A lot of people are living of the blockchain.
Myself included and it's a dream to live of digital tokens that somehow have value :)
But I took a very well calculated decision though before deciding to do this.
So, before you decide to live of the STEEM blockchain and quit your job I can give some advice and tips you should have in place before you take this step. (I'm a person that doesn't like risk. That what this is based on.)
Make sure you can live of whatever your steempower can generate. How much you need I don't know but make sure you have total control over it. Don't rely on votes from others for your income or delegation. If you can't generate what you need by yourself it is too great a risk to live of the blockchain.
If you can generate enough at this moment to live of make sure it is also enough for when the price goes lower. (or use tip 6).
If you need to power down to live of the blockchain you are not ready. If you could live of the blockchain before when prices were high but now find yourself powering down to pay for bills you are in BIG trouble. Start looking for other sources of income if you solely relied on STEEM for an income.
Make sure that your Steempower grows with inflation every year so you can keep generating a similar amount. A.k.a part of your STEEM earnings you must power up. (currently 9.5% a year of what you have in Steempower).
Having other investments in crypto is smart. Don't rely just on STEEM.
Make sure you have a buffer somewhere else outside of crypto.
I talk about it more in my vlog.
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Mark @exyle I am not there yet but I know if you add to your STEEM it is like a Snowball it just gets Bigger and Bigger............
If STEEM's price keep decreasing or steady, one will need more SP to generate similar amount of VP for selfvote and curation. Since more STEEM are powering up everyday and STEEM's inflation rate is decreasing, rewardpool is a getting smaller. One needs more SP to sustain similar earning which is not sustainable.
However, buffer for 6 months income can help since it is long enough for STEEM to up or down 3X. Sell some at high, consume some, and buy some STEEM back when it is down. Its easier to say but hard to implement.
Other income such as Masternodes, crypto-trading, mining can diversify the risk too.
Great information. I am lucky enough to have a decent job that I can do Steemit as something on the side. If I had to rely on this for my sole source of income, I would be screwed. As nice as that would be, I think it is a long way off though. Point 3 is a really good one. I always cringe a little when someone says they are powering down to pay this bill or that one.
I will say that it is a much needed video. Maybe not the most fun video as you say but probably one of the more important ones.
Thanks!
I can tell you are giving advise based on your experience. Even though I don’t rely on steemit when it comes to income, I agree with all your points. Especially the one I copied above. I can see many steemiens struggling now, powering down, mostly those who have been living or have been paying their bills thanks to steemit. I guess they were not ready for that. It’s like a stress test for all of us, this bear market. Only the strongest can survive. I don’t believe the pain is over just yet.
Right now STEEM is a learning process for me, I´m going to study 2 more years (Master degree) and prepare myself for the job market. So STEEM is an investment that if it succeed I'll, at least, pay my next 2 years, if it doesn't succeed I'm already preparing my future improving my knowledge and qualifications.
Obviously everybody dreams with a job that allows us to be free, and working hard like you made it possible for you!
Don't powerdown EVER, that's the best advice, if you have to do it to be able to live from STEEM you shouldn't be living of it. Your safe amount on FIAT is the right move, in 2 years you will be able to find a job in case of failure of STEEM.
Another great post. Thank you my friend. I am thinking about when to make the move to living off the blockchain and you gave me some stuff to ponder.
I know it is not easy and I agree....it is not wise to power down to live off (unless it is unavoidable). SP is precious; like oxygen. Need to protect it.
Excellent video and very nice information too, i agree with your thoughts and depending solo on steem to earn livings is not a wise decision at all cause the earning here is not fixed and not guaranteed, the prices fluctuate every day and it's hard for everyone to generate equal amount of income every day, so we all need to have second authentic source of income ready all the time. thanks for sharing your nice thoughts with us and wish you all the best in all of your future endeavors! Stay blessed
Pretty good tips, i've made some calculations myself and the sweet spots for me to live off Steem @ current prices would be around 8 to 10k SP! Its that low because i don't live in a really expensive country but i'm moving to a better country soon and those numbers are for that country... Those calculations where made considering Steem price to be @ 1.5$ so a little more if we maintain current prices or a little less if we go beyong 1.5$!
Can I ask where you live or going to live? I checked your profile and Second star to the right is not helping :)
What do you mean second star to the right doesn't help!? lol
I'm currently in Venezuela and will be leaving for Peru somewhere between October and November.
I need to earn around 8$ a day to live a decent life in Peru off the blockchain but i'm pretty sure that won't be happening anytime soon and i would probably end up working anyways because i'm going hard at Javascript right now because i want to help out with Steem coding.
and Straight on 'til morning!
I think it could well be possible in the future. But right now it's a little to early days indeed.
I agree maybe 2 years away or even 1 year if i manage to hit a few gold mines here and there or if Steem goes to 100$ :^) We can dream lol
We only need a slight boost to fuel so much growth. Even a tiny 5x rise would create massive difference for people.
Great advice. I was living off STEEM for 6 months until the prices reached a low that we haven't seen in a long time. Currently looking for a job due to that but it has been a great lesson and experience while it lasted :)
Really believe in guidelines #1 and #2
Why don't you create a digital job? :D
What did you have in mind? :)
I have tried doing online businesses and some other things but I feel like it's just not me. Living off STEEM for those 6 months was the dream though :)
Good tips! I am trying to find my feet still with blockchain living so I have been powering up everything I earned so far but now I realise I have to diversify so I have powered down so I can take some of that steem and use it in another way... I just haven't figured out how I am going to use it yet lol any tips would be greatly appreciated!
EDIT: I have now watched the video as well as reading your tips and have decided to power up the powered down steem lol I think you are right about trying to generate as much steem as possible and I think I will try to use that to diversify rather than my powered up steem. so many options. Obviously I don't have anywhere near the amount of steem that you have so I won't be able to live off my earnings, but it would be nice to start making a buffer from the generated steem. :) Great video, thank you!
this is more than just advise brother, you captured well like seriously, to live on steem without taken the highlighted point above is like someone sleeping with kerosene lamp place on the edge of someone bed, which, if any flaw should emanate that means trouble has set in.
It is an extremely big issue for a lot of us. You were smart to build that big of of a buffer and have a couple of years you could live off of. That would be ideal but some of us are faced with staying in this space and getting a strong hold and not checking out while others get into better positions to live a life of absolute freedom.
It is a tough thing because suddenly with these swings we can see $50,000 just blow away in the wind and then suddenly one week we feel good and then the next week we are feeling like they payout situation and what everything is worth is so far in the dumps that we are even going to get pressed out.
I agree in general with everything you have said and it seems like you have really set yourself up good. My situation is more of one where I almost have my primary residence paid off so there is light at the end of the tunnel so it is a race of paying it off and not having the crypto become worthless or have to sell out of too much of it.
This kind of advice more down to earth from someone who's actually doing it is really needed. Too many think they struck gold and act as such.
Great advice @exyle. I personally know a couple of people who chucked in their jobs at the end of last year and then really struggled when the price went down.
The are now back working fulltime and trying to clear the debts the accumulated. 😢
Great advice! Hopefully I could live off of 10,000 Steem but who knows. lol
I would add to this, that living of what you earn on Steem, and other cryptocurrencies, and that only, is still a risky life. I have faith in the technology, and believe it will be essential to our lives in the future, but I would always try to have another leg on which I can stand, in case my crypto-leg drops dead (something I do not believe it will).
I like your advices, but I wouldn't sleep well if I based my entire income on the cryptoincome. But, with blogging and vlogging you can also generate income from referral fees, affiliate partnerships, ads etc, so there are still lots of ways to make an income in normal Dollar's as well!
I very much look forward to when affiliate programs pays you in Tokens/Crypto. Dealing with Fiat is too slow and expensive. Look at the Banggood program for example. At least $20 needed and processing fees! This kills innovation and creates massive friction. Business turns slow!
I know, FIAT is slow and expensive. I often pay 10-20USD per transaction that is sent to my bank in Europe (this is just the bank fee for receiving the money), and this goes on month by month. That is, if I receive a transaction of 100 USD, 10-20% disappears in fees. I have even received transactions of 10 Euro, in which I paid more in fee than I received (actually making it a minus project). So yes, FIAT is slow and expensive, but it is still the currency of the world as we know it today!
When everything goes digital things can change real fast. You can already live a 100% crypto life if you are a bit creative. You can order food online. ;)
In addition, what I say is not financial advice and take what I say with a grain of salt.
1-4. All salient points, keep in mind that there are still systemic risks to the crypto ecosystem, especially from potential threats like the closure of the thing that starts with a T and rhymes with Ether.
Cryptos, as we have seen, are a highly correlated, high-risk asset class. Common investing wisdom says you should be invested in a basket of investments that have near 0 or even negative correlation. The investing landscape has changed in recent decades especially this past decade because of Central Bank stimulus and the rise of investment vehicles like ETF's for stocks, making it harder to find uncorrelated equities to invest in.
Real estate is in a bubble in many local markets, especially those that are seen as investment havens by countries where wealth outflows result in cash buys of property, this is many metro areas in the west and elsewhere. CB stimulus may be withdrawn over time (so they claim), and interest rates are going up in most developed economies (or rate hikes are planned).
Historically housing prices have gone the inverse of interest rates, low rates means easy money and lending to purchase residential and commercial real estate (although CRE has been on a straight line up for over a decade). Basically, when interest rates go up, every 1% APR increase diminishes the spending power of potential buyers proportionally to the current APR's available. So when rates go up, housing prices go down. Right now, at least in the US, there are still upper-edge increases in the maximum price buyers are willing to pay in a lot of markets, but the mid and lower ends look weak already.
Of interest is the fact that year over year there have been less of the investor class purchasing homes and a larger percentage of first time home buyers (fueled by things like FHA loans on 3.5% down payments, which is ridiculous in itself), I view first time home buyers as kind of indicative of the "sucker's market" in that they are less financially savvy and more prone to buy due to need (family, job location, etc.) instead of knowledge of proper pricing for the purchase relative to their own projected income and any increases in property value.
Another thing to note is that many private equity firms have been spinning off or selling their single family home divisions they acquired or IPO'd earlier in the cycle.
Precious metals like gold did not fare well the last financial crisis at least price-wise, but they have the possibility of remaining in your hands in a collapse scenario (unless someone grabs them from you by force, which is always a possibility).
Bonds are shaky, especially the junk bonds market. Some corporations in China are already defaulting on their bonds at the highest rates in a decade this year and it appears to be accelerating. I would highly recommend against holding any small to local government sized bonds, as entities of that size are often dependent on factors like home prices for revenue, so you can see where I'm going with that. Even sovereign debt may be suspect, depending on the ability of the given government to finance its debt, think PIGS etc.
In the case of yet another depression which is highly likely at this point I would say it is smart to have excess cash or cash equivalents on hand to invest near market lows, so if you currently have a well-paying job it may not be the best idea to forgo certain income in the present and the ability to build up those reserves right before many investments go on huge discounts.
Both those points are based on scarcity. Crypto is not a high-risk asset class. It's so much superior to stocks or any other asset! It's clearly the safest to invest in. It gives more speed and value in return! This is something 100% of humans on Earth is interested in. Supply and Demand.
It's high-risk in the sense that volatility is higher than any other asset class for now.Maybe if it's seen as a store of value/safety asset when this hits the fan...
https://www.cnbc.com/2018/07/11/global-debt-hits-a-new-record-at-247-trillion.html
yes you are right people leave it at starting
Thanks for these tips.
My dream would be to live off of blockchain, but I don't have enough to deposit myself. I am just farming from posting right now.
Thanks so much for posting a nice dlive-vedio to you
I agree. Patience and not rushing is the key.
oh nice information you given thanks for sharing your opinion i also dont like to take any risk in my business .........
All are gr8 points.
You realize that your plan makes it impossible for anyone to get there from here... Ok, but not encouraging. One SP earned each day grows very slowly.
If you could give us some tips as to how to get to 100k (or more) Steem Power that would be appreciated. You mentioned it took you 9 months to generate 20k SP, so by that definition it should take 45 months to get to 100k SP? Keeping in mind you probably already had a ton of SP by the time you generated those extra 20k SP
Oh great advice! Hope to meet up with you! Should be a lot of fun 😜😊
It's noted!
@exyle,
If you can't generate what you need by yourself it is too great a risk to live of the blockchain.Please can you explain what you mean by this ?
Thanks for sharing these tips!
I plan to keep several income sources but great to know.
I hear about people living off Steem and it blows my mind! How much fun would it be to travel and share experiences as you do so but it seems so scary! haha I guess it also depends on where you live. Some places may be easier than others to get away with it.
And what do you mean by number 4? Sorry... But now I am curious if I could ever made this work in the future! haha
I believe that your Steempower must grow in ratio with the growth of new STEEM created every year. Otherwise your ability to generate STEEM with your Steempower dwindles.
Oh! I see! That makes perfect sense! Thank you!
Some excellent advice once again, @exyle! Living only off Steem is not a good idea and I know lots of people who try to...
Pretty great and free of risks steps once you want to live of a block chain. I am also a person taking no risks so it's is perfect for me. Thanks a lot for this.
diversifying is the great step it moderate the risk steem is good but living life on it is a dream hopefully one day i will too make this a reality :D
Excellent tips. I would like to live of the STEEM blockchain some day, but I know that I'm not ready yet and that I can't rely only on one crypto. Thanks for sharing. Another tip would be being a crypto entrepreneur, not just a simple blogger
Number 7): Make sure you buy a super big amount of Steem when the price dips below $1.
That was very well said, most importantly don't power down
Some very sensible tips in that list. I'm nowhere near ready at this point, but find myself very inspired by your journey. As for other avenues of investment, are there any other platforms you use to mine cryptocurrency in a similar way to Steemit? I have recently signed up to Lit as well and my interest in these avenues is definitely at an all time high.