HELLO May 2022!
Another month in this year has gone by in a flash! I've only joined HIVE for about 6 months and I'm still learning so many new things everyday! I first heard of Hive Power Up Day 5 months ago and all its other acronyms (PUD, PUM, PUH π what a mouthful) and I'm into my 5th month now!
I've managed to faithfully make one blog post everyday and having somehow missed the Hive Power Up Month award for March (might have forgot to set some posts to 100% Hive Power π±ππ), I've managed to make it successfully for the month of April! π₯³π―
That makes it 3 out of 4 months since I discovered and started on my quest of HPUM-ing this year π.
I still intend to continue on with this really good habit anyway ππ»ππ»ππ» so lets hope I make it again for the month of May π.
Blogging regularly and having the HPUM to incentivise me has other tangible benefits too! I've seen my Hive Power grow quite a fair bit. This seems like a good practice which I intend to continue keeping up with!
πHow it All Startedπ
I came onto the Hive blockchain trying to set up an account for SPLINTERLANDS. Prior to this, I had just about ZERO knowledge and experience with any Blockchain. It was pretty confusing to me as a complete novice - much different from how the usual process of setting up an account to play any game goes. π΅
This led to me googling around, and of course, I stumbled onto all the Hive blogs with their guides. One thing lead to another and I somehow stumbled upon the guys from πHive.Pizzaπ who were extremely helpful in answering all my queries and guiding me along. Shoutout to all PIZZA members. JOIN THEIR DISCORD if you need any help!
β‘οΈHIVE POWER UPβ‘οΈ
In my VERY FIRST month before before I ever heard about Hive Power Up Day/Month, I was at just 47HP π (Before Jan 1st 2022)
This month, before I've even powered up anything at all, I'm already at 706HP! πππ
That's how much the past few months of consistent blogging on HIVE with 100% allocated to Hive Power improved my HIVE account! (unfortunately, HIVE still hasn't recovered from it's ALL TIME HIGH of more than $3 π
)
And NOW... AND its POWERUP time! β‘οΈπͺ (1st May 2022)
I only have enough HIVE set aside for a 10HP powerup, but I'm sure with my continued efforts to blog with 100% powered up to HIVE, I will be able to grow my Hive Power even more!
On a side note, I've also decided to save some of my HBD, which I've earned during the month through posts, by putting it into Hive Savings. I find this to be extremely lucrative especially after the witnesses voted to change it to 20% APR! π€
Using https://hivestats.io/ , I was able to pull out a chart showing my daily account growth for the past month too. Great to see that orange graph head upwards continually ππ! If only my stocks portfolio and the price of HIVE looked like that too ππ€.
As you can see, blogging on HIVE is the main reason for this growth, with the majority of my author rewards being channeled into my Hive Power AND with no power downs at all. (All thanks to my attempt to chase for the Hive Power Up Month badge π) The growing Hive Power accumulated also has the other effect of increasing my Curation Rewards. π€π€π€
Therefore, to anyone who is doubtful about the benefits of regular blogging and remaining invested in HIVE, I implore you to take a look at my stats and draw your own conclusions. ππππ»
πππMy Long-Term Planπππ
Now clearly, I wouldn't just spend such an amount on just being able to write and reply in a community. HIVE as a token also has significant value and growth potential.
This is the price chart for HIVE since it's inception. As all the HIVE regulars know, HIVE reached its ALL TIME HIGH earlier on in November 2021 at about $3. However, the price of the entire crypto market has crashed badly and HIVE even fell to as low as $0.70 in February 2022. It has since gone up slightly at about $0.80.
This is still a significant increase from the start of last year and those who were holding on to HIVE tokens from even earlier on should have seen a significant returns on their holdings.
I can see the potential in HIVE and am bullish on its future prospects. As they say, diamond hands and HODL ππ, I too intend to just hold onto my HIVE tokens and since I've no intention of cashing out anytime soon, what better way than to participate in HPUD and locking it all in.
Keeping my HIVE powered up as Hive Power also earns about 3% interest and gives me increased returns on my curation. From what I've seen, curation APR ranges anywhere from 4-12% depending on how efficient I am at curating. This sounds low especially in the crypto world, but it is still far superior to any bank interest rates. π°π°π°
ππππ₯³πWAGMIππππ₯³π
I hope to continue to powerup monthly in this community event whilst also growing my Hive stake. It would be most interesting indeed to chart my monthly progress this way too.
Before I sign off, I would like to thank @thebeardflex @hivetrending and the rest of the guys at the PIZZA DISCORD (join this great community, plenty of events and airdrops and friendly people willing to help!), @traciyork for helping me with lots of questions earlier on about Hive PUD/PUM and also for delegating a big chunk of HP to help in my early blogging days (and also another member of PIZZA!), @namelessnameless , @relf87 & @koodies for all helping me in one way or another in learning about crypto in general. ππ₯³π
I'll see you all again during the next Power Up Day next month with another update! Till then, See you and WAGMI! πππ»π¦πͺπ»
On a side note, I've also decided to save some of my HBD, which I've earned during the month through posts, by putting it into Hive Savings. 
Finance badge of the 
HiveBuzz Tour. I really want to get as much of the Tour completed as I realistically can. I am not likely to be able to complete the "Governance" section, as I'm not likely to be setting up my own Witness node, haha. Then again, I think that is the only section of the Tour which currently doesn't have an associated badge.
