Milestone: 3300 Hive Power & Why My Account Has Grown So Slowly

almost 3 years ago (Edited)

One of my favorite features of @peakd is the analytical tools they offer. I recently hit a milestone of 3000 (3300 now) native HP. I used the site's "Account Growth" chart under the Tools menu to see how my account has grown since the start of the year. I had to hit "Load more data a few times, but I eventually got it to show all the way to January. It's nice to see that big upwards slope.

It might not seem like a lot to many of you, but for me it is quite a bit. Having a four year history on this blockchain, you would think I would have a lot more Hive Power, especially considering the fact that I have never sold any hive (with the exception of hive engine). However, there were two big things holding me back.

The first thing holding me back is a weird propensity and habit of mine to become absent from the chain for very long periods of time. I'm not sure why I do this, but it probably has to do with my pattern for poetry writing, which was my main purpose for posting here for a long time. I can go from writing a poem every two days to not writing at all for two years. So this would obviously lead me to be less interactive. When you're not active on the chain, people understandably start to forget about you. That leads to a break in momentum which affects rewards.

You see, for much of my time here, I never really thought of this as spendable money. I saw it more as a social currency. So I wanted to earn that social currency by putting out good content. I never wanted to be greedy. I watched many churn out post after post, maintaining great consistency and never missing an opportunity to earn more hive. I never considered that to be an option for me. I knew I couldn't put out quality content at that pace. So my account grew steadily but at a slow pace.... as long as I was in an active period. When I wasn't active, it became dormant.

The other reason for my overall slow account growth is FEAR. Specifically, my fear of KYC had a big impact on my account growth. There were a lot of times that I wanted to invest, but didn't because I couldn't find a way to turn my fiat into hive. I made a few OTC trades with some friends from @thealliance, but I didn't want to keep trying to do that. It's not that I am super private, but I don't like the idea of being tracked down by groups because I have somewhat different views. Then this last bull run hit. Eventually, I saw the gains made in crypto to be too great to just sit on the sidelines and wait for something more anonymous. So I made it official and verified myself with an exchange. :( I wasn't too happy about it, but it allows me to buy the dips and to build my account better.

My goal is to become a dolphin in another year. I have about 1700 HP left to do that. This creates a bit of a conflict for me because I can do that quicker if the price of hive remains low. Otherwise, it will take me longer. Whatever happens, I'll be happy, and I'll still spread the word of this awesome blockchain.