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So I recently stumbled upon this post "Are You An End-User That Wasn't Into Crypto Prior To Steem?" from @whatsup hours ago, and I would just like to somewhat pitch in my honest answers on the questions he provided in the above post. :)

1. When did you join?

My Steem account was created on December 28 2017 (2-3 days after I registered an account) but started to get 'really active' second week of January 2018.

2. How did you hear about Steem?

It was after a friend of mine encouraged me to check out Bitcoin (and invest on it). Back then, Bitcoin's value was increasing so fast and I was honestly almost tempted to invest real money on it.

Fortunately the little skeptic on me stopped me from doing that. Since I know little-to-none about how cryptocurrencies work, the first thing I did was to consult my good old buddy Mr. G to find me a way to earn FREE bitcoin online (since I don't really like putting money to things I don't fully understand).

And so I was thrown into the world of btc faucets, ads, gambling and even a somewhat pokemon based website game that rewards you some btc for leveling up and trading your pokemons until I stumbled on a site called Earncrypto.com which has a "Data Entry" job that rewards you some crypto for a job well done. (I'm a fast typer so this is honestly the much much better option than the ones above and yeah quite sadly that's how I spent my 2017 Christmas break lol)

I totally forgot what the minimum amount required by them back then for cash-outs but I was able to cash out in just 2 days. The problem though was on my second cash-out (which I never got until today) it made me consult my good old friend Mr. Google again if there are other users experiencing the same issue as me. It was then that I stumbled upon Steem after one of the search results pointed me to a blog post published on Steemit.com.

It was only a 'mediocre post' but I was quite surprised to see a $2+ text at the bottom of the post. (Back then I still don't know how the rewards work in here so I just assumed it was $2 USD) So I thought to myself, heyyy I can write better than this guy so maybe I could earn $2+ per post too and so I immediately registered an account. (Only to be disappointed days after Lol)

3. Why did you join? (What was the attraction?)

See answer above. But the main attraction really was the possibility to earn extra money just by sharing your thoughts, opinions and interests. XD

4. Have you expanded your crypto life beyond just Steem.

Nope! A year after and the only crypto that I have hodl or had used are still Bitcoin, Steem and SBD. I do have a WLS account to which I also visit once or twice a week but about 90%+ of my crypto life is still devoted to Steem.

5. How would you explain your current interest in Steem and Crypto in general?

In all honesty, my interest in crypto and Steem is starting to fade. I am now even starting to lose interest in the Steem platform.

When I first came in here I really thought that this platform has the potential to replace the current social media platform. A platform where users can earn some extra money just by liking (upvoting) and publishing some random contents.

I can still remember the excitement I felt back then. Being on a platform that has the potential to go big and be one of it's first users. The price was already starting to decrease at that point but what made me really believe that Steem will survive all that was the fact that almost every month a new platform/dapp emerges. The value was decreasing but there was a clear sign of progress.

Or so I've thought. Unfortunately when Steem drop to below $2, so as the clear sign of progress. The visible sign of progress was replaced by "promised words of development". XD

Kinda like: HEY!! We have a new exciting project going on and we need your help. Delegate some Steem Power to us and earn some benefits in return yada yada yada. :)

Correct me if I'm wrong here, but back then people have the decency to present a working product/service first before they can confidently face the Steem community and request for delegation and support unlike today where-in most of them don't even have solid plans to begin with and are already asking for support and delegation. (Well in their defense it's probably hard to get a great idea started without funding and money first? But I still do think that their should be a solid plan to begin with and a clear roadpmap but hey I don't have any experience on this things so don't mind me xD)

6. Are you holding or investing (no judgment here, I am just wanting to prove or disprove the value)

Hodling! Not because I don't have money to invest (although that is also somewhat true lol) but mostly because the excitement I felt back then is now starting to fade.

While I still believe that Steem has the potential to go big, the problem lies on it's users. Greediness is obviously all over the place. Some here even masked their greediness by seemingly doing something noble like doing 'small' giveaways (like Steem Monster common card giveaways with a huge bidbot usage for example) or 'small SP delegations' (like 20SP something) and then bidbot those posts up to trending. While some are just blatantly trying to abuse the system with all the self upvotes and circle-jerking. :)

I'm aware that it's their stake and they can do everything they want with it (and it does help some people and it does need some visibility) but I don't know, it just feels wrong and honestly very discouraging coming from users with a high-reputation in the community. That or I'm probably just jealous on their earnings or whatever :)

Anyway, I managed to build my SP to now close to 2000SP without spending real money on it and I will continue to do the same in the days to come. My interest in the platform might have gone down a little bit but I'm still not considering any power-downs and will still continue to build my power and influence by posting things I am honestly interested on.

I think one way to attract normies to the platform is to stop talking less about Steem and crypto and focus on things that outside people might be interested to. At the moment, most of my posts are just about my Ragnarok Mobile journey and 2 people in the game have already contacted me in-game asking what Steemit was about after they stumbled upon my post. So yeah we might have 2 new leechers in the platform lol jk