This is my first post on this platform, so please forgive me if things don't look formatted very well; I'm still figuring things out.

I've been lurking here on PublishOX for quite some time now, but just haven't had the time to actually get down to writing anything for publication. This contest has forced my hand and I'm now starting down the road of creating articles for PublishOX. The requirements of the contest ask us to list our crypto-currency holdings and explain WHY we have those tokens, so here is my portfolio:

Steem

I was watching a You-tube video and the person mentioned that there was a social-media platform that PAID people in crypto-currency for participation. I became curious and began to investigate. I created an account and started reading lots and lots of posts to try and learn as much as I could about this new platform. In the beginning, everyone was super friendly and helpful and I was even given $25-worth of Steem as a gift! I couldn't believe how freely the tokens were passed around and I was hooked. Over time, the mood changed and things have become a lot rougher for anyone starting out on Steem. However, since this was my very first crypto-currency, it is what I have most of.

NRVE

When Steem went down-hill, I was rejoicing when I learned about Narrative, a new platform that seemed very promising. I signed up and joined their affiliate program. By the time they actually launched, I had earned some points that can be converted to NRVE at 1:1, but it seems one needs to pay up front to really participate on that platform. I'm not much of a gambler, so I don't like putting out money for something that is so vague as far as what I should be expecting.

Various tokens

I later discovered PublishOX and thought I would give them a try. One had to be approved to become a publisher and at the time I didn't really have anything in mind to write about, so I didn't apply. I did read quite a few articles and managed to collect a few different tokens just from reading and tipping! This platform is great and I'm enjoying the articles. I have great expectations for PublishOX.

PublishOX is now running a contest for people to show off their holdings and that promted me to get busy and write my very first blog article. I couldn't figure out how to get my thumbnail image to be accepted, so I'll need to work on that yet, but I need to get this entry in before the deadline, so here it is.

PRE

Lastly, from one of the PublishOX articles, I learned about Pre-search. Everyone uses a search engine at some point if they are on the Internet, so why not earn a little extra just for doing searches? This is a no-brainer and I strongly suggest everyone do their searching through Pre-search.

Conclusion

So that's the extent of my collection and how I got involved with each of the tokens. None have enough value for me to worry about, so I just allow the collection to grow without converting any of it to fiat money to be withdrawn and spent. The hope is that one day, crypto-currencies will become ubiquitous and universally accepted by most merchants. At that time, I may end up spending some of my holdings directly, without converting to fiat first.