I have become a Steemit Advocate.
When I talk to someone who is unfamiliar with cryptocurrencies about Steemit, they often make a joke to allude to the fact that it isn’t real money.
There is a lot of work to do in bridging the gap between the public and us Steemit Crazies. When Steem Gift Cards (by @xtrodinarypilot) came out, I was super excited. To me this alleviates the learning curve pressures (and let’s be honest, it’s a steep learning curve those first few weeks) of the cryptocurrency newcomer to Steemit. This includes familiarizing oneself with exchanges, exchange rates, attaching a bank account to the exchange, and so much more. Personally I see this as a major road block to many people initially trusting and staying on Steemit. Myself, I’ve always had a hidden geek that is very happy to come out to play on the Steemit Playground. It has been fun.
Now, with Steem Gift Cards, we can essentially use liquid Steem and Steem Backed Dollars (SBD) to get Visa Cards for basically the same amount of interest/fees as any exchange. This eliminates the offputting, to many, process of taking it through multiple exchanges to get it out – Bittrex to Coinbase for example and having to exchange SBD for BTC to LTC (to avoid the transfer feeds of BTC), to Coinbase, to the bank (with an extraction fee taken out each step of the way).
In the following paragraphs, I’m going to talk about my experience using Steem Gift Cards and how I made my first purchase using Steem to buy Plants (some rare and unusual, but very useful!) for my gardens and food forests!
I started with a $50 gift card as I wanted to make sure the site was trustworthy before I purchased a larger one. I will say after this experience, I would go bigger - probably getting the $500 gift card as the fees are the same so taking out more money makes more sense. The fees ate up a percentage of the money (but again, this is about the same rates you're going to pay if you go through exchanges and multiple cryptos!).
My Experience with Steem Gift Cards
First, let me just say I just love how transparent everything is on the blockchain:
Purchase:
Pros
- Fast, Clear Service Online.
- Ryan @xtrodinarypilot has great communication and was very kind!
- Easier than going through exchanges and about the same rate.
- A direct way to take Steem out of Steemit! (This is a huge incentive for people who aren't computer literate to start generating Steem!)
- Offered to ship out a card of equal value after I learned the custom cards the cards go through take 7-10 days. I thought this was really generous and awesome. He says this has been an overwhelming request.
- Wide offering of cards (Best Buy, Amazon, ITunes, the list goes on) - great option for people who use these services or want to give them as gifts.
- He threw in a Steemit window decal! (Thanks!)
Cons
- Inititally I wasn't sure how long the wait would be. As mentioned above Ryan offered to ship me a card of equal value so I wouldn't have to wait the 7-10 days that one normally has to wait. There is now a disclaimer on the website stating this. I think it's really generous of Ryan to do this.
- Fees are just part of the game so far with trading cryptos into fiat and Steem Gift Cards isn't taking a cut, but just taking out the fees it costs to trade Steem into USD. This isn't really a Con of the card, just par for the course in exchanging cryptos for fiat.
I consider this experience a complete success and I'm so thankful Ryan took the time to create Steem.Cards!
And Now Onto The Plants!!
An interesting parallel just came to mind... I am powering up much of my earnings through Steemit. This is actually the first time I have taken money out of the cryptosphere (I have used some earnings to buy Alt coins) and purchased something with it. Many people think cryptos aren’t trustworthy and it is true that there is great risk. I’m not taking much of my earnings out because I believe Steem and SBD will only gain in value over the next couple years. What is now worth $100 could easily be worth $10000 in 2 years time. So this takes time.
It isn’t any different in that way from planting
asparagus, tubers, trees and shrubs on the homestead!!
(source)
On the homestead everything takes time to grow and bare a significant amount of fruit. I thought it was humorous to buy something that also takes time with something like Steem which is a long term investment.
Here are some of the plants (along with asparagus)
I bought with my gift card!
All Product photos are from the Oiko's Website.
I like that having it in card form would show people that you are actually buying stuff with your supposedly fake money haha. And how you compare time for growth between steem and plants xD Excellent
exactly! haha people like to touch something- especially if it says Visa on it (I guess we trust Visa collectively LOL)!! Yeah the parallel just popped out. They're both my investments ;)
I've been considering a Visa Bitpay card - have you looked into/ heard anything about those?? On a side note, I love seeing people buy stuff with this "fake monopoly money" ;)
haha! ;) me too! Ini kept wanting to take some money out cuz I think he was having a hard time "believing in it" too... to me, it's all the same as the magical Visa card that "carries your money on it too" lol... except cryptos, as we're seeing in this massive blood bath, can really decrease in value quite quickly. Haven't heard of the Visa Bitpay card- i'll research it. If you get one, perhaps make a post? XO
ooooh just a quick google and i'm intrigued!! thanks for the heads up.. This looks super-fast and efficient!
Steem gift card? Thats good! Can we get it here in Nigeria?
not sure! you'll have to peruse the website to find out. I know there are some currencies available other than the USD.
Very cool. Starting to see more real life uses of Crypto.
Yes indeed! the gap is bridging :)
Thank you for the review @mountainjewel!! A goal of mine is to be able to do as you just showed and purchase things for the farm from earnings from steemit!!👍
you're welcome @hopfarmnc :) Yes! glad it could be helpful! <3
I was very curious about the gift cards. Thank you for taking the time to try it and post about it. I will give it a try. Thanks for being the test subject;)
:) hehe no problemo! I was super curious too and wanted to be able to tell my doubtful friends of this easy option should they join ;)
Exciting yes! I'm fairly new to crypto and 2 weeks in to steemit, it's great to hear about this card and that if we invest more into steem we can still easily use it. And great choice on the first purchases!
Yes I was quite happy about the card too! Thank you - doubly excited about the new genetics :D
I am excited to buy plants with STEEM as well! The price drop right now is lame though haha because I can't get nearly as many or as much food as I would like. :P Thanks for the article, I feel like I might just try the Steem Gift Cards soon!
Though, I think I remember them not being in Canadian $ yet.
I know! I am glad i bought it a week and a half ago like it did because it has dropped considerably since then!! I read something today too that said that the price of SBD may not spike like it had been doing because they've printed more of it to keep up with inflated steem. So alas!
yeah oh well for me haha. I gotta figure out something else for income at this point, though it sure was a wonderful way to work this winter!
it's encouraging to see people giving real-life examples of what you're doing with this $$$ - also what an AWESOME collection of plants! i've never heard of some of these!!!
This post made my day! Thanks for the info, I look forward to the day I can buy plants with my “fake” money.
Oh I'm so happy to hear that @toddcurry, thank you for saying so and for stopping by. Yes you can certainly buy plants with your "fake" money LOL :)
Very exciting, I never knew about the whole steem card until now and there are some weird and wonderful species of plants you have got there.
I must admit there was only a couple I had previously heard of.
Fresh Asparagus is amazing fresh from the ground! ENJOY :-)
Thank you! I'm in love with unusual plants with purpose from around the world. Yes loooove asparagus! Dinosaur food my mom always called it, and ever since then- love it!
Dinosaur food for sure :-)
interesting blogs and posting follow now
Great informative post! Nice to learn about the gift cards, great to know they exist and yeh , linking the words visa and Steem is awesome phycological advertisment!
thanks! glad you found it helpful and informative. Yes it really is! We need those associations to normalize it for the disbelievers ;) lol
I was trying to convince a friend to join steemit, I think she would do well here. When I asked her what she thought of cryptocurrencies she said she thought they would die soon and didn't understand how you could make currency from nothing. Ha ha! I asked her where she thought the value of paper money came from. She didn't have much to say after that. Now onto the cool stuff you bought... what zone are the mountain yams? Sunchokes = yum! Love the post -Aimee
Haha! Yes so now you can tell her about the card and how you can buy real things, even things for the garden, with the mystery currency :)
Chinese Mountain Yams:
Hardiness:
-20
Height (ft):
20
Width (ft):
1
Soil:
Grows best in sandy loam or clay loam soils where roots are not impeded by rocks.
Climate:
Zone 5ish-9. Not particular.
Thanks!
I had not heard of these. That is great news. I can get one and use it to pay for the postage to mail out seed packets. Have one for my use and one for Sotall's use. Sounds like a plan to me.
And I love your choices on seeds. I would love to try them all, but I'm afraid they may be too high in carbs for me. Let us know which you prefer. Even if I can't eat them, I would probably grow some of them as survival food sources.
Yes exactly! It really frees up a lot for all of us in exchanging our earnings here for USD. I will keep everyone updated on how we like these different tubers. I may be off, but aren't sunchokes (jerusalem artichokes) low in carbs? I know theyre great for diabetics. Yes to survival food! Really it is likely more food for us to grow potatoes, but these are foods that we don't need to plant each year. I want some large stashes of all of them and to spread them all throughout the understories of our food forests. A little food here, a little food there.... All comes together to make great meals :D
You know, I forgot their carbohydrates are supposed to be inert. I just looked and the glycemic index is 11, which is great! I will still need to do some research because I recently switch to the Keto Diet. Your total carb count for the entire day after subtracting fiber is only 25 grams. 1 cup of sunchokes is 26 grams of carb. Will they affect the diet since they are inert? I'll have to check that out.
hmm great questions! look forward to hearing the results you come up with. Good luck on your Keto Diet :) If i come across any awesome food crops that are low in carbs, I'll send them your way.
I'd appreciate it. Low carb foods are hard to find, almost everything contains some carbs.
I research sunchokes more this morning. The carbs in the are from Inulin, a non-reactive form of starch. Your body doesn't process it like it would most other foods. Knowing that, it just might work.
I occasionally use inulin in a morning shake. It actually allows me to eat a little more fruit without sending the blood sugar sky high.
HOWEVER! (Isn't there always a however.) Inulin, in large quanities, if you are not use to it can cause some fairly major gastric upset. (bloating, gas, diarrhea) and it can be fairly severe. My first time trying it I used 10 grams instead of the recommended 5 grams and paid for it for over 2 days.
But, chances are I can use it on the Keto diet. The people saying no are saying it based 100% on the "its too many carbs theory", people saying yes are the ones who have actually tried it.
I think it is worth a try. Thank you for reminding me about it. It had totally slipped my mind.
What a journey trying to eat so few carbs. Been thinking about other low carb foods that are filling, but cant think of many. I know using herbs like cinnamon help regulate blood sugar but levels, and prickly pear. What comes to mind Is seeds. Sunflower, sesame, pumpkin. Flax is another food I love, low carbs, Hugh fiber and lots of omega 3. The only experiencial knowledge I have is that I would offer is that when I ate a lot of sunchoke I had lots of gas, but when I lactofermented them I couldn't eat huge quantities without gaseous reprecussions. Perhaps the bacterial breakdown of inulin could be he cause. Best of luck with finding solutions to low carb foods.
My husband has been talking to me about using our Monopoly money to get gift cards to Home Depot and get our interior doors on this spring! It's been nearly 3 years since we've had doors, and though we're a very open and connected family, this Mama is really looking forward to using the potty without all 4 kids barging in for some reason or another! 😂
Also, we've been talking of planting Tigernuts, or what you called Tiger Almonds. We've been eating them as a snack and baking with the flour for over a year now and just love them. The best part is that my daughter with allergies loves them and the tigernut substitutes well in baking. In fact it makes a delicious 'graham' cracker too. Anyway, just wondering have you grown them before?
Haha! I would love to read the post about you all using your Monopoly $$ to put doors so you can pee in private. So good!!
Yes tigernuts, that's what i call them too, but I guess Oikos calls them Tiger Almonds. Never grown them and only eaten them once, but I couldn't pass up trying to grow them! I'll keep y'all updated on how it is. They sound delicious the way you use them :D
Ooh ooh ooh! I so want to do this! Thanks for a great article and an amazing resource of interesting new edibles for our future smallholding. Now I just have to find out how to save this for future reference.
yay!! glad to provide some inspiration! love too to share some cool plants... i love steemit! one way to save is to "resteem" so it is on your page. i do that sometimes to posts i want to come back to. if you get on the steem blockchain through busy.org, you can actually just bookmark stuff, too.
Cool thanks for the heads up. We are hoping to setup our bubble in the mountains. Going to start with regular veg but really want to try more ,"exotic" plants as well. Really enjoyed your piece on biochar btw. How do you make it?
Very cool hope it goes well with planting your new crops they sound very interesting! Hopefully steemcards works in UK sometime soon it's a great idea :-)
So my bf is a huge crypto person and is always telling me about how things work, I’ll admit a lot of it is confusing but you GOT ME with the line about asparagus and sunchokes. My inner Pacific Northwester got the best of me and I read the whole article! Awesome and really good explanation.
hahah! so happy to hear there was an opening there for you :D that's what awesome plants do best! haha thanks! glad to hear it was helpful.
There’s an in for everyone, right? XD