a tree in my native canada
A conifer (evergreen) tree in Canada.
Remember to upvote this beautiful post! I want money!!
posted by Spamtiko.
SURPRISE!
This is actually NOT a shitpost like half of the posts on the Steem blockchain, but a hidden secret edition of the charitable project "Mission: Agua-Possible" which I've been running for exactly 6 months now! This is week 26 and 100% of the upvotes on this post go toward the project.
Country-wide blackouts, famine, disease, hyperinflation, foreign military intervention, and 2 leaders who each claim to be legitimate - Venezuela in crisis!
The world's attention has been focused for weeks on the political and economic situation in Venezuela, with lies and propaganda on every side. Meanwhile, as we have for half a year, Mission: Agua-Possible is progressing toward our goal of 1300 USD (in STEEM), for a well pump to bring water up to the family farm of @edgargonzalez.
Each week on Saturday I post an update (here's last week) on the previous week's payout and any direct donations the project received. I put about 3 hours each week into writing the post to try to maximize the upvotes received, packing as much information and data into an easy-to-read post. Then I spend another 1-2 hours each week managing and promoting the project.
Unfortunately, this tactic appears to be failing. After an initial week of success, we've had about 25 weeks of diminishing returns. It seems that people on Steem don't enjoy the idea of giving up 1 of their 70 weekly upvotes to others. What I've noticed, though, is many posts with almost zero effort put in are being rewarded with large upvotes and support! Hard-to-read posts of a blurry flower and nonsensical caption will often receive $1+, which is more than most M:A-P posts get. That's why I disguised this week's post as a shitpost of a tree, and begging for upvotes, because that kind of "content" seems to do much better than genuine projects here.
Background
Severe economic and political crisis over the past few years in the South American country of Venezuela intensified recently, as president Maduro doubled down on his currency manipulation, price-fixing, propagandizing citizens, and suppressing resistance. You've heard about the country's recent turmoil. But the world's media isn't showing us even half the reality!
I began to see more and more Steem users from Venezuela, and I started to hear their interesting stories - and ask questions. I discovered some dark truths about the economic and political situation there. Most shops are empty, the currency is worthless, people are hungry - the economy is at a standstill. Theft, corruption, and violence escalate as society breaks down. Millions are fleeing on foot - if they can. The harsh socialist government attempts to control/fix the economy, and blames problems on the people. Most government services (like running water) work only in certain areas - or not at all.
The people are desperate for any change and protests sometimes fill the streets for miles. Maduro announced that Venezuela will no longer accept US Dollars for oil exports, then tried to get his country's gold back from Bank of England, who refused. The Russian military has become involved, supporting Maduro. The Americans back a previously-unknown man called Guaidó. It seems that violence may be coming. Stability for the people seems out of reach.
Edgar
A few months ago, I found the blog of Edgar (@edgargonzalez), a Venezuelan man about my age. He's a father of young children, and a professional whose job disappeared because of the crisis. He feeds his family by fishing, foraging for fruits, and growing cassava on his late-father's plantation. He uses Steemit to share his stories and earn Steem to buy food. Shortly after I met Edgar, a power outage caused a failure of the pump used to bring water up to the farm. A repairman confirmed the pump is beyond fixing. Edgar had been using his well to water his crops, and to provide drinking water to his children and other families in the neighborhood. Without a pump to bring water up from the aquifer, his gardens have withered - and the neighborhood must forage for water elsewhere.
Without government water services, and now without water from his well, Edgar and a few other families are in a tough situation. I wondered what a poor Canadian man could do to help. After using the Steem blockchain to learn about the problems, I realized that it could also be the SOLUTION!
That's when I first began Mission Agua-possible! Once we gather 1300 USD worth of Steem, I'll transfer it to Edgar, to be converted to cash to buy the pump.
Getting this pump for the farm as soon as possible is vital. Water is life!
Much appreciation to the few who upvoted last week:
Week 26
week 25 funds: 180.113 Steem
new funds:
- week 25 post payout = 0.113 SBD and 0.242 STEEM POWER = 0.484 Steem
- you can send me Steem directly and your donation will be noted here
Total funds: 180.597 Steem
x 0.47 USD/Steem = $84.88 USD (of $1300)
Current progress: 6.5%
We're down from 7.0% progress last week, due to a drop in the Steem/USD price, and lack of incoming funds. Let's hope this post breathes revival back into our community project!!
Upvoting this post is appreciated so much! 100% goes to the project.
Mission Agua-Possible will help many people, and inspire other great projects. It's a group success story, playing out on the Steem blockchain. Together, we're going to dramatically improve the lives of a whole neighborhood that really needs it!
I'm sorry I tricked you into reading this post by disguising it as a tree photo. Please consider sparing 1 of your 70 weekly upvotes to help me bring water back to Edgar's neighborhood in crisis-stricken Venezuela. If you have $1300 USD (or a steel aquifer well pump), I'll accept that instead, but most people prefer to click the [^] button. I've tried to make this as easy as possible for people to get 'involved'. One click per week. Thank you!
DRutter
Upvoted and resteemed again this week! Let's see how the new tactic works out :))
Please keep up the reminders! I mean to donate last week and forgot :( So they work well.
Thank you for the feedback, as well as the 5.0 Steem direct donation! It will appear on the next update. :)
I just saw in your profile that you live in beautiful BC!
Words fail to describe how jealous I feel:P
One day I will get there for sure because ever since I have left this place, my heart has been craving to find it again.
Hey @steemityourway, I've lived in BC just about all my life (I was born in New Zealand but immigrated before learning to talk). I was in the Vancouver area for my childhood, then Northern BC for about 5 years, then the sunny Okanagan area until I turned 20 and returned to Vancouver for university. :)
I went to my hard drive photo collection and said "I'm going to send her the first photo of BC I come across". Here it is:
Sorry that you can't see much of BC in it, but there are clearly mountains and some blue sky! And plenty of those conifers I mentioned in my 'shitpost' above.
This picture was taken (I believe) 6 or 7 years ago, on a road trip with my kids through the mountains to visit family for Christmas. This one is out to "stretch legs" (and get snow into shoes). :p
Thanks for your support!
Omg your response makes my night!!!!
Thank you for being so cool! 🤩🙏🏻
Love that picture! And it is very cool to hear about your journey in BC. Would love to visit the Okanagan one day. And Quesnel too because it’s my last name!!!
Here’s mine taken in Whistler 5 years ago 🏔💚🧡
Hah! That's a gorgeous canoe and lake shot.
Whistler is a couple hours drive from here but I've only been once since I was a kid. Far too expensive for me there, but great for wealthy people and tourists.
Unless you have friends/family there, you may be disappointed by Quesnel. It's a small town in a logging region with lots of smelly pulp mills, bars, and a highway that runs through town. Definitely a cool name though. :)
Aww for sure it is. Whistler is definitely off the charts lol it’s hella pricey ^^
But thanks for the info!! I did chill on google earth multiple times to see what Quesnel looked like, and I wondered if it was just me or most of the the houses there kinda look like old shaks?:P I love the fact that it’s a small town though. That’s what i look for. But thank you for helping me get a better idea of what this small town is all about:P
Beautiful picture, that looks like such a good time. That's cool that your last name is Quesnel, it's a beautiful little community. The okanagan and Whistler are very nice places to visit in BC, so is the island and the North near Alaska in the summer!
Which province are you from, @steemityourway? Are you 4/20 friendly by chance? :) <3
Aww 💚
I’m from Quebec! Montreal is my city ^^
I’m everything friendly 😉
Haha nice shitpost, @Drutter you troll. LOL jk, maybe it will help AugaPosible because so many people love to upvote spam. But, it's actually a lot better than most shit posts because you took the picture yourself instead of ripping it off the internet and labeled it correctly, and it's a decent picture of a Canadian tree!
LOL @ Spamtiko!! Maybe a little too much with the "I want money" haha. Maybe some unrelated nonsense gibberish to go with the picture? Good point, very funny, we like it as much as we like smoking cones and trees, hah! ;) :D
So @drutter, I hope you don't take this the wrong way and am asking out of curiosity, but I noticed that you have 0 Steem, 0 SBD and have everything vested in SP. Since everything is vested, how are you going to be able to give it to Edgar when you hit the goal? Do you have the Steem in one of your other accounts that you manage? I am sure you already know that you can't power down everything immediately and will take weeks to get it out as I believe that you can only take out 2% per week or something like that because a full power down will take 2 years. So just wondering on how you are handling the pay out to Edgar.
Good question. It shows you're actually putting thought into this stuff. While that may seem to go without saying, sadly, I feel that thinking is an underused skill nowadays.
When the project started, I hoped it would only take a week or two to get funded. 1300 is small change compared to some of the spammy posts on this site that are making people rich! But alas, it's very hard to get people to part with even a couple bucks for a good cause, even when the only thing they have to do is click one single button - I've done the rest. A few other people (like yourself) have pitched in to help, but for the most part I've funded the majority myself.
That said, when we hit 1300 USD worth of Steem, the plan is to transfer it to Edgar so he can convert it into paper currency and make the local pump purchase (and installation).
After a few weeks, I realized this was going to be a process (far from instantaneous). Until then, I had been allowing liquid Steem (in the amount of the project balance) to sit in my account, doing nothing.
As you know, I don't really upvote my own content much. An exception is the weekly M:A-P post. I realized that if it's going to take months (not days) to fund the project, and I'm using my Steem Power to donate to the project, why not power it all up, and use it to grow the project that much quicker?
That's been working, but like you said, what happens when it hits 1300 USD in conversion value, and I want to get it to Edgar?
Regarding powering down, it's something I've done now (on my @greatesteem account) a couple times. It takes 13 weeks in total, to get out whatever amount of Steem you want from your account (in 13 equal weekly transfers). Luckily, that's only 3 months, not 2 years.
But still, 3 months is too long to wait for water! The project is already 6 months old, so clearly we're not going to save anyone's life by getting this well installed, but it will obviously improve the lives of several people. It's a project worth doing. Even if the funding is completed in another 3 months time, which would be 9 months after starting it, adding another 3 months for the power down would be too long.
You mentioned one of the potential solutions, which is pulling funds from my other accounts. But this is my largest account. Pulling from the others will reduce the delay, but it's not a full solution.
Another solution I've been preparing is what I'd call 'over-powering-down'.
I'm at 1255 Steem now, and about 185 of those are earmarked for MAP, so about 1070 are my own.
Assuming the price of Steem stays the same, which is probably a bad assumption but will give us a rough idea, $1300 USD will require about 2600 Steem.
2600-185 is 2415, so we still need another 2415 Steem.
My own holdings are 1070 now. What will they be once MAP generates another 2415? That depends how long it takes.
Assuming it takes 3 months to make another 2415 Steem (which would mean an acceleration of the project and several big donations) my 1070 will have increased to about 1315.
If if takes 6 more months to make the 2415 (perhaps more reasonable given the current pace), my 1070 will then be 1600.
Assuming I've got about 1500 of my own Steem when MAP reaches 2600, that's about 4100 in total (I'll nearly be a 'dolphin', briefly!)
At the maximum power down rate (ie: powering down my entire balance) would mean 13 equal weekly payments of 4100/13, or 315 Steem.
At 315 Steem per week, it would take about 8 weeks to withdraw the 2600 for Edgar. That's better than 13, and pulling funds from my other accounts would reduce it further, but I aim to do better.
Keep in mind that as the finish approaches, I won't be powering up the payouts anymore. That would be a waste of time. The last several payouts will accumulate as liquidity (doing no good, but ready for use), so I don't have to power down as much.
It all depends on the price of Steem, the political/economic situation in Venezuelan, the USD value, the overall crypto market, the degree of success of the project, etc etc etc.
But I believe with the above techniques I'll be able to gather all the funds and have them to Edgar within a few weeks (max) of the completion week. Maybe I'll even start the over-power-down process a couple weeks before the funds are all in, to give me a head start in having the liquid Steem ready when it's needed.
Perhaps there are Steemit users with liquid Steem just sitting, that would loan it to me (probably for a cost), so when the project finishes funding, I can send Edgar a payment almost immediately, and then do a power down to slowly pay off the loan. There are all kinds of services starting to become available in this ecosystem. Maybe there will be (or already is) a kind of 'payday loan' service I could use? It all depends on the details of course.
But yeah, I'm glad everything is transparent, because any time there's money (or even valuable tokens!) involved, people can get easily upset. Emotions run high around money for a lot of people. I've always avoided doing any kind of charity or goodwill project until M:A-P because there's a lot of sketchy initiatives out there and I don't want to open myself up to that kind of criticism or drama. But when Edgar's pump died and he posted about his desperation, and I realized I had a potential solution, I couldn't not get this going! I intend to see it through without any shenanigans involved, either from myself or anyone else. So far, so good. I can't wait for the excitement as momentum builds! :)
Thanks for the thorough explanation :) Makes sense. I hope that we can make this happen sooner than later. I just was curious, so I thought I would ask. You do have some good options there so It shoudn't be an issue.
I'm genuinely glad you asked, because it gave me the impetus to write out all my thoughts on it. :) I don't think I would have done that in a regular post.
Yes, let's cross fingers and set our sights on a relatively quick and clean completion of the project! I'm excited to see what else I can get up to once this is under my belt.
Fascinating experiment! Both the fake shit post and fund-raising campaign.
I'm having a little fun with it, and learning as I go, while still trying to do the best I can to keep the project moving for Edgar and friends. Thanks for your appreciation! :D