Hello there, fellow Steemmates, Steemsters and Steempunks. Thank you for reading my first Steemit post.

First things first: an introduction.

My name is David St John, and I am a freelance writer and a teacher.

A bespoke suit always fits.

Under the umbrella of writer one might find the classifications of copywriter, editor, screenwriter, blogger, and journalist. Under teacher one might also include such titles as trainer, mentor, counselor, consultant, and coach. I have done all of these in one capacity or another, often even getting paid for it.

Other words associated with me are traveler, adventurer, outdoorsman, athlete, and fighter. My great loves are mountain and jungle trekking, bicycle touring, physical training, and the martial arts.

Trekking and riding in Thailand and Burma

I suppose you might also call me a digital nomad, even though the term now sounds soooo 1997.

As I write this, I am half a planet away from my native land, with no job, no car, no permanent home...and I wouldn’t have it any other way. Over the next couple of articles, I want to share with you some stories of how I came to be living this life, and some of the exciting moments, exhilarating terrors, and hilarious mishaps I have experienced along the way.

But first, a few shout-outs to the people who made it possible for me to be here, on Steemit. Let me back up a bit, because the story begins long before Steem had even begun to boil.

It all started, as many of my stories do, with a bicycle ride.

It was the end of September, 2014, and western Japan was already feeling cool and autumnal. It was a relatively short ride, only 65 kilometers or so, but the route was mountainous and I had got a late start, so by the time I arrived in the little town of Hagi, on the north coast of the Sea of Japan, it was just beginning to get dark.

Hagi Youth Hostel.

I had dinner, then checked into the local youth hostel. As it was the off season, I had the entire hostel to myself. After a hot soak in the ofuro (Japanese bath), I retired to my room, where my eye was drawn to an English language edition of Wired Magazine sitting on the little bookshelf. I picked it up.

The Wired issue that changed everything.

Inside was an article entitled The Fierce Battle for Bitcoin’s Soul. I read it voraciously. I had heard of Bitcoin, of course, but until then I had been a disinterested observer. That all changed. In the space of an hour, thrilling to the exploits of my new heroes Roger Ver and Wences Casares, I had become a True Bitcoin Believer.

Bitcoin demigods Ver and Casares became my new heroes.

As I made my way home the next day, southward over the mountains, the wheels of my mind were spinning as fast as the wheels of my bike on the downhill slopes. This was it, I thought. Bitcoin was the secret ingredient that had been missing from my digital nomad lifestyle. A way to get paid wherever I was in the world, instantly and relatively anonymously, whether I have a bank account (or even a physical address) in that country or not.

I studied as much as I could about the Bitcoin ecosystem and Blockchain technology. I discovered Trace Mayer’s excellent Bitcoin Knowledge Podcast, using many of the products and services I heard about there.

The man who taught me 98% of everything I know about Bitcoin.

I opened an account on the Kraken exchange, installed Armory cold storage, charged my clients in Bitcoin, and kept coins offline on a Ledger Nano hardware wallet. With every podcast episode I felt a little smarter, and a little more confident about taking the next step down the rabbit hole.

And then I discovered Steemit. And everything changed again.

It was just last week, in fact. Trace interviewed Chris Coney, they talked about Steem and Steemit, and I felt all the excitement I felt reading the Wired article back in Hagi years ago. The problem of an author is threefold: getting published, getting read, and getting paid. Steemit seemed to solve all three simultaneously. Publishing on Steemit is as easy as posting on Reddit. If the content is good, then it will be read. But here’s the kicker: if the content is really good, and really popular, then the readers can use the power of their votes to make sure the author gets paid.

Decentralized, digital, democratic anarcho-capitalism. I love it.

So thank you Roger Ver, thank you Wences Casares, thank you Chris Coney, and especially, thank you Trace Mayer, for introducing me to not one but two life-changing paradigm shifts.

And thank you, dear reader, for reading this far.

Bless you if you follow and upvote.

I cannot wait to talk to you again.

All the Best,

David St John