Edification Corner Issue 4: Why Services Like Upvu Are Good For Blurt

In this issue, the beneficiary for 99% of the rewards will be @rajitsear. My apologies in advance as this post will be controversial and has a good chance of not garnering the support my previous edification posts have. However, I picked this person as they are a great example of a point i wish to make here. I'll return to that after I discuss some of my disgust over the ignorance and hypocrisy I watched unfold a week ago, as well as make the case for why Upvu is GOOD for the Blurt ecosystem.

My first point is on the many distinctions being made when suddenly there is some rationalization to justify taking SOMEONE ELSES property rights from them. I despise such maneuvers and the mental gymnastics I saw at play in the vote threads was eye opening.

I came to Blurt because of the respect the chain has for property rights and freedom in such rights. We saw that in their choosing not to steal every post from Steem as Hive chose to do, we see that in their not installing the flag theft mechanism designed to funnel rewards back into the pool so the large account holders will get most of it.

Blurt was hovering around .004 when I joined. In the threads I mentioned one newcomer whale was threatening to sell their recently acquired stake and tank the price. Before I move on to the contradictory thing they said after that, let me first say fuck you. Go ahead. I joined Blurt at a lower price than you can probably tank it to, and will be here if it falls again. And will still be here when it rises to where it still hasn't realized but will go.

I also don't appreciate this same whale saying in no uncertain terms that everyone receiving a delegation is stealing. I put them on the spot for this and of course they chose to ignore my request on highlighting who I steal from.

The final hole in their position was where they admitted we shouldn't force those who had delegated to upvu to unstake as this would result in the price plummeting as they saw at Hive with POB.

Taking a look out of curiosity I see that upvu at that time had almost 4 times the stake delegated to it as said whale who is free to slander and threaten others has.

I also wish to clear up that I didn't appreciate the way the choices were offered to us on the other whales posts. It was disingenuous to tie the options together as they were, and a special thanks to all witnesses who made that distinction in the voting comment section. For those of you who made no such distinction and voted against property rights for the bundled option, I've pulled my witness votes from you if I was voting for you. I believe a witness is able to make such distinctions, and also would serve as a champion for property rights,

Even When You Don't Approve Of Those Uses!

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There were arguments made in that thread against those (the whale who made the posts especially) who self upvote heavily.

Those of you who know me should know that while I don't view self voting as community building, I defend its use and will debate vociferously against those who would seek to impose their will on anothers property.

Just as I do with delegations.

In the defense of this whale (double-u) one of his defenders unwittingly used a logic that actually would condemn him, stating it would be different if he voted many times a day for himself. Which he actually does on pub day. So perhaps we should change that to x amount of times per week since the stated abuse in the defense is actually occurring.

Or how about this. None of these mental gymnastics to rationalize anothers use of THEIR PROPERTY even take place, and we respect the ownership. Then we don't have to come up with rules to justify why it's ok to exert our will on anothers property. See how easy that is?

I need to make one last point regarding allegations made against double-u and his self voting. It was said (based on assumptions, appearances and also mental gymnastics that allows the dictation of how another uses their stake) he was operating from a position of greed. I can't rule out some of that as I mentioned before I found the tying together of delegations and delegations for self vote disingenuous, but for those of us here who know him his generosity is well known.

A case in point was one of my previous edification posts that highlighted him and made him beneficiary. I'm sure many of you are unaware (who goes back to outdated posts?) of this, but his portion of the rewards for that edification post were 1269.407 Blurt. He gave that to Elkezaksek. Not only gave that to her, but decided to ROUND IT UP to 2000 Blurt. That's a pretty huge round up. Not something one who counts their pennies would do.

I saw many hurtful things said about others that were unfair, myself indirectly as well with the stealing implications.

All so unnecessary if we didn't try to tell others rules on their property. And I stand firm on my defense of it, and will call you out on your bullshit narratives to whittle it away despite the size of your wallet and if YOU decide it makes me an enemy when I oppose your narrative.

One last point before I move on to the topic on why upvu is GOOD for Blurt.

There were several who aren't witnesses who voted unequivocally that delegations were bad and needed abolished. Some of those taking that position among those I appreciate and support and follow. I wish to apologize, as I had no idea you felt so strongly against them, and to honor you and how you feel on this issue, I will try to keep all of my future support of you in upvotes to the general area of stake weight that I hold minus my delegations. I have no desire to force this upon anyone who feels so strongly against them, and I just wish you would have said something to me sooner when I was giving you upvotes higher than my normal means. I have rectified this since those posts, so you can feel relieved that I honor you and your feelings on this matter.

Ok, now I have my butthurt part of the post out of the way, I will move on to why

Upvu And Similar Services Are Good For Blurt

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One need only look at the action taken by the foundation in seeking a happy medium to the perceived problem of upvu to see the truth of what I'm about to say. The picture above gives a visual.

Fearing that there would be massive selloff if the current delegations were stopped, which would tank the price more than the slanderous new whale threatened to do and conceded was a potential issue if we pulled those delegations, the solution was to stop all future delegations.

Shortsighted in my opinion. Let me explain why.

Based on my take on upvu, their coming to Blurt played a good role in the recent higher valuations of Blurt. Because investment in Blurt financially is what creates more scarcity resulting in higher value.

Blurt is what is called a financial social chain. So the question that needs asking is this.

Is there room for those who wish to participate in the financial side without participating in the social side?

I would say yes, it benefits all of us to see this happen, due to the clear rise in value for all of us in our holdings.

I recently made a comment that I would like to share here.

I wish to broach what could be a delicate subject, yet I often see missing from topics such as this.

I understand that many come from areas where poverty is extreme, and worries over meals and such are common. And I wish to qualify this that I do support some who need to use their earnings to do such and improve their lot in life.

Yet at the same time it pains me to see that it can't be saved for the future, allowing it to grow on itself to a point where it accelerates in growth faster each week.

I believe that the value we have currently for Blurt is undervalued a lot, proven in my opinion by the inferior mother and sister chains Steem and Hive and their valuations currently and in the past.

Right now as I type this Hive is valued at 1.59 each, Steem at .46 each. There was a time when Steem was valued as high as 8.00 each.

For perspective, I wish to create a math chart. Just months ago Blurt was valued at around .003 each.

So for every 1000 Blurt one held it was worth 3.00 USD.

Now that 1000 Blurt is worth 36.00 USD. A huge jump.

1000 Blurt valued at .46 each would be worth 460.00. A really huge jump.

And then there are the intangibles of powering it up. You earn on it being powered up passively. I currently earn approximately 20 Blurt a day just from having mine powered up.

Then you earn an increase in curation rewards for voting and supporting your community. Which in turn makes them have more increasing their vote power which may also benefit you if they support you as well.

I wish there was more emphasis on this aspect when the conversation of earning was taking place. Blurt offers a chance to earn, yes. But it also offers an opportunity to give many of us a wealth with long term planning that we will not find in our lives because the corrupt systems of our countries wish us to be their slaves.

I hope one day to see that you are a Blurt whale, and a strong leader that many in your community are grateful for leading the way, teaching others how to do what I mention above and freeing oneself from the shackles our societies demand one wear.

Also, I appreciate that you are edifying your mentor. An act we need much more of in life.

To see Blurt become those valuations, one need understand we NEED investment. Many who come here either have no money to invest, or like myself just a little bit. I was able myself to invest almost 5000 Hive I converted. Just a small drop in the bucket that barely saw any fluctuation in value, and it was a brief blip lasting hours.

I love seeing the value go up, love seeing the immediate results in those I support who NEED the Blurt valued at scraps see it become larger pieces. Would love to see it be even more, where it helps provide for the many impoverished here to not only see themselves having enough, but can afford to breathe and begin growing wealth.

And lastly and more selfishly, I would love for Blurt to one day be valued enough I can escape the chains of debt slavery that hold myself and spend what few last years I might have unencumbered from dreams that steal my time and energy.

It goes unsaid by many, but most of us are here hoping that one day Blurt can be life changing for us. Or we would have a free blog on the many places that offer it without direct possibility fro ma built in function for rewards.

The community part is like some awesome bonus, where we can grow to care for one another and make an impact on one anothers lives.

BUT, this impact is also made possible by those who are solely investing without wanting to be social, without wanting to lift anyone but themselves to greater riches.

I will once again use double-u as an example, since he has over 6 million Blurt. As mentioned I don't find him as self serving despite my not appreciating those posts. I see how much good he does here at building community with his pub, and his gifts like I mentioned many of you were probably unaware of.

But lets suppose he was as greedy as another painted. Let's say he posted once per day, a one word post with 9 one word comments that he upvoted 100% to give himself all of his rewards. I argue he has this right, his stake, not mine, not yours.

The question then is this.

Does his 6 million+ Blurt that he has staked add value to Blurt?

If you can't see that it does you just can't see how this works.

It definitely adds value, and even if he chose not to support so many others and self voted as I outlined above, we would still all owe him some gratitude for investing in Blurt, and indirectly creating a scarcity that helped add a real valuation to the coin those of us focused more on the social side enjoy.

The same principle is true of upvu. If they bring investors who were originally deterred because they can't be bothered investing time alongside their money investment, then from my corner, thank you upvu.

You've helped turn my current max upvote from approx .60 (.003) to one valued at 6.40 (.032). A huge difference, and benefits not only myself, but the many folks I curate, especially the ones who live in poverty dominated countries where one is rich from a few dollars a day compared to most of their neighbors.

So the common arguments against upvu

• It doesn't promote building a community. I suggest that it actually does indirectly. With rising valuations we see the difference as outlined above. Even without their direct interaction the investment part aids those of us focusing on that aspect of community regardless.

• It rewards plagiarism. I would suggest plagiarism already exists here. In fact, I see many curation accounts at times upvote obvious stolen work. I would argue that it is disingenuous to hold upvu to standards that others aren't.

One example would be this post.

https://blurt.blog/helloblurt/@giftbb/poor-bladder-control

I think it's pretty apparent that it's stolen, and I had to add words because there wasn't enough for Grammerly who says there is significant plagiarism found (and I guarantee it wasn't my random string of words to give enough to check). And gee, look who upvoted it with their snide comment about delegating. Should we all grab our pitchforks and torches and march over to the Ctime?

Or perhaps we can wait and see what the foundation is going to unveil with the COAL program I believe it was called?

• It rewards low effort posts. Ok, seems Steem found a solution to that. Not allow posts upvoted from delegation for vote services to show up in hot or trending. Not only will those using such a service get little more than the upvote the service gives them from their own stake, but they actually lose some of their stake as the service would want to profit off of the service. It doesn't take a great mathematician to understand that the service can only vote the stake in its possession, never exceeding that amount.

• which leads to the argument against, that these services profit from offering a service that allows those who wish to invest monetarily without the time investment to do so while ALMOST maximizing their monied investment, minus the convenience fee an upvu will charge. If this is the argument against, why not install an option that would allow those only wishing to use Blurt as an investment vehicle to collect their full rewards for self voting in the wallet. Then they get all of their self voting rewards and don't need a service like upvu who allows them this convenience without posting 10 times a day. Would also be a partial solution to the stolen work argument by simplifying the claim of financial investment.

I'm done with this long winded part of the post. Now on to the beneficiary.

@rajitsear

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I found his introduction post last night despite his making it 6 days ago.

https://blurt.blog/helloblurt/@rajitsear/my-introduction-post-i-am-fr-ada-raji

It was a unique post for myself, as he a priest in the Catholic church. An organization that I personally find repugnant for many reasons ranging from atrocities commuted against children to creating idols.

I had to read the post and comment section many times, as despite my misgivings over the church, the actions of the man were/are ones I view as blessings to those he has chosen to advocate for and help. I was able to finally separate the man from the church in my perception, and knew this is a man I wish to support.

He works on many fronts, seeking to educate, feed, provide medical care and much more as you can see from his post.

He has dedicated himself in service to trying to lighten his brother and sisters loads, loads that daily see good people crushed beneath in the world, often through no fault of their own.

Men like this are unfortunately rare, and when we come across them it should be our honor to search within ourselves and see if there is some way that we can aid them in their efforts, as well as edify them to others as an example of how the world can be better despite those in power demanding it not.

In his post he describes his community as

This community is best describe as poor and vulnerable .
Through my presence on ground for the past three years we have been able to build and roof an elementary and high schools and students have begun learning .

As a community organizer, we have integrated the whole community into agriculture, this is aimed at re-channeling their energies to useful ventures thereby reducing the tendency of high cult activities, crimes and other illegal activities within the community . This had worked so well .

In his lengthy reply to my lengthy comment there, a comment that was not kind to his church, part of his reply that really pulled on my heart was this.

We also agree that we must put smiling faces to a hopeless generation , to people who are like in the forgotten conners of the world . I am working in a place that is completely rural and poor . My daily struggle to bring development to this people makes them see Christ in me . It makes them cry aloud and in silence and pray that I am never transferred from their place . Keep in mind that this is only a drop in an ocean , should they conclude that all priests are perfect being ? Far from that because their experience is not rooted in all yet , but in some they have met !

We keep the struggles as humans until we depart from this one . My philosophy of life is simple ; “if you can’t feed a thousand , feed one “

I believe men such as this deserve edification for the actions they take for another, and support as well. I say often

If not us, then who?

This man has fully embraced such a saying long before our paths have crossed, and I'm both humbled and grateful to read his story of light in a world that would throw us all down into the darkness. For those who would focus more on the community side of Blurt, his is as fine an addition as any you could make to enriching your life with a real life example of caring for one another.

I'm thankful that he has chosen to come to Blurt and share stories of triumph, something we lack in our daily worlds where those who would own us with their guns and pillaging systems bombard us with propaganda designed to make us helpless. Designed to make us hopeless.

We need more views into life stories such as this, seeing the real impact one can have on others. We tend to become the thoughts we cultivate, which is why we are bombarded with such negative propaganda and systems. Through finding examples such as this and cultivating and nurturing the actions creating them, we can replace the despair they would force us into. Even if it is as he says, only one mouth instead of one thousand. His saying reminds me of one of my favorite, from Dr. Seuss.

To the world you may be one person; but to one person you may be the world.