_{Image credit goes to lovely @soyrosa}

Since today is officially Steem Power Up Day and lot of users across the globe are talking about it, I want to add my 2 cents to the story.

When I just came on this blockchain, I was ignorant to the wide spectrum of possibilities it posses and I simply didn't recognize them fast...

I was one of those guys who thought its better just to put money in Bitconnect and collect that daily interest.

Little did I know, that you can earn identical interest (even better) on STEEM all while playing with much better crypto, crypto that deserves a spot in Top 3 on CMC.

Why do I think so?

In my humble opinion, STEEM blockchain has the potential to impact lives of many.

It has great potential for any business to tokenize its service and slowly build community through rewarding certain types of behavior.

At the same time. STEEM is great for an alternative writer like me, it is an immutable blockchain where everything you write gets stored indefinitely and can't be censored.

You might say I'm wrong, since Stinc did censor a group off the platform, but Stinc is not STEEM and there are many other amazing interfaces to reach such as: @busy.org @partiko @steempeak @esteemapp ; just to name a few...

When I just came in this vast space of everything, I simply didn't know how to act.

All I thought was to game the system in some kind of way, write a flashy shitpost with referral link that will bring me fortune overnight - I thought. Oh, how wrong was I!

First time when @cheetah visited me I realized this is not that type of place.

Eventually as I powered up some STEEM and started putting more effort in my content... I slowly realized there is no easy way to earn crypto, not a single one

Top quality content can get $0 in rewards if the author is not well established on the platform and not putting time into managing his network of people.

So yeah, a great advice for anyone serious about this place would be - build that network!

Obviously, that's not an easy task and you won't succeed at it with Follow me I'll follow you pattern.

Completely contrary, as there is lot of intelligent people here, in order to connect - you'll have to approach things in a serious and meaningful way.

When you think about it, why would someone share their money with you if you are not dedicated? I think you get the answer. And even if you are dedicated, why would someone share his money if you aren't bringing value in his eyes?

Try to observe the platform for some time and realize what kind of content is bringing value in eyes of the stakeholders. It's not really a hard thing to do, but will take you some time researching and getting to know things here.

My best advice would be (even thou this is not financial advice), buy some STEEM while its this low!

When I got here price was well above $1, at some point of time it even climbed to $8, so all year long I was buying STEEM even at price of $4

If you look at it that way, $0.35 is fucking amazing price for a piece of this precious crypto.

You may ask why I say precious? Simply, cause there is no other blockchain in the world atm that is offering similar opportunities!

So, Why To Power Up?

• You'll have more votes to cast, comments to post and in general - any kind of activity on chain will be easier to perform for you. As you get more STEEM, you'll even be able to burn your RCs (resource credits) and create an instant STEEM account (for that special person you wanna bring)

• Your voting power will significantly increase, allowing you to earn more through curating other creators or simply earn more by self-voting your posts/comments (many walked this path)

• You'll attain more STEEM power to delegate to random communities and developers, for example if you delegate to @wherein , they upvote you daily with 10x amount VP of your delegation, and as well they give you back rewards they earned by curating with your SP. On the other hand, if you delegate to @actifit for example (an app that tracks your activity), you'll earn a portion of their tokens daily and some STEEM on a weekly basis.

Why exactly is this awesome? There are so many projects on STEEM it is hard to count them, some achieved remarkable success already through IEO (like @steemhunt) and if you manage to get in early, you'll definitely make your future life much more easier by doing that smart investing!

Never forget, it's always better to power up STEEM than go out and buy worthless alcohol!

(if you really want to be alcoholic, you'll have plenty of opportunities when STEEM moons...)

• Other users will take you more seriously if you have more SP, obviously, since they put their time and money in the platform. It is completely normal that someone with 5000 SP and someone with 15 SP won't get the same recognition! You might say, well that's a bit shallow etc. but its not, it's just how the system works!

• More SP equals to more impact. You can observe that easily by looking at some individuals with bit more SP in their pockets like @theycallmedan @jamesc @singhcapital etc.

They single handed support hundreds of authors on a daily basis and influence this chain in invisible ways we can't even imagine. It is a clear indicator how just few people with power can make a huge difference through noble acting!

Obviously, that will result in stronger STEEM in the end and everyone will be happy, that's something some whales can't understand at this point. :)

• You'll earn more SP through inflation rewards. If you have at least few hundred Steem in your pocket, you might realized how that number is slowly changing, something always adds up.

That is because, STEEM's current inflation rate is 9.5% while 2% goes to SP holders.

Basically, if you just hodl your STEEM as SP you'll get 2% annual percentage rate, how crazy is that?

If you decide to take a step further and maybe delegate all to a certain bid bot, you can get to unbelievable number as high as 30% ROI in a year!

These are some unseen in the system numbers which make STEEM a trendsetter and as well a heaven for open-minded investors!

Why not become one of them, what is holding you back?

In general, the more SP you have more SP you will earn!

That's about it. Now consider you are earning crypto in form of STEEM, one of a kind chain that's allowing you to earn based on #proofofbrain

That's what makes this place special. The ways in which you can earn are hard to comprehend... You can literally take a picture of your socks and if you know how to make a killer post out of it, your socks can feed you food that day!

Basically, this is Social Media completely contrary to Facebook where everyone profits of your time and information except you.

On STEEM, you can monetize your time and skills in ways unseen before and that's why this place is one of a kind!

Moreover, that is the reason why I support this SPUD movement one hundred percent!

As well I will Power Up a bit to show I'm serious about this!

The state of my wallet at this very moment:

Getting ready to power it up... I do wait for a good entry to Bitcoin, so I can buy much more STEEM preferably soon and power up more!

The thing is, many say entrance point is great right now but I somehow feel the price needs to correct 1 more time before it shoots for the heights again!

This is just my belief so don't take me serious, always follow your instincts!

And boom! That's it. More of that precious STEEM in my wallet that will eventually help me to free my false self from the rotten monetary system! Lol

Here is my wallet after the power up:

2550 SP more to reach that beautiful 10 000 mark! Of course that's not my end goal, just short term one.

Now do the math, if all the biggest stakeholders would sell all their STEEM in years to come, no more than 30 000 people would be able to obtain more than 10 000 STEEM! How crazy is that, do you see the connections?

If you just arrived here by some accident, on this chain, know that this is something big. You are part of something big, something revolutionary and not a single one of us can precisely foresee where this is going...

Only thing I can predict thou is, at least $100 per 1 STEEM until 2025! Who is with me on this?

And what are you waiting for? Power up some STEEM, it will change your life :)