Does Hive Even Exist?

As I slowly crawl out of my shell of thoughts, I think it's time I gave the topic a space in my blog.

What Is Hive?

Isn't that quite the question of the year?

I couldn't help but notice that Hive is not quite a definitive structure, it is almost like it doesn't exist, I mean, if I asked you, what would you say? A social media? Well, it is not.

"Hive is a decentralized and open-source cryptocurrency and blockchain project, created by the community as a resistance to the censorship of the parent chain."

This is how we framed Hive on our introductory guide to Hive Blockchain

But does that really mean anything?

I don't sense a niche in that definition so that would be that Hive doesn't exist right? Well, it exist, but as database that so much can be developed atop, and it is not frequently advertised from that angle, making it non-existent whilst the idea of "Hive as a social network" is being debated too many times due to a reward pool that can't really compete with any Web2 social network.

Here's is where I point out that I am not much of a fan of "the everything app", it is largely flawed concept for a product in this present time, you need to have a niche to stand out, trying to be everything will have massive set backs.

But that's just my opinion right?

I would prefer one builds a product, then builds more products and bridge to each other, instead of building a single product to offer the services of all, it actually has a massive limitation.

I am still closely watching what leofinance as the everything app will transition to but I surely know it won't be the everything app because such a thing doesn't exist, even WeChat isn't, and Twitter won't be either, merging finance with social media doesn't make it everything.

This brings us back to the point that "Hive" under the concept of a social network doesn't quite exist, Hive.blog isn't Hive it is merging a frontend displaying " specific texts" posted to the chain, Peakd isn't Hive, Leofinance isn't Hive, these all are different projects built on the Hive blockchain.

Now why am I even saying all these things?

I'm saying this because I saw a couple of people talking about leofinance aiming to bring users that will come to milk the Hive reward pool, shit, I thought by now we've grown past that way of thinking?

Or even those believing that Leo only aims to promote leofinance and not Hive, shit, so what?

What is Hive? Leo if building a space for content creators and consumers, so what's there on Hive outside Leo that should interest the people coming? Shit if they have to appear on leofinance first and not on Hive.blog for example then they most likely don't care what Hive is.

If we're being totally honest, it will be impossible for them to not find out about Hive and other dApps because people quite frequently talk and post about them.

I mean, if you visit icoverage.io do you care to know that Namecheap is the company hosting the content on the pages? Or that Cloudflare is the distribution protocol?

All those things don't mean anything to the average user. So Hive as a social network, doesn't exist, if one is looking for more people to build on Hive as a blockchain network then they should set out marketing plans to attract developers and not think it's the job of platforms like Leo to teach people what Hive is as a blockchain.

Oh it seems people don't realize that having more Leo users means having more Hive users because it's a Hive-based account afterall so what's all these drags about?

Is it now safe to say that maybe why we aren't growing is because we can't define who we are?