I would love to report that the number of minnows has shot up since we started the #TenKMinnows, but we are currently losing minnows almost as fast as we can create them. Maybe some people are taking the opportunity of a higher Steem price to power down and cash out, but I think it has the potential to be much higher and it depends on whether you believe in the future of Steem. The fact is that we have not had time to upgrade many people to minnow yet as they will not have had their rewards for the votes we got them yet.

@arcange has a nice graph in his [daily update](https://steemit.com/statistics/@arcange/steem-statistics-20190307-en) that shows the current state. There are actually 23 more minnows than [when I started this](https://steemit.com/steem/@steevc/ten-k-minnows-project-brainstorming), so I'll take that as a positive sign, even if we cannot take all the credit.

![Stats](https://steemitimages.com/640x0/https://arcange.eu/steem-images/2019-03-07-Levels-EN.png)

We obviously have a long way to go to meet our target of 250 more this month. Our priority has been the low hanging fruit of people who are close to 500 SP and those who have enough liquid Steem/SBD to be able to power up to minnow level. I know some people need to cash out to pay bills, but if they can power up some of what they make it helps them increase their influence.

We have people and projects asking how they can help. The first thing I would do is to follow @tenkminnows which is re-steeming posts by people who are committing to powering up. Please give them some votes on those posts and checks their feeds other posts you enjoy. Maybe they can gain some followers too. You can also delegate to @tenkminnows as it is giving 100% votes to them at the moment. That may have to adjust as their numbers increase. There are associated voting trails if you prefer to use them.

We are interested in suggestions on how dapps can help out. Some of them give out votes to users, so could they possibly adjust the weighting to favour smaller accounts, at least for a while? If you want to discuss ideas then we can be found in the [State of Steem Forums](https://discord.gg/pbBDTM).

I would also ask that you vote for the @steemcommunity witness run by @paulag and @abh12345 which is supporting the project.

If you are a 'redfish' (less than 500 SP) then these are steps you could be taking:

* Set your posts to Power Up 100%. On Steemit this is under Advanced Settings on the post creation page.
* Stop powering down. This is essential to get our support.
* Do not use 'bid bots'. The returns are low and you could power up your rewards instead.
* Power up your liquid Steem and Steem Dollars.
* Buy some Steem and power it up if you can.
* Use some of the dapps that may give you votes. Just do not abuse this as that can get you blacklisted. We do not want to encourage junk/spam/sh*t posts.
* Make sure you always have a current post people can vote on and be active in comments which can also gain you votes.

People who have already committed to becoming a minnow are @src3, @psos, @arnel, @grider123, @redheadpei, @mistakili, @migueliglesias, @ayushjalan, @dronegraphica, @cwow2, @bucipuci. I would say to those people not to vote on my posts. Give your votes to others on this list instead. The same applies to other people who read this. I have a healthy amount of SP already and do not mind making less if it helps boost the community. Any rewards this post makes just help me increase my SP so I can do more, although I have run my voting power down again and so will be voting less over the next day or so it allow it to recover.

I have bought each of the people listed above 2 @SteemBasicIncome shares to help them on their way. These get you extra votes on your posts for life, so keep posting!

![SBI](https://img.esteem.ws/530ymlnoje.png)

I was on the @actifit [radio show](https://steemit.com/actifit/@actifit/actifit-daily-actifit-radio-show-yesterday-daily-updates) last night where I talked about this project. The recording should be available soon. I recommend their dapp as a way to gain extra votes. You just need to be posting when you clock up over 5000 steps via their mobile apps. They have a nice scheme where you can use their own points to buy a bigger vote.

Steem on and make minnows!

<p><b>The geeky guitarist and facilitator of the 10K Minnows Project.</b>
<div class="pull-left"><img src="https://steevc.keybase.pub/steemit/steevc.png"></div>
</p><ul><li>I'll buy <a  href="/guitar/@steevc/steem-for-picks">guitar picks for Steem</a></li>
<li>Get a <a href="https://wirexapp.com/r/oixlbxxg1t">Wirex Debit Card</a> to spend your crypto.</li>
<li>Get some passive income with <a href="https://www.mannabase.com/?ref=ej74g43dgi">Mannabase</a></li>
<li>Get paid to search at <a href="https://presearch.org/signup?rid=115476">Presearch</a></li>
<li>Battle for cards on <a href="https://steemmonsters.com?ref=steevc">Steem Monsters</a> or drugs in <a href="https://staging.drugwars.io/#!/ref/@steevc">Drug Wars]</a></li>
<li>I have Steem accounts to give away to worthy people!</li>
</ul>