Damn those scratch like marks look nasty but I'm glad they don't bring you any pain.
I agree it is the beginning of this process and it's going to get even harder when hardfork 20 hits and the floodgates open.
It's going to get harder and harder to get steem tokens so people should begin to horde as much as they can now as when time progresses and more people use the platform the distribution of the reward pool will get slimmer and slimmer.
Let's see what the future beholds but if you jumped on board the steem train now you, like myself, you are very lucky.