I came into this new year with a plan to start diversifying my portfolio by keeping my posts 50/50 so I'm not 100% in Steem. It's not that I don't believe in Steem, I would just like checking out some other projects and hedge my risk in the case for some reason Steem went to 0 by the end of the year.

I am surprised, however, just how hard it has been to find other projects I'm willing to diversify into. Even Bitcoin, in which I've been watching a few Bitcoin maximalist YouTube videos and podcast recently, I find it hard to willingly sell Steem for.

I shouldn't be too surprised, however, as I've already talked about a few ways you can earn Steem passively through curation and delegation.

Bitcoin Just Sits There

Yes the value goes up and down and it has a proven track record, and if I did business internationally I could use it as an exchange of value, but for the most part, it's still difficult to use, will likely become expensive to transact with during the next bull run, and still might get bogged down with the lightning network.

If anyone knows a good and safe way to earn interest on my Bitcoin, it might become a little more interesting to me, but while altcoins are a riskier bet, they just seem like the reward is potentially better in the current market.

Bitcoin is the very first crypto I've ever earned and the first one I learned about and am currently downloading the full wallet. I believe if anything will survive in the crypto space it will be Bitcoin. I will continue to sell small amounts of Steem for Bitcoin to sit in a wallet and hopefully one day be able to use for something other than selling at the end of the year to help cover any tax obligations. After all, it's the least "Risky" investment in a very risky space and a good overall investment in general.

Ethereum, Tron, EOS, and Tezos (Smart Contracts)

I want to check out other projects not on Steem, but besides God's Unchained, I don't really see anything that's currently worth checking out. If you know of any good projects on other platforms, besides gambling, let me know. At this point, I don't even care if I earn any crypto for playing if it's fun, and on a blockchain, I'd like to support it.

I have been seeing a lot of DeFi talk on Ethereum and if this is something I can start earning crypto for let me know. I'm not interested in any scam projects such as HEX, but if it's a legitimate project that has a reasonable interest rate, around 10% or less, shill it to me or share your article or even a ref link in the comments down below for all I care.

I find myself most interested in Tezos. Maybe I'm just a sucker because I keep seeing the price run-up, but the fact that I can easily "stake/bake" my Tezos on Coinbase makes me most interested in this project. I know not my keys, not my crypto, but until the space becomes more user-friendly and the fact that it's insured helps to feel a little safer leaving some crypto on an exchange.

Even Utility Tokens are Not Exciting

I love being able to use the Brave browser to earn BAT. I really don't even have to do anything besides turn on advertisements and browse the web. I can't think of a time any more exciting on the web when you get paid to do something you'd normally do every day.

What can I do with my BAT and why would I ever buy it though unless I trade it to earn more Bitcoin. I'm sure sometime in the future I could use it to promote a blog or YouTube channel I'm working on, but for now, it's not really something I'm interested in. So once again it becomes an avenue to earn more Bitcoin and when I usually say earn more Bitcoin in this article, I really mean earn more Steem.

Compound Returns and Usage with Steem

Steem has the ability to earn Steem passively and actively. You can write blog posts, play Splinterlands, or just go through and curate others to encourage them to stay active in the platform. I continue to grow the amount of Steem I have on a yearly basis, and it seems like the more Steem I'm able to accumulate the faster it grows.

Steem-Engine is working on creating a fiat onramp for crypto Steem, it's working on setting up a marketplace to be able to use Steem to buy real-world goods, and it already has an exchange to trade crypto. The only thing it's currently lacking is usage, growth, and liquidity, which is quite a bit, but I think the foundation is there as long as the users will come.

Steem-Leo already has a marketplace and has been continually updating its website interface as well as making improvements on their exchange as well. Steem Leo continues to push communities forward and is, in my opinion, the current benchmark in which all other communities are compared. Which, if I wanted to, I could also grow my Steem even faster by selling community tokens for Steem, but as of now I'd rather hold the community tokens!

What's your favorite way to earn Steem or other Crypto?