Stake your claim to the blockchain! Join Steemit!

My name is Brian, better known online as EverNoticeThat. As you spend the next few minutes reading this post, I'd like to tell you a bit about myself and my wonderful Steemit journey. I love all things tech and my favorite computer company, Apple. I also run a Bitcoin node in my spare time, and like learning new things.

Bitcoin Blues

In early 2011 I first heard about this new digital currency called Bitcoin, and realized it was the future of money. I gobbled up every article I could find about it, and created my first wallet. Back then, there was a faucet offering 5 Bitcoin to get you started and I accepted them. Firing up my (not so) trusty HP computer, I started mining, ending up with 25 Bitcoin to start, and then everything went straight to hell.

Coming home one day, my mining computer showed the dreaded “Blue screen of death.” Of course my passphrase and Bitcoin address (Which I had written down) was nowhere to be found. The email service I used shut down, deleting my only online backup. Are you beginning to get the picture here? I must have angered the cryptocurrency gods. On top of that, I now faced ridicule from my friends for wasting my time, mining “toy money.”

Yet I knew this was the future of money.

Somewhere, there is a neatly folded piece of paper with all of my Bitcoin information on it.

Lessons learned:

1. Make more than one copy of your information
2. Don’t trust email providers to always be around as an online backup
3. Get a Mac

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Jerrys Kids

I first heard of Steemit last year in the form of @jerrybanfield, the Roger Ver of Steemit. That makes me one of “Jerrys Kids” on this platform. I'd seen snatches of it in the ether-net: "I made $5,000 writing this article" I thought, "Yeah buddy, I'm sure you did" and I forgot about it.

Yet every time I logged into my YouTube account, there he was.

What caught my attention was his very real passion for the Steemit community. Jerry spoke with the sincerity and intensity of someone who "got it" and couldn't wait to share it with the rest of the world. Out of curiosity, I clicked on one of his videos and started getting that same feeling I did when I first heard about Bitcoin. Blogging was just the beginning, I could see so many uses for Steemit. So I watched another video, and another, which brought me home as a pioneer in this young Steem Nation.

When introducing new people to the potential of the Steem ecosystem, what’s needed is a simple "elevator pitch" that will encapsulate exactly what it is. Below are some famous examples of successful pitches:

The iPod: "A thousand songs in your pocket"

Miami Vice: "MTV Cops"

Bitcoin: "The future of digital money"

As soon as you hear one of these, you immediately "get it" that's what's needed when we evangelize Steem power. So I would say, one way to describe Steemit is:

A Crypto-Nation on the Blockchain.

And so much more...

I love to read, and tend to inhale interesting books and articles as if they were a controlled substance. So I’m the guy everyone comes to when they need to know what tech to buy. Which is why I’m grateful to the following awesome people who helped my “arrival” with their very useful content:

@jerrybanfield
@trevonjb
@craig-grant
@samstonehill

If you've read this entire post, I thank you. Please share your opinion on the future of Steemit by leaving a thoughtful comment. What would be your pitch for Steemit? I really believe in the future of this community, and am glad I found a place that values my content. At this point, you have two choices:

Go back to your previous life as if this new world-changing technology never existed.

or

Take this awesome opportunity to "stake your claim to the blockchain" by putting this exciting new engine to work for you.

Join us.