I'd like to highlight some people that have recently bought STEEM and Powered Up their accounts!
Steem Power and Powering Up
For those who don't know, having Steem Power is having trust that Steem will be a valuable platform for years to come. It puts the stake in the Steem network and Steemit website in the hands of those who believe in it and are willing to commit to it over the long term. Steem Power is earned from post or comment rewards, curation rewards, generating blocks by witnesses, and Steem Dollar liquidity provider rewards. But you can also Power Up your Steem account instantly with STEEM tokens.
Powering Up a Steem account gives you more powerful votes so you can reward others more for their great posts and comments. With more Steem Power you also get paid more in curation rewards, because your votes carry a higher stake. This way there's real money incentive to Power Up as well! Also the more Steem Power your account has, the more weight it has in voting for Steem witnesses, the people that run the servers that form the decentralized blockchain network behind Steemit.
By looking at transfers from Bittrex and Blocktrades to accounts in the last couple days, I've found these Steem Superheroes who recognize the value of Powering Up their account:
@slowwalker
This person is amazing. They've powered up 15,700 STEEM into their account after making it just two days ago! Edit: Wow just after posting this they're now up to 19,300 SP and counting!
@teamsteem
In addition to being a valuable Steemit contributor for a while, teamsteem has been consistently powering up for two weeks now. But they really stepped up their power up game lately. In the last three days they've powered up over 4,500 STEEM!
@lukestokes
In the last week lukestokes has made great posts and also has significantly powered up! Almost 4,300 STEEM invested into Steem Power!
@java1959
This person has been consistently powering up their account for over three weeks now, investing almost 6,000 STEEM which has now climbed to over 7,400 Steem Power from SP inflation protection and curation rewards!
@neoxian
They've powered up over 10,400 STEEM in just one day, awesome!
@blakemiles84
A prolific blogger and poster, Blake's life experience makes him take the long view. He powered up first to around 1600 SP a month ago, and just in the last week has powered up around 5,000 STEEM to his account. In total he now has almost 12,000 Steem Power from his posts, curation, and power ups combined!
@stellabelle
In addition to being the top posting rewards earner in Steemit's history, stellabelle also powered up 7000 STEEM just today. Awesome!
@shagda
shagda added 412 Steem Power to their account a month and a half ago, and just today added about 645 more! Their total SP is 1,367, proving that holding Steem Power pays off in more Steem Power.
@mexbit
The account powered up to almost 8,000 Steem Power, half of it just now while I was writing this.
@asmolokalo
They've added about 2,300 Steem Power to their account from power ups alone.
@craig-grant
Prolific poster and vlogger Craig Grant definitely sees the value in SP. He's put about 3,200 STEEM into Steem Power in the last week!
@publicworker
WOW! They made their account before the first payout, and after July 4th must have seen the value in Steem big time. They started with a 100 STEEM power up, then 500, then 1614... and kept going until their total Steem Power as of writing is over 25,000 SP!
I've probably missed some heavy hitters in this list but these are the most outstanding examples of Steem superheroes powering up recently that I found while browsing the blockchain. These are the people who believe in Steem and Steemit and expect their success well into the future.
Comment below to tell us how much you've powered up, or if you know of someone who deserves recognition for being a Steem Superhero!
If you like this or my other posts, click here for my blog page and hit the 
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Great list, pfunk! Thanks to you and the people on this list and the developer team and all the great members of the steemit community, we just bumped The DAO out of 5th place in total market cap! I can't believe the price of steem being over $1.50, what a fast and strong rise in value!
Holy crap!!!!!!!!!
Cray cray, ain't it! Been all over the place the last few hours. Now $1.40. http://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/steem/ Buckle your seat belts!
you rule as always pfunk :) private investigator of steemit blockchain.. you are an underground hero... hehehehe!!!!
damn straight he is. Pfunk the blockchain private eye.
Man Of Steem
;D
that is a nice steemit meme/mascot!!!
Great way to recognize the community! I went from 6k from pre-4th rewards to almost 12k after a handful of STEEM purchases and power ups. Very glad I did since I bought the steem a few days ago! :)
I missed you but your SP is impressive! Adding you to the list of Superheroes.
And me too?
thanks @blakemiles84 :D
Such feels. Very warm. Much fuzzy. :)
Seeing your post i feel also a super steemit hero with my 5921 SP!! haha . Just one thing. I know that steem power is your influece power. the most you have the most you can reward and get rewarded by voting and curating content BUT, this SP has an estimated value.
Can you withdrawal this SP?
How long would it take?
Is 5900 SP 5900 steems?
Could you give me some reasons why people should hold it?
Thanks!
I would add the sidekicks too, the ones who invest their time in creating meaningful content. In the current state, they are not always visible.
I myself bought on the first day I join, 998 steem power with my saving. This is amazing to see steem grow so fast, I really hope steem take off and content grows in quality. This is where steem will be judged!
Steem it!
Posters are Steemit Superheroes, feel free to make a post highlighting your favorites :)
bingo ^^
with one caveat---posters who attempt to create value :)
Ha! I guess I have to up-vote this post. Thanks for the mention. ;)
sweeeet, I am up to 10,000 SP and 5000 steem now, thank you for mentioning me :) https://steemit.com/@craig-grant/transfers
This is one of the things I'll be studying as I look at the strategic, game-theoretic aspects of Steem. I'm a little worried that nobody is noticing the fact that these people just purchased influence for themselves. Their vote counts several orders of magnitude more than mine because they've spent money on empowering themselves.
On the other hand, the fact that they've also just locked away all that money is extremely encouraging, because it means they'll have reason to stick around and spend their newly-purchased influence on good content instead of bad. But they could just as well spend their influence on themselves, their friends, their political agendas...
I definitely sympathize with your concerns, and I have had the same concerns since I realized what Steemit was and how it worked a few months ago.
With that said, you can become a Steemit Superhero and empower yourself by making valuable posts.
true! but they have a head start..
Exactly! And the bigger worry is that a small number of wealthy individuals could purchase a large amount of SP and completely dominate the conversation on here. Somebody like, say, Rupert Murdoch. How do we measure the ability of the community to resist domination by economic elites? It looks worryingly like a pay-to-play system.
true. we'll see. greed is natural. we know that and we can include it in our algorithm of steemit or the model so to say. or we don't and pay the price. we all will, you know? if steemit falls steem falls and those investment are null. so in a way we all want it to succed but it probably won't if corporations dominate the discussion...
Down later you mention that greed is natural. True! Maybe game theory can teach us how to optimize against greed.
https://steemit.com/steem/@biophil/what-does-game-theory-say-about-steem-part-1
Badass post dude @pfunk - really good stuff.
Here are some posts to help you get more traction and exposure to your Steemit posts, startup, business or self:
[HOW TO] Public Relations Training For Startups, Steemers & Steemit: PART 1
[HOW TO] Public Relations Training For Startups, Steemers & Steemit: PART 2
[HOW TO] Public Relations Training For Startups, Steemers & Steemit: PART 3
Please let me know if there is anything I can do to help you become more successful!
Sweet how can I get these super awesome people to like my posts? I wish I started Steemit a month ago instead of 1 week ago so I could have more power!
You missed me. I powered up around 5000, which brings my SPower to 83,143. I BELIEVE!!!
Who's the man? @pfunk 's the man.
steem on my friends ...... keep calm and steemit ......total SP 3,742 and counting....my blogging skills are nonexistent, working on it
Is it posbille that some large corporate capital floats into steem and with big steempower shapes minds and quality of mindflow here?
legit concern.
This post is also nice to know who to follow until that function comes live.
Thanks!
hey! i powered up all i had - 700 steem too. not all heroes wear capes [ or are rich ]
check my post about voting power. i have around 1000 sp so you should be able to give similar voting $ like my account
https://steemit.com/steemit/@knozaki2015/my-upvote-was-worth-5-06-usd-25300-or-how-to-earn-the-maximum-curation-reward
I Powered Up before Powering Up was cool. =b @pfunk
the #Best !!!
I can't wait until we get following working and built in mention notifications. I didn't even see this post, pfunk! Thank you for including me on the list. I got in at a great time, that's for sure.