My Hive Story

I've recently stumbled upon @howo's post retracing his Hive story, based on a template by @snook, and I thought it would be fun to look back and reflect on has been achieved.

Key Dates

• July 2017 : Just turned 26 and I'm burned out. I've worked tirelessly on my first startup but I can see it's going nowhere. I need something to take my mind out of it, and start looking into crypto. A lot of the articles I found are from a website called steemit.com, and the dollar mark under the posts got me curious. So yea, came for the money and stayed for the community, sounds familiar?
• August 1st 2017 : My account is finally accepted and my Hive journey begins.
• August 4th 2017 : I start blogging about good news around the world with @gnc, @macchiata and others.
• August 16th 2017 : I write a post in Chinese and connect to the Taiwanese community (I live in Taiwan).
• September 13th 2017 : Bothered by the too many reblogs, I create Steem-Plus, a chrome extension. Pushed by the @transisto's help, the extension will grow to add many more features.
• October 17th 2017 : Utopian recent launch really kicks up Steem-Plus development and funding, both thanks to external contributions and huge votes that even allow me to hire my friend @cedricguillas to code even more features. I was also an Utopian developer and moderator at some point.
• November 9th 2017 : I'm a minnow!
• December 2017 : Started working on an early version of @flauwy's 1UP, it didn't reach completion at the time, but I'm happy to see that it is now a thriving community.
• January 24th 2018 : Started my witness!
• October 18th 2018 : The first version of Steem Keychain, imagined and funded by @yabapmatt and @aggroed, designed by @nateaguila, and developed by myself is launched.
• November 6th 2018 : My first SteemFest in Krakow, and oh boy was it epic to put faces and so many pseudonyms, and to meet new community members! Thumbs up to @roelandp!
• November 19th 2019 : SteemFest 4 in Bangkok! If the previous one was epic, that one was legendary!
• March 2020 : We're all kinda busy fighting a hostile takeover. It was a tiring month. In the end, it was all for the best and Hive was born.
• March 20th 2020 : Keychain is ready for Hive already!
• April 17th 2020 : Hive Keychain is now available for Chrome, Opera, Brave and Firefox.
• April 29th 2020 : Hive Keychain development starts getting funded by all of you through the DHF. This allowed us to keep developing lots of new features.
• October 2020 : I become a consensus (top 20) witness.
• March 3rd 2021 : Mobile Apps launch.
• April 28th 2021 : Cedric joins the team again, to work on Hive Keychain.
• November 22nd 2021 : We reach 110k active users (+20k on mobile).

How long have you been on the blockchain?

According to the page 3614 of my Hive account history (on Hiveblocks), I've been here since block 14,189,116 , a bit more than 4 years and half ago!

What was your background in Cryptocurrency when you first came to the blockchain?

I didn't know much but I was avid to learn.

What was your background in writing when you first came to the blockchain?

I started writing some heroic fantasy when I was a kid, does that count? And no, you can't read it ^^

How many people did you know when you first came to the Blockchain?

Not a single one.

How did you meet people when you first came to the Blockchain?

Through community initiatives, it's always been easy and rewarding to meet people of the community.

Who did you look up to when you first came to the blockchain?

If I have to chose just one for my first year, I'd chose @elear, the founder of Utopian.io. He had a great vision and was a talented developer. On top of that, Utopian allowed me to concentrate on my blockchain development work at a time when the DHF didn't exist.
It's really a pity that he made some poor choices and ended up stopping the project.

How would you describe your first three months on the blockchain?

Adventurous and hard! I've tried to be a part of many different projects/communities, before settling on what I wanted to do (developing SteemPlus at the time). It was quickly more about the community than money, otherwise it would have been tough to keep going when I was rarely making a whole dollar.

Has being a part of the blockchain changed you in any way for the good?

It brought me freedom and wealth, the opportunity to work on projects I enjoy and that are enjoyed by the many; the opportunity to make friends from all around the world, to increase my development skills, my understanding of crypto and money in general.
Saying Hive has changed my life is an understatement.

What is your favorite memory from your time on the blockchain?

Steemfests for sure. My time in Krakow and Bangkok was memorable! Meeting intelligent and like-minded people from all over the world (and getting turbo drunk with them as @howo puts it), really made me feel like there was nothing we couldn't achieve.
Special mention to the Sangsom Tuk Tuk crew =)

If you could give advice to a new person signing up to Hive what would it be?

Use the snowball effect.
Whether you are here for writing, earning through gaming or developing, I think a common denominator is that you'll need to persevere. It's hard starting from nothing and building a following, building a perfect Splinterlands deck, or a great App. But the longer you keep at it, the easier it becomes since you are building on top of what you've already did before, and because you will meet community members that will help you along the way.