4th of July: One Year of Steem Liberty!

Today marks the one year anniversary of the birth of the live Steem attention economy, which on this day in 2016 made it possible for authors and curators to earn smartcoin rewards, minted freshly from the blockchain daily! Steem rained down on the many and I was fortunate to have been there at the time and today I still remain as a knight for Steem and a beacon for business and employment on the Steem blockchain.

"The goal to strive for is a poor government but a rich people." - James Buchanan (1857–1861)

I'm sure that you have seen all the fuss people make about why social media is bad for you and guess what, they were right ... until Steem was introduced to us, and with the Steem social blockchain experiment becoming ever more popular, we're seeing change in social media behavior and why not! Steem(it) is a game changer!

But if you're still one of those believers that social media is a waste of time, then endulge me for few minutes. I'd love to convey to you some important points, because things have changed! We no longer live with censored social networks! Now we live in a "No Censorship" era (Thanks to Steem)!

This post may be an eye-opener for some and is aimed for that purpose because today, I'm going to give you enough reasons why you should spend your time on Steem, a revolutionary social media blockchain. I'm sure you're going to ask "Why I should believe in social media". So, to answer your question, I've gathered a few important reasons so that I could convert your "Why?" to "Yes!".

Reason # 1: Time Is Money. Turn Your Time Into Money With Steem(it)!

Image Credits: Zastavki

Actually, those people who are not believers of "Social Media" often quote that "time is money" to back-up their claim that social media is just a waste of time. Well, I couldn't agree more with them until Steem(it) was introduced to me.

It is true that time is money, and social media sites like Facebook care more about themselves rather than their users. They make enough money, want to take away everything and only enrich themselves. Our revolutionary new platform ,Steem, creates a solution for almost every social media concern you had.

You can normally post on Steem or it's many frontends, like you used to do on Facebook and tada! you throw yourself into a huge opportunity of making a liveable wage or adhoc earnings from your daily rants and shares of information. The only thing that matters is "Honesty". If you're honest, you'll put your hard-work, and when hard-work is smart enough, you'll be rewarded!

If you do not have good writing skills, then worry not! We run exclusive Steemit contests in projects like @steemsports. More contests like logo contests are arranged by @officialfuzzy and what is more? if you think you have great mind and love riddles then there comes the top crypto challenge by @timsaid.

Great enough, but there is more, you can even earn by curating (upvoting) the content that you like, curators earn a share of 25% of the post value they voted on!

Reason # 2: When You Raise Your Voice, Your Voice Matters!

Image Credits: Uapminovasi

We often read on news channels how crimes are becoming an everyday thing, but there are always some precautions and tips you want to give to the world! How you'd achieve that? The only answer is, Social Media. Now suppose if you don't have a large friends list on Facebook or you don't have enough followers on Twitter, what would you do?

Here comes the answer, Steem(it)! Actually, the great part is, seasoned curators and curation projects dig for such useful posts and do their best to increase the exposure of your voice as much as possible. or if you want to raise awareness regarding some general (but useful) things then choosing "Steem(it)" is a no-brainer because you'd not only get exposure but also smartcoin rewards which in my opinion as currently a highly undervalued asset class! ;)

Reason # 3: Co-operation In Times Of Huge Needs!

Image Credits: HHS

It's great to be a part of the generous community which helps people in their times of need. Do you think social media sites like Facebook and Twitter could help you achieve that? You might get several likes and shares but no real help (except if you are crowd-funding through gofundme and people could donate little).

One of our community members went through some serious hardship, he lost his house when it was burnt down. His friend came to Steem(it) and informed them about the situation of our fellow Steemian, and guess what? The Steem community helped him with a solid amount of 3,480 SBD (almost 5,500 USD or more according to the exchange rate of that time).

Another hard-working blogger who faced some serious health troubles posted his story with all necessary information and asked help from Steem community and well, the community helped him as much as it could.

Some of the top generous contributors were @thejohalfiles @recursive @ausbitbank @trafalgar and many others who upvoted his post to give it more exposure and let us not forget the generous donation of 1,000 STEEM by @papa-pepper. Pepper's generosity and spirit to help others are worthy of mentioning, and it makes him "The Great Example" for all of us.

"A friend in need is a friend indeed"

Final Words:

There are dozens of other reasons why Steemit.com and other Steem blockchain front-ends such busy.org is superior to other social media sites. Freedom of speech is one of the greatest reasons,

You should however note that "Steemit is not a get-rich-quick scheme". You shouldn't expect to make a fortune out of Steem immediately. You'll have to earn the respect, reputation and become a real part of the community and let them see you shine and have reasons to support you, just as you support them. Every person has unique skills, you are unique show your value to the community and let the community show you value in return.

Happy one year of Steeming!

God Bless

Ricardo Goncalves @thecryptodrive
Steem serial entrepreneur, @minnowbooster co-founder, @steemsports founder, Peerplays Witness, @steemvoter co-owner and top Steem witness.