Just returned from work and there it was.... a small envelope with my name on it from Germany. Hmmm... Wonder what it could be ? :O

Nah, I already had a good idea of what I would find inside :)

So, what did it have inside? It had the gift...of life!

As you can see it's a letter and two packages with seeds, with my nickname (trumpman) on them. Technically, it's not a gift, it's just the seeds I received for participating in "plantbreeding@home", a steemit exclusive experiment run by @dysprosium. But the seeds came for free and that letter made everything feel really personal so yeah fuck it. It's a gift, ok?

As for plantbreeding@home, the ultimate goal if I get it right is to create a "new plant variety, using a big network of people ".

Here's the post that started everything 7 months ago (fuck, time flies!) and here are the subsequent updates that led to this really exciting day:

plantbreeding@home #1 - The Beginning
plantbreeding@home #2 - We will breed peppers!
plantbreeding@home #3 - it is decided!
plantbreeding@home #4 - Meet the parents!
plantbreeding@home #5 - Small setbacks
plantbreeding@home #6 - Let's grow!
plantbreeding@home #7 Spring is here, spring is heeeeere!

As for the actual experiment, the first thing we have to do is germinate the seeds:

" Most importantly: For the project, there is no requirement of a certain way to raise your plants. Whether you want to do it in pots, plant them into your garden (note that peppers do not tolerate frost!), plant them in a hydroponic system - this does not matter. As long as they grow, you are set!"

And after that just take care of the plants and send some measurements to @dysprosium:

" What I would like to introduce at this point are optional and requiredmeasuring points. There will be very few required measurements, as this project should be easy and fun without much hassle. Therefore there are in addition optional measurements, for the more science-enthusiastic! :) As a little motivation I'd like to say this much: There will be a prize in Gridcoin (or alternatively SBD) for people who collected all optional data points!"

Yeah, you read that right! He will even reward us with Gridcoins for a job well done! And I plan to publish my updates here on steemit too so I will be getting two of my favorite cryptos (steem and gridcoin) for something that I do every year for free regardless.. That's what I call... the art of the deal:

(credit)

As for the plants, they are two small pepper varieties. You can read all the details about the parent plants here, so if all goes well I guess my final plants will look something like this...

(credit @dysprosium)

and this...

(credit @dysprosium)

Thanks @dysprosium for letting me into the team! These seeds made a long journey from Germany and you have already put too much work and love into this project. I promise, I will take good care of them and give them lot's of love!

I am super excited and tomorrow I will go and buy some new brand pots just for these plants. I have a garden but I will keep them in my balcony to keep them protected from diseases and pests from surrounding plants.

Oh yeah, I think the project is still going on so don't hesitate to leave a comment in his blog at https://steemit.com/@dysprosium if you want to join too!

Thanks again!

P.S: If you don't know what Gridcoin/GRC is please click here! In short, it's the only crypto that actually makes the world a better place, helping solve problems like cancer/AIDs/Ebola/Malaria, mapping the Milkyway, searching for extraterrestrial life, protein folding, etc).