![Steemit-and-Bitshares.jpg](https://steemitimages.com/DQmT2enWREL7ayPMUJeGfaXtea67ZDcyGt42HLiG63R174X/Steemit-and-Bitshares.jpg)

### My Success Story

While my story isn't yet as grand as it might be, it still is my story.

I started on Steemit in June 2017. For the first few weeks I just read a lot of other people's posts and made a lot of comments. I then made my "introduceyourself" post, which was well recieved. 

About a month into my Steemit journey, I kept on seeing posts about Bitshares. I started to read and got interested. The reason I was interested is that I wanted to keep my crypto strategy "pure" and as decentralized as possible. That meant that I wanted to avoid using exchanges or services that held onto my money (custodial risk) or were part of the old banking system. The first thing I heard about Bitshares was that it was a Decentralized Exchange. That piqued my interest. 

### A little can go a long way

During this time, I didn't have much money. I bought as much as I could, but my purchases would look pathetic to a seasoned crypto trader. I bought Steem and powered up in in the summer and then bought some Bitshares in the early fall when it was around six cents.

Since then, I've taken my Steemit earnings in Steem Backed Dollars and used them to purchase more Bitshares. I've traded on the Bitshares DEX, learning from experience and also from others. I'm still making mistakes, but since starting I've grown the value of my crypto holdings many times.

### Steemit and Bitshares

By using these two together, you can start with nothing. You don't even have to put any cash into crypto to get started (though it can certainly help). You can write on Steemit, even just getting upvotes on comments you write if you aren't yet ready to write full posts. Then use what you get here on Steemit to buy Bitshares. 

Once on Bitshares, learn how to be a "Market Maker" and put in an order to buy at a lower price. Then if someone buys it, place an order to sell it for more than what you bought it at. Even if you are only making a couple percent gain each trade, that starts to add up. If you consistently do that, you could be very surprised at how much your crypto holdings are worth at the end of six months or a year. I'm only six months in after starting my Steemit account and less than that for trading on the Bitshares DEX.

### Cash Out by Helping Others Get in

The revolutionary thing about crypto is that it can be peer-to-peer, person to person. You don't need anybody's permsission to get started in crypto. You don't need to have a bank account or to submit your ID for verification. You can get a Bitshares account (wallet) and just get started.

Once you have something of value in that Bitshares account, you don't need a bank to cash out. You can help someone else get into crytpo by selling some of what you've earned directly to them for cash. You can teach them what you've learned and you can help them get started. In return, you are able to transfer crypto directly into your local currency without having to go through a bank. This is what makes crypto such a powerful agent for change.

#BypassTheBanks!

If I give an upvote to someone in Venezuela, Nigeria or Thailand on Steemit, they can take the payout of that upvote, transfer it to Bitshares, trade for gain over time and then cash out by selling the Bitshares (or other crypto) directly to someone else in their area who wants to get started with crypto or buy more crytpo. 

### Making The World A Better Place!

What I've just described makes me very hopeful that we can quickly make the world a better place. Maybe not all at once, bad things will probably still keep happening. But I can improve someone's life in a meaningful way. Banks and interest on credit won't control our lives anymore and we can directly support what we value. We can give to an artist, activist or writer if we value their work. We can directly support the things that we think will make the world a better place.

### Learning More

If this interests you, there's a lot of information here on Steemit about #bitshares. Go and do some reading and research. Then, it is up to you to take action on what you've learned. I'll keep writing about this and I'd like to teach people about both Steemit and Bitshares. If you are interested in knowing more, please comment and I'll do my best to answer your questions.

#### Helping People Gain Blockchain Freedom!

-- @matthewdavid