After eight years on Steemit and Hive, I’ve finally done it: I’ve crossed into Orca territory.

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I didn’t notice exactly when it happened. I checked Hivebuzz around 60.3k HIVE and I wasn’t an orca yet. Just this morning, as I passed 60.5k HIVE I checked again and — boom — my VESTS count is past 100,000,000, the magic number. No fanfare, no confetti, just a quiet milestone buried in Hive side project screen. Orca level.

Now let’s put this in perspective. Eight years is a long time to grind toward anything, and you might be mistaken for thinking that’s a long time to get to what is, in dollar terms, only around $8000 — which is a lot of money, but not really a lot to show for 8 years. In my case, however, it’s also not all that surprising. Most of my growth has been organic: a slow accumulation of consistent posting, reinvestment, and a lot of time in the trenches. I’ve never been one of those accounts getting giant $50 or more votes every day. In fact, I can probably count on one hand the number of votes I’ve received worth more than $30. That in turn isn’t all that surprising — I write about the uber-popular Japan, but my writing is primarily about translations of Japanese haiku, which is probably in the niche of niches in terms of topics and doesn’t interest anyone interested in Japan, the vast majority who are more in love with the modern anime part of Japanese culture. Oh well.

Anyway, starting last year with the HIVE dip, I did start buying in some with outside money. But the vast majority of my growth has still been entirely organic, built on $5-$10 posts.

So, yes, this Orca earned every fin through persistence and compounding rather than splashy boosts.

My plan hasn’t changed: I’m still powering up everything I can this year. The stretch goal is 70k HIVE before year’s end. It’s a bit ambitious, but then again, I made it this far to orcahood, so who knows what else is possible.

Here’s to steady growth, small votes, and long games.

❦

David is an American teacher and translator lost in Japan, trying to capture the beauty of this country one photo at a time and searching for the perfect haiku. He blogs here and at laspina.org. Write him on Bluesky. 【Support @dbooster with Hive SBI】