Just a few days ago, I had my one year anniversary on Steem.
As a celebration, I'm taking a retrospective look into my 1st year on Steem, what I'm planning for my 2nd year and especially what my goals are, as a Steem Witness, Steempreneur and Stakeholder.
Additionally, there is a contest at the end of this post. Contest entries will be rewarded with upvotes and in extraordinary cases with liquid Steem and of course, the 10x1% will still be given out for resteems but the contest is cancelled-
However, 100% of the payouts of this post (-10% resteems) will be given out in another way, more on that in another post.
Post Overview
This post is a bit longer and while every part is important, you might want to read something specific - so here is an overview:
- Part 1: 2017 - 2018
- Goal #1: 100,000+ Stempower
- 15,000 Steempower Delegated to Helpie
- Goal #2: Top 50 Witness
- Goal #3: Become experienced with developing on Steem
- Goal #4: Spread positive energy and knowledge on Steem
- And now?
- Goal #1: 100,000+ Stempower
- Part 2: 2018 - 2019
- Witness 2.0
- Witness Servers
- Wolf the Builder
- More Delegations
- 5000 Steempower for @steem-ua
- What's next?
- Part 3: Contest
- Contest: Topic - Who is @therealwolf?
- Contest: What mediums can you use?
- Contest: Rewards
- Contest: Guidelines
Part 1: 2017 - 2018
This last year was by far one of the most amazing but also stressful years in my life.
At the end of December '17, I made one of the most important and risky decisions.
I decided to quit my day job and instead focus completely on Steem. Relying on what my amazing girlfriend, @artbunny, and I had in our savings.
My primary goal, which is still true to this day, was to build a financial independence for my family and myself.
For this, I've worked day and night (I know it sounds cheesy, but that's the truth) to build my own business/startup on the blockchain, to become an experienced and trustworthy witness and all around helpful Steemian.
And while I haven't cashed out any of my revenues (< 1%), I think I can proudly say that I've achieved the goals I've set for myself for my 1st year on STEEM.
- 100,000+ Stempower ✔
- TOP 50 Witness ✔
- Become experienced with developing on Steem ✔
- Spread positive energy and knowledge on Steem ✔
Now, I'm not writing this to brag about my achievements, but to give you an insight into what I've done the last year and more importantly why I've done this.
Goal #1: 100,000+ Stempower
The most important goal for me in this first year was to achieve influence in form of Steempower so that I can shape the platform I'm so heavily invested in. (and I don't mean stake here)
I started out on Steem as a complete plankton and I had no influence whatsoever, which was not a great place to be in.
But don't get me wrong, everyone's voice is important no matter how small the wallet-size might be, but if you want to support projects, communities or even Steemians on Steem e.g. by having a say how rewards are being distributed, then Steempower is extremely important. (Utopian, Dlive, Dtube etc. wouldn't be there, where they are today, without the amazing delegations from stakeholders)
Or even to start your own projects - it helps a tremendous amount having at least a good amount of Steempower to bootstrap it.
Now, since my ultimate Steempower goal is not yet achieved, I'm holding most of my Steempower myself - without delegating it away, so it can grow. And before you might think I'm egoistic, keep in mind that if I don't have anything, I can't give anything.
And if I wouldn't have prioritised earning Steempower, then I couldn't have done this...
15,000 Steempower Delegated to Helpie
While doing my first ever livestream on Steem, I surprised the Helpie community with a delegation of 15,000 Steempower.
If you want, you can watch the recording of the livestream - the delegation announcement is near the end, at 2:02:55.
Helpie is a community with a lot of amazing and valuable Steemians, which has been under the radar for far too long.
And it's very important for Helpie to have a solid amount of Steempower that can be used to curate its members.
Which brings me back to my point:
By achieving my Steempower goal, I am able to support great initiatives like Helpie.
Goal #2: Top 50 Witness
One of the most logical decisions I've made the last year was it to become a Witness.
For me, being so invested in this platform, the decision to secure the network, work for the platform and earn some STEEM along the way was crystal clear.
While the most important Witnesses are the TOP 20/21, as the rest are Backup-Witnesses, becoming even a TOP 50 Witness is not an easy task. It requires a lot of stakeholders voting for you.
But after roughly 2 months, with a bit of luck, I earned many votes including one very big stakeholder, which catapulted me into the TOP 50.
And ever since I became a Witness, my knowledge and experience have been increased exponentially.
From handling server crashes & missed blocks, setting up servers over and over again, staying up until late in the night due to Steem exploits, waking up in the morning and updating the servers for an emergency update, developing Witness-Tools like failover-scripts, price feeds and remote-controls; I feel like a completely different Witness after these months.
And my ranking reflects that - currently standing at rank #32.
But more on that later in the 2018 - 2019 section.
Goal #3: Become experienced with developing on Steem
Besides building and developing my startup Smartsteem.com, that connects investors, stakeholders & Steemians with other Steemians wanting to promote their content, which taught me a lot about developing on Steem; I've also put my heart, soul and sweat into open-source projects.
Steem Chat-Wallet: A light wallet for Steem with a chat interface that makes it super easy & secure to send transfers.
Witness Essentials: Essential tools & scripts for Steem Witnesses. (Watcher, Failover, Notifications, Remote Control, Pricefeed)
Utopian.io Signup: Signup (frontend & backend) for Utopian.io to create new accounts.
Being active in such a diverse number of projects and even being rewarded for the work I'm doing, is exactly the reason why I'm so fascinated about Steem.
Goal #4: Spread positive energy and knowledge on Steem
Behind this Avatar and account, there is a human and as we're all humans, we all have our strength and weaknesses.
And this is especially visible and even feelable at times like these. The price of Steem is down, many have been waiting months for SMTs & HF20 and all of that has reflected itself in the activity on Steem.
One of my biggest personal goals was it to spread positive energy and knowledge on Steem. Explaining difficult topics in an easy way and also up-lifting people.
Whether this is about the coming Hardfork 20: Simply Explained: HF20.
Or about thinking long term and not being affected by the price of Steem: The Power of Positivity: Thinking Longterm
Or about Steem & Steemit related knowledge: 504 Gateway Error on Steemit.com? Use Steemitstage.com!.
For me, this is also an important task of a Witness - at least the kind I'm thriving to become. Sharing knowledge and empowering other users with positivity.
And now?
As I wrote in the beginning, this last year was very stressful, but amazing nonetheless.
Most importantly, I've learned a lot and I'm very sure that the coming year will be as much or maybe even more knowledgeable.
And actually, the new year has already started for me.
Part 2: 2018 - 2019
I personally believe in doing things first and then talking about it, instead of promising something which might not see the reality.
That's why I decided to write about my goals after I achieved them.
Nevertheless, expressing one's own intentions is obviously important.
Now, the goals I have for this year are very similar to the last year, only the priority is a bit different.
The top priority for this year goes towards my Witness.
And I've already made sure to do exactly that.
Witness 2.0
As I became more experienced as a Witness, I realised where my weaknesses were.
The most important task for every Witness is to make sure that the witness nodes are secure and decentralised. If a majority of Witnesses are not doing that, the whole blockchain is in danger.
What do I mean with that specifically?
Using only one provider is dangerous.
Last year, my primary provider was @privex who are doing an amazing service, but relying on one provider, even if the servers are in different data centers in different countries - it's still dangerous.
Now, I have no intentions of not using privacy, but diversification is key here.
That's why I've rented a brand new server from a different provider in a different country. I will not disclose the provider or country, however, it is an EU country and AFAIK, nobody else has a server there, yet.
Witness Servers
Here is my updated Witness infrastructure - starting with the new server.
Primary Server
- Steem: v0.19.12
- Processor: E5v4
- RAM: 128GB DDR4
- Disk: 2x240GB SSD
- Connection: 3 GB/s
Backup Server
- Steem: v0.19.12
- Processor: i7
- RAM: 64GB DDR3
- Disk: 2x240GB SSD
- Connection: 1 GB/s
Seed Node (New)
- Steem: v0.19.12
- seed.smartsteem.com:2001
- Processor: i7
- RAM: 64GB DDR3
- Disk: 2x240GB SSD
- Connection: 1 GB/s
On top of that, I have another server which is dedicated for watching my Witness, switching between servers / disabling the Witness in case of technical problems and missed blocks. I'm also able to remote control my Witness via telegram.
Wolf the Builder
Additionally, I've also build steemd manually on the new 128GB server, as I truly see it as an important skill every Witness should have.
For example: just recently, Steem got a lot of new versions and relying solely on tools like Steem-in-a-box or other docker-scripts is not an option.
Don't get me wrong, you can even build steemd manually while using docker-scripts and docker makes everything a lot simpler to handle, but the skill to build everything from scratch should still be there.
More Delegations
I've also decided to delegate 5000 Steempower towards @steem-ua (https://steem-ua.com/) to support incredible useful algorithm and development efforts.
Being able to support initiatives like @steem-ua is exactly the reason why I'm working so hard on accumulating Steempower.
What's next?
While my Witness activities have my top priority, the rest of my priorities aren't far down. I will continue to work hard on Smartsteem, improving it to further enhance the Steem ecosystem.
But in general, the goal for this year will be to have a more balanced life. Which also includes expanding the social aspect of @therealwolf.
There are many more live streams & AMAs planned. And I'm obviously going to continue posting - while always working on improving the quality of my posts.
Sooo, that's it. Are you excited? I definitely am.
Honestly, thank you so much for following my crazy and amazing journey on Steem.
I wish all of you the very best,
Making Steem Greater
Projects developed by @therealwolf for Steem
| Smartsteem.com | Steem Chat-Wallet |
|---|---|
| Witness Essentials | Utopian.io Signup |
More about me
Do you share my vision for Steem?
You can vote for me as Witness through this link https://steemit.com/~witnesses.
Or you can simply use steemconnect to vote for me or to set me as a proxy.
A big and sincere Thank you to all of those who support my efforts!
Hello @therealwolf, here is my entry for the contest
https://steemit.com/therealwolf/@emma733/who-is-therealwolf
Happy 1year anniversary
@therealwolf: since you are here since only end of last year.. do you mind to share the source of your SPs?
earned posting and curation, earned with smartsteem, as witness and bought with fiat?
Hope this is not too sensible.. just curious how the economics work out...
Sure. Everything has been earned with Steem. Far less than 0.1% has been bought with FIAT.
THX
have been here for a while now but things have not been going as i was tutored. i only get one or two up votes despite how committed have been working here. Almost tired of staying here
yes.. its a big problem I am very well aware of and fortunately some whales are too..
so there is still hope out there!
Come to Scorum.com
its all on the blockchain solarwarrior.... no need to ask.
true.. so that's why I am asking.. its already public however he has thousands of transactions on the BC so why making all the effort when he might be happy to share?
http://steemworld.org/@solarwarrior
click on this, you can see exactly how much you've made since the beginning, you can do this for anyone on steem.
wow, cool!
THX a lot!!!
The best is yet to come my friend, just you watch
:)
Thanks brother. I do think so, but amazing things already happened and I need to be grateful for those :)
Congrats for the first year my friend!
i'm looking forward to explain how i see you in the future on the chain and hwo you growed up in my eyes.
All the best and a lot's fun on Steemit
Steem On - RivalzZz
Hey @therealwolf,
here is my entry to the Contest.
Hope i got all correctly in it
all the best my friend,
@RivalzZz
lmao
Great job, my man!
Congrats man you have come a long way and it shows you are and have become a STEEMMVP.
Cannot wait for more epic projects from you.
Thanks @chronocrypto - appreciate it!
Happy 1 year anniversary @therealwolf
You look like a wonderful person with a unique character and it would be an honour to celebrate and make something about you.
Thank you and Congratulations then, @lizbethk! :)
Congratulations @therealwolf for achieving this milestone. I know it hasn't been easy but hopefully will get easier as time goes on.
Hehe, I'm not sure about that, but I love the journey so far.
Good luck with the next years projects. Keep it up
As to your avatar it really does remind me of this character
Milo Pressman from the TV series 24
Haha. I actually don't look at all like this iRL. But thanks for the quick laugh!
@therealwolf, congrats for your Anniversary here! 🍻 🍻 🍻
It is very good for the community to have you here, you have done a lot for steemit, and looks like you have much more innovative things to be done.
Personally I learnt and continue to learn a lot thanks to the articles and all info provided by you and smartsteem.
Keep up the excellent work, good luck!
Posted using Partiko Android
Thanks yanipetkov!
I'm very glad you're learning a lot.
It's not often people start up on a journey with little to fall back on and end up telling fantastic testimonies of how the road and how far they've come as well and the accomplishments as well. 100k steempower in a 5$ STEEM price case situation is massive really and well congratulations on the anniversary and milestone
Happy Anniversary!
What is so encouraging about your story is how much you have done, having come so relatively late to the project.
And committing and risking so much!
Every Abraham needs a Moses to pass the baton to. The infusion of new energy and ideas, and the building of sufficient SP to support that energy and those ideas, is critical to keeping the Steem eco-system vital.
Literally and metaphorically, to keep it from running out of Steem.
Bravo! And thank you. :)
Congrats bro @therealwolf. A really long journey in a very short time. I can only envy what you did in so little time and much more to come in the future. Keep it up, I admire your courage and vision. I will always continue to support you as am doing by sourcing my votes from smartsteem. Keep it up.
Ah thank you, but don't envy me. Take me as an example, that you can become successful on Steem, if you just put enough effort into it.
Exactly what I mean but wrongly expressed. thanks
Happy Birthday! May the 2nd Steem year be even better and with a rocket climb in price since we're wishing :D
Thanks mate!
When STEEM hits 10$, I'll upvote you with 100% with whatever Steempower I have. If I forget it, you'll get 10 STEEM. ;)
@remind-me 28 August 2019
Hey @therealwolf, I will notify you on August 28th 2019, 12:00:00 pm (UTC)
Later! ( read more... )
LMAO awesome
When Steem hits 10$... boy we'll both be well off by then, you more than me :D But still, I expect to have more than the 3000 SP and at 10 that generates a cool passive income :P
I'm not gonna remind him so he'll have to give you the 10 STEEM. :p
Sounds like a good plan, I'll slip 2 Steem to you under the table.
Still no 10$ Steem :(
I'll be here :P
Hi @therealwolf!
You asked me in this comment to create a reminder.
It seems the time has passed!
Congratulation to your first full of success year. I’m not an artist, but it will be exciting to see what talented steemit artists come up with.
I can participate by Resteem of this post.
Good luck to all artists!
Better achievements are head Man !! Big up! and Good-luck in your next project .
Very positive, cognitive, inspiring, productive and deserves your article's attention. I'm very sorry that I know English at least 80% then I would have learned faster and understood that here and how I achieved the result much faster than now !!! Well, neither terrible I think that too I will achieve not small results and ignorance of the language is not a hindrance to me. thanks for my personal👍👌👏😉😊.jpg)
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You've made the Steemit Minute for today! Congrats!
Check out the Video Here: https://steemit.com/news/@reseller/hanpgpu7
Happy Steem Birthday @therealwolf!
Congratulation for the success you have reached in only one year!
You did a lot of hard work!
Steem on and thanks for your great job here!
BGvB
Wow! After reading the detailed blog I am convinced that you are a very passionate guy and believe in hard work. I highly appreciate the way you want to inspire the readers and allowing them to participate in this awesome contest so that much more people get inspiration from your journey. Well @therealwolf i am totally into this contest and looking really forward <3
The real wolf ...Do you fight we are with you
Steemit is an interesting ride, isn't it? Looks like you've done really well so far. Since I don't think I've ever talked to you personally, I'm going to have to do a bit of research before I can actually produce my post. Still I will enter to see how well I can do with my limited knowledge.
Congrats for first anniversary...
Are you created @smartsteem service??
Because Iam using this service for my all post promotions...
And what are the benefits of voting to witness?? I never voted anyone.
THANKS
for to this post.im realy happy for this post.becouse im houge learn to this post.Excualy i have not enough experience about steemit.
thank you very mouch brother.
https://steemit.com/@laptopy2005
This post was spotted by @theluvbug and has received a 100% upvote and a resteem.
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then please make use of the #theluvbug tag.
Spreading the STEEMIT LOVE with upvotes and resteems of AWESOME Steemit content. Use #theluvbug to get my attention :)
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You are very good for Steem/Steemit. I am just as passionate about this platform but your tech skills are light years beyond me. We need to build and push this forward.... Carry on the realwolf, were all behind you and Steemit!!! 😎
Resteemed!!!
Congratulation @therealwolf on completing another successful year...glad to see you met all your goals....you moved in right direction and achieved what you wanted..👌...i am one of your early entrant in @smartsteem and saw the growth itself....it was huge and perfect...the contest is awsome...hope to hop in with some.input.....have a gtrat year ahead...
@steemflow
Posted using Partiko Android
you are awesome and your post are really very knowledgeable for us.
Congrate @therealwolf over your one year anniversary on steemit , I am just 2 month in steemit
Happy Birthday @therealwolf! Thanks for a great service!
Very inspiring to read through your journey here! I think it shows what consistency and dedication can bring to individuals who come to the platform to help build and develop it and not just the rewards aspect of it. I continue to get inspire by many stories like yours to realize the potential of the #STEEM ecosystem. Every day is exciting to be a part of what is being built here. Thanks for sharing!
After a long time, I read a very good post. Loved it Hope to post more about that.
My congratulations on the first successful year.
one reason, for to vote you as a witness
Vielen Dank und herzliche Grüße
@therealwolf , i like wolf atituate ...aowwwww
wow nice
Hey Friends Do you want to get votes?
If you follow my account then vote for me.
I will also vote for you.
For witness 2.0 , also consider the comments from folks here :
https://steemit.com/contest/@itstime/5-steem-giveaway-what-do-you-expect-a-witness-to-do-for-steem
Are you seriously picking different sentences completely out of context?
I'm already aware of those. So far, I know what my path is and this also includes becoming more familiar with c++. However, my current c++ skills are laughable in comparison to what's needed and it will take a few months to upgrade them.
And I'd rather put that time into skills that are already good enough to bring useful changes.
But thank you for linking the post. Will keep it in mind.
Yes , I am , that helps me to make my point !!
lol
Nice article.!!
Congrats on being one the influential person on Steemit.
Posted using Partiko Android
Congrats on all of your accomplishments! I'm sure it was a grind. Here's to your next set of goals!
Congrats and well done!
Glad to hear you are doing HA to your witness nodes. I wonder if there is a world map or chart that actually shows all the witnesses nodes/servers location. Hopefully we have a good geographically spread of all nodes.
Your past live stream was great! And thanks for featuring my Question. But the streams were a little too long, LOL, try to keep it to an hour or less. :)
Nice post, nice job... Congratulations on a great year. I hope this one is even better!
I felt kind of proud that I vote for your witness.
Congratulations on completing one year on steem it. And your plans for 2 year are awesome. I like that you are going to start context to support beginner @therealwolf hope for your bright future keep growing best wishes with you
Happy steem enniversary and nice post brother great
Posted using Partiko Android
Congratulations and happy anniversary @therealwolf. Your goals are an inspiration to planktons like myself. Thank you. I should probably borrow them
Viele Glückwünsche und mach weiter so mit der guten Arbeit
Good luck with the next years projects. Keep it up