Hive Stock Images Concept is Brilliant!

I was perusing the Hive.io Ecosystem...like ya do...and came upon Hive Stock Images. I read the concept behind the dApp and thought, "That's a brilliant idea!"

This is from the Hive Stock Images About page:

Every day on Hive authors are using stock images. I use them on occasion myself and when I add that source link as a thank you to the creator of that
the image on the free stock photo sites I wish I could give them a percentage beneficiary from that post. Except they probably don't have an account on Hive, so I can't.

Yet Hive has lots of talented artists and photographers. What if they
wanted to offer some of their work up for use by other Hivers for the
chance of a return of a percentage beneficiary every time someone used
that picture? We could then be supporting our content creators and giving these artists an ongoing income stream for their efforts.

This is such a simple yet powerful concept. How many times do we use Pixabay or Unsplash images? Sure we credit the source. It's the right thing to do and required. But what if we could use images that were posted to Hive by their respective photographers? And what if we could not only credit that person but add them as a beneficiary of any post rewards?

This is a win/win scenario for everyone involved.

How Does It Work?

So let's put this into practice right now. I did a search for coffee on Hive Stock Images and here are a few options that popped to the top.

The image that caught my eye was the cup of coffee in a glass cup sitting on a table next to a laptop and mouse. It's the one on the second row in the column on the right.

So I clicked on the image to discover the photo was part of a collection of photos.

Although I do like the fact there were more options to choose from, I was still interested in the same photo I had originally chosen. So I clicked on the specific photo and this popped up.

Notice the "Image URL Link" at the bottom of the photo. When I copy that link and add the photo as a link (instead of an image upload) it looks like this photo below:

I like how it tags and credits the person who took the photo and posted it in the Hive Stock Image Community.

Value Model: Beneficiary

Part of the model has to do with rewarding the photographer by either adding them as a post beneficiaries or sending them a tip in the original post. I like this idea a whole lot. After all, these talented photographers are providing value to us so we should in turn provide value back to them. In this case, I am going to add @bantamuda as a beneficiary of this post.

So what percentage should a Hive Stock Images photographer expect from anyone who uses their photos in a post? My first thought was somewhere between 5-10%. Then I saw a recent post by @mipiano who is a moderator in the Hive Stock Images community. There are two photos used by two different photographers. Each one was listed as a 10% beneficiary of the post. Which seemed like a good indicator of what others may be doing as well. So I will do the same.

What Do You Think?

Does Hive Stock Images replace the need for Pixabay and Unsplash? I think it could. I will need to spend more time searching the available images. What I like about it is that this is another way for photographers to continue earning beyond their original reward cycle. I am a big fan of all the nuanced ways we as creators can micro-monetization on Hive and adding photographers as beneficiaries to posts sounds like a great way to extend the life of photos. It's one of the best use cases for repurposing I've seen in a long time. Kudos to the Hive Stock Images and @minismallholding who had the vision for what a dApp like this could mean for both photographers and content creators who are looking for images for their blog posts. And for that reason, I am also adding @minismallholding as a 10% beneficiary of this post. I have to give credit where credit is due.

This concludes my late-night deep dive onto a rabbit trail I had no idea I was going to run down. I'm glad I did though. d