I'd like to start this post off by letting the readers know that this will be me basically placing my thoughts into it as they go, a free-write if you will. Many have asked me lately of my thoughts of Steem, where I see it going and what I see it doing in the near future. Many want me to compare it with other currencies and many are wondering if we might be nearing an end. I will try not to do any editing unless I find some typos after reading it through before posting, welp here we go. 

Steem is quite different to many other currencies. First let's start with a brief history of the other big crypto names out there. 

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Bitcoin started a long time ago with people finding out about it, most not even being able to purchase it anywhere except for trading it with some people on forums through Paypal or other payment options that made it easy to trade with strangers. We've all heard of the 10k BTC Pizza as somebody wanted to spend his mined Bitcoins and a stranger offered to order him Pizza for them. There are a lot of similar stories like that and that's normal, no one can foresee the future. What seems like a good deal at the time is enough for some people, they move on. As Bitcoin became more popular others started to figure out ways to mine it faster, with graphic cards after processors and with time they figured out even better and more efficient ways to mine it through ASIC's. 

Some people saw what others were seeing, some couldn't read code but trusted others that Bitcoin indeed does what it says it should do. Some saw it as a way to get rich quick from hype, some saw it as a way to anonymously buy illegal stuff from the internet, but some saw the true gamechanging potential. They may not be many but those that stuck to that belief have been handsomely rewarded now, some probably more than they can have ever imagined. Like all things though, for some people it may have changed lives for the better or worse. There's always someone losing money in trades if someone else is making profit, with Bitcoin it didn't have to be this way but there are always people who don't have the patience to see it through and want or need the profit turned into fiat. Regret is a common word in cryptocurrencies, and each time Bitcoin goes up to new heights regret goes in waves back to everyone who left it for good. These are the same people who FOMO in when they start hearing news of recent pumps and everyone talking about it again in a more fair and good light. Its a cycle and no one knows how often it will repeat itself or the consequences of the money as we've known it.

Without getting too deep into that, I want to talk about other so called "altcoins" that started popping up. I was never a fan of Litecoin, I mined Dogecoin early cause there wasn't much else going on at the time and its always fun to get in early on some coins. Dogecoin did this in a fun way by having a massive supply and blocks being full of millions of coins, it made waves of being the fun coin, communities sprouted, gamers started using their hardware to mine it for fun, etc. Doge was never meant to be more than just that fun coin you can experiment with, maybe buy something with it, etc yet here we are and its in the top 20. The crypto markets have not been known for being rational and I don't think that will change any time soon although I was hoping that the next bull run would change things. We are still not in the "green" if the next bull run has started, but a lot of people are sure that it is going to happen some time in the future, more people believe that than maybe ever before. 

Ethereum came a long from the brainchild Viltalik Buterin and it changed the game quite a lot, a lot of mining power started moving towards it after the ICO and a lot of money was entering its market. Back then there was still a lot of confusion about the legitimacy of crypto, Bitcoin had just had its Mt. Gox fiasco, main stream media wasn't giving it an easy time and most people didn't bother reading up on what exactly blockchain was. This all changed during the last rally we encountered, even though the majority were probably still entering the space through hype and left with some profits or losses the attention brought a lot of fresh blood into the scene.

Blockchain is something people have yet to experience, decentralizing value and information has not been done in the same way before. It's normal that it will take a long time, even though it might not take as long as some other inventions took to become every day things in the past it still requires time. You could say that time is one of the biggest enemies to investors and traders, many can't deal with it in these markets. The markets swing like pendulums every so often and many find the need to have to remove their value from their currencies at the lowest possible times. This goes for most cryptocurrencies and especially for Steem.

I want to compare Steem to the others, the differences, effects and psychology that go with it but I should've kept the introduction of the others shorter as is 7 am now and I haven't had any breakfast yet so let's leave that for part two. I myself don't like reading posts that are all too long either so I'll try keeping you guys attention with shorter posts in more parts instead, what do you think of that?

Anyway, at which point in crypto's lifetime did you enter the space? When did you become serious about it?

Thanks for reading everyone, see you in the next part. :) 

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