
I hope it all goes up and up from now on and maybe one day I can gift Steemgift to someone as well. :)
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Hello @kassixo ! How have you been? :)
Yes when I had the idea I thought it was obvious that it would be something nice to have. And since it was fairly easy to hack together in a short amount of time, we thought "why not?" :)
Hope we can build on it and make it an open source platform and library where anyone can use our source code to make gift cards also for Birthdays and other cool designs!
It's so much more satisfying to build stuff than to just talk about ideas :)
Hope your steeming has been going well since we spoke when you first joined steemit.chat!
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Just finished my first active week here, I believe and I think it's going well. Now it is a challenge to keep it that way. :D Thanks for asking!
Doing stuff is great. My negative side has always been that I have all the great ideas, but pretty much never accomplish them. So I've pretty much started to share them more openly with others, give feedback or critizisim and hope that someone will make some of my ideas true. :'D
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That's great to hear! Yeah I can see that you're doing quite well for yourself as a starter! Did you visit the Steemspeak Discord channel too? (Just seeing some familiar names that have upvoted you ;) ) Yeah consistency is the hard part. I had to take a break and are still yet to really get back to a rigid schedule, but new year new opportunities!
Oh, that's the story of my life right there... Always 20 half finished articles and 50 headlines for an idea stored somewhere on the drive... To be continued later, at some time, some day... :P
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...and then you discover that you don't even have the mood to continue them. That just means that you have to act on the ideas you get pretty fast. At least I usually somewhat later don't even want to fulfill some of the ideas anymore. :D
And yeah.. I've met some people in Steemspeak and they've been really helpful. Such wonderful people.^^
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Then you have already discovered one of the awesome things about STEEM! This is the place that stuff actually happens! What hooked me almost immediately about this platform was the amount of awesome collaboration between really creative, inventive and just generally cool people. I have put so many random ideas out there and people ran with them, and vice versa of course. We all may dream of the day when STEEM explodes and the user base is in the millions and millions, but right now we are swimming in a very strange little self-selected pond and I think the number of "doers" is higher than normal per social media networks standards.
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I've noticed this as well. You can make the most random post pretty much and then discover that people really liked that one. You can ramble out any thought you have in your mind and it can still turn out to be a great post. :)
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That's a great gift. He's not as obstinate as all the people I've invited here, fortunately.
Wasn't Steem in the top 10 a year ago? I think it can recover.
$6.25? Gaaah, I made some art and listed it at $5.79. That's great though!
It's always refreshing to hear a positive outlook regarding Steem - and it's crazy to see bitcoin bulls be bearish about Steem. Have they taken a close look at bitcoin lately? Whatta mess! ☺
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Yes, I've made it clear that I believe STEEM will outperform bitcoin by a couple of factors in 2018. So far I've been more than right x)
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That's awesome and the Steemit gift card could be an incentive in having family members and friends join Steemit. I know it's free to join but I would most definitely consider giving some Steem away to those whom I think would find the Steemit platform valuable as I have.
I have high hopes for Steemit's increase in 2018. I enjoy the site tremendously and am spend a lot of my time online here or watching videos that help me to better understand the blockchain technology behind Steemit.
I want to learn all I can in order to help others become successful users.
Wishing you the best in 2018!
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Thanks for the great comment!
Yes, I certainly hope it can make it more fun, convenient and encouraging for people to give someone in their close circles STEEM as a gift.
It makes sense even if the person doesn't blog or make any posts, ever. I mean, as of now, the gift is already worth 5 times what I bought it for! Why not share something you believe will do well with those you care for? :)
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You're welcome and thank you for the upvote! Every upvote counts in my opinion!
I think the conversation and engagement with others is what truly makes the backbone of Steemit. The more we interact with one another the more this site is used as it should be, a place for community and social interaction - not someone just slapping their articles together and posting to the feed so to collect payouts with no social engagement with readers and followers.
I make a point of following up each and every one of the comments I receive.
I believe in the power of this community so I support what you're doing and as I mentioned think that Steemit gift cards are a means to help gain new long term members to the site.
Your brother is lucky to have you! :)
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That is an awesome gift. Bravo!
My folks had a blurry idea what I was doing the whole December, I mean all members of my wider family and the friends also know that I peck on the internet like a hen the entire day, but they don't really understand what it is exactly.
Somewhere before the Christmas I showed them what was this all about, and the reaction was amazing.
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Only the sky's the limit! :) Congrats to @trygve for receiving a gift that will grow as the year passes by.
@svein
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I think people will begin to realise how strong the tech fundamentals of STEEM are in this year as SMTs get launched and new apps start to add more traffic without giving the blockchain any issues.
At least 15$ by the end of Q2 would be my best guess.
And yes, I think a present that grows in value makes a lot more sense than one which gets stuffed away in a closet somewhere ^^
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Oh yes, absolutely!
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Perfect present :) Today i notice several difficulties on the network, maybe due to the rise of steem, but my bandwith remaining is only 818kb of 847kb
Increase of posts on the network, maybe?
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No, it's because you have very little STEEM Power on your account, but are very active with comments and upvotes. STEEM Power gives you more bandwidth to use, which is why you can use the network for free. I recommend that you power up at least 10-20 STEEM with the earnings you make in the next weeks from comments etc.
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Kul nettside - bra ide! Blir spennende å følge STEEM fremover nå @fredikaa
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Takk for det! Ja altså den var hacket sammen på det tilsvarende av en kvart StartUp Weekend :P Kult også å bruke STEEM / steemit til å få design av kort laget av proffe folk jeg kjente her på steemit.
Er faktisk såpass genialt det at man kan teste ut ideer, få feedback, og i tillegg dekket de tidlige kostnadene i form av upvotes fra folk som synes det en gjør er kult.
Veldig lean!
Vi må diskutere muligheten for å dra i gang en STEEM SMT StartUp Weekend forresten.
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I said it before, awesome idea @fredrikka. I bought my brother-in-law a STREAM silver dollar (he already had and account) to commemorate our Steemit journey. I hope @trygve has a wonderful experience and enjoys his time on Steemit. Best wishes in the new year and @trygve, Welcome!
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I said it before, awesome idea @fredrikka. I bought my brother-in-law a STEEM silver dollar (he already had an account) to commemorate our Steemit journey. I hope @trygve has a wonderful experience and enjoys his time on Steemit. Best wishes in the new year and @trygve, Welcome!
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For en kul gave! Jeg håper @susanne husker at jeg har bursdag om et par uker ... ;)
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Hahaha, ja det burde hun!! :)
Bare å ta kontakt @susanne hvis du vil ha noe litt mer tailor made ;) vi jobber med å få opp en portal for andre designere til å lage kort for alle slags anledninger!
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You're the best brother in the Universe!
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haha, I like to think so too ;)
You hear that @trygve !?!?!?!
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Did you tell your brother he's going to be famous in some parts of the internet now? :P
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Oh shit! That's right D:
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Så kult! Ser ut som om @trygve ble fornøyd!
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Jeg tvang ham til å smile sånn at det skulle bli en bra steemit post av det.
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Start with relatives, then friends and then everyone
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oh, a trading gift is good habit.this is a good gift.to day steem price increase and in future it will continue increase
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So glad to see that we are making gifts with this community , to improve our work . Bravo for taking courage to go against the current .
Keep on steeming .
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may be i reasteam your post sir because i liked in your picture
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i love your post @bijoy123
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Lovely and outstanding work and your photography is also stunning. @fredrikaa
I would like to share my own photography with you https://steemit.com/photography/@irshadhussain/some-of-the-most-spectacular-photographs-of-mountains-around-my-hometown
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That's a touching story actually. I got a brother a year older. I'm going to check out steem gifts and get him something for his next birthday! His birthday is in August, so maybe Steem will be like $20 then? Who knows.
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