Crypto Gifting and buying Steem
One of the challenges of being a new Steemit user is the lack of Steem power which makes earning money (and also showing appreciation for other people’s posts) very difficult. You are totally reliant on the kindness and generosity of other Steemians out there. One of the obvious solutions to this is to spend some of my own hard-earned money on buying Steem off an exchange and sending this to my wallet.
Birthday Pressie
It was my birthday earlier this week and my very generous brother-in-law who lives far away from me, decided to give me some cryptocurrency for my birthday. I think this is a brilliant idea so was very chuffed when a few minutes later, an amount of Ether arrived in my account. Besides the fact that I now had some Ether in my wallet and this would make anyone happy, I just love the speed, simplicity and affordability of blockchain transactions. Also, the fact that the value of the gift could potentially increase by 20 to 30 % (hopefully not drop) means that it can also be a gift that keeps on giving.
Buying Steem
This brings me to my idea that I would use my gift to buy some Steem on an exchange to hopefully boost my Steem Power and to give myself some more “weight” on the platform. My first port of call is always Coinmarketcap to find the exchange where Steem is the cheapest. I have accounts on most major exchanges and I saw that Poloniex was considerably cheaper. Off I went to Poloniex and had to re-do my verification as I had a “Legacy” account. After all of this, I go to the Steem exchange and I see that the Steem wallet is in maintenance which means that I can buy it, but I will not be able to transfer it off the exchange. Dead end here :(
My next exchange to try was Bittrex as this has always been my go-to exchange from the start. Steem is more expensive here but I have checked, and the wallet is active and working and the price seems to be quite low compared with the past week. Things are looking up for me. Meanwhile my work day ends and, in a hurry to get home to see my family, I figure I will leave the transactions for later when I am home. But wait…what the hell has happened to the price?
I am not sure what caused it but needless to say, I still have the Ether and no Steem yet. Oh well, there is never a good time to rush into a trade. I will try to be patient.
Thanks for reading!
Other Crypto Posts
If you are at all interested in cryptocurrencies, please feel free to read some of my other posts below
Deploying my first full masternode
Stakinglab shared masternodes
Steemit has been one of the best ''investments'' in crypto to date for me. The volitilty is bad. One day my account is worth 10k the next 3.5k.
I have always used Luno to exchange Rands to Steem and SBD. Never had any problems. I don't bother much about the price diff between exchanges as Steem price moves even faster. :)
Welcome to Steemit... glad to have another Saffa onboard.
I hated on Steemit for a long time in the beginning, but hang in there... it gets better.
P.S. Unless you're going to be buying a lot of steem, I'd suggest hanging back until you have 15SP of your own... I made the same mistake of buying 10 STEEM (just to get out of what I called "bandwidth hell"), and all that happened was that I stayed on 15SP (i.e. Steemit has delegated you 15SP for free, and reduces that free delegation every time your own SP (probably at 0.5 at the moment) grows.
I had a chat about it here: https://steemit.com/steemit/@braaiboy/don-t-power-up-you-ll-just-end-up-losing-it-all
Also check out these posts/rants:
... let me know if you would like me to send you some SBD to register with @ginabot
Thank you, I would have totally wasted my money. Appreciate the advice. Thank you for the offer of registration fees, I have managed to register already this morning and i has already made a big difference. Will check your other posts for sure.
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Was a crazy spike yesterday, will have to hang on till everything settles again.
Enjoy putting the ETH to work, hold or use some into smaller crypto to grow, frustrating when things don't happen as we plan, things in life to test our patience.
Welcome to #teamsouthafrica
Welcome to steemit @gholsa. I am a fellow South African and I am all for love and marriage.
Your post reminds me of the time I asked my wife for some steem for my birthday. That was before she joined the crazy crypto world and she thought I was nuts, lol... well, I did ask her for steemit business cards as well and wanted to dress up like a homeless dude, park off at a traffic light with a sign saying steemit.com, @therneau and hand out cards to those that are curious. Hmmm, perhaps I'll still do that sometime or maybe write a post about it :D
My wife has still not joined the world of crypto. No matter how hard I try :)
I guess the turning point for my wife was when I got a few heavy hits and she saw how happy I was just blogging away :) I must admit though, that with both of us blogging now it is time constraining. Anyway, your wife might come around at some point. Perhaps when crypto buys her a yacht ;)
Funnily enough my wife is the one with the gift with words. She is a PR consultant and also writes copy. Just working for herself and managing a household with 2 little kids leaves her with little time for something like this.
Yeah, I know the feeling. We also have two little monsters at home so it can be tough at times. My wife works and studies as well so it is challenging. I think that is the problem most of us face. Time... You try to be consistent but life doesn't always allow that.
Welcome @gholsa.. Also a fellow South African here, wishing all the best here on Steemit.
As Braaiboy mentioned Steemit might feel bad in the beginning, but it gets better, introduce some of your friends our family to Steemit and become part of a community helps to get some eyes on your articles.
It also helps to comment and interact with other people on your posts or on their posts. Something I really need to get into, but sometimes work keeps so busy and I neglect Steemit a bit.
Agreed. Interaction with other users and reading / commenting on posts seems to be the best way forward. I guess its like anything and all about time and effort invested. Just glad to be onboard.
How much do you loose if you use blocktrades.io? Extremly easy way to buy Steem.
I actually need to look into blocktrades.io I have always used exchanges for trades and just feel more comfortable with the order books.
Ok. It is very userfriendly . I pay with ether to it and get steem direct to my steemitaccount.
Definitely going to give it a try. Thanks for the advice.
Hey @minimining @gholsa
I used @blocktrades exclusively in the beginning, until I realised what a total shit exchange rate they give you (if you're comfortable with exchanges then @bittrex is very easy, and even if you're not, there are a few step-by-step tutorials out there).
P.S. Avoid BlockTrades for delegations as well... you'll get a much better deal on @minnowbooster (although it's admittedly a bit of a hit and miss for small delegations and also for very large ones)... on BlockTrades you're guaranteed to get your request fulfilled at least... so I guess they're not all that evil :P
Appreciate the advice @braaiboy
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STOPTo support your work, I also upvoted your post!
Why thank you! :)