What Hive is...
It almost feels like the attack on Steem coming from Justin Sun was like yesterday and although at that time my reaction towards the announcement regarding Justing buying the Steemit Inc stake was one of total disappointment and frustration, the whole situation somehow "gave birth to what we now call Hive".
The blockchain is already three years old and its resilience is undeniable. I don't remember the last time it went down and the development that occurred over the past three years is decent, to say the least.
Some are still failing to understand what Hive really is and what it isn't. A couple of hours ago I stumbled upon a tweet of the official @leofinance Twitter account containing a message of frustration coming from a Hive user regarding #threads and how this new Leofinance feature could harm the "fair distribution" of Hive rewards.
The man clearly does not understand how #threads works, as you can see in the screenshot below...
He's probably not the only one who is still looking at hive through the old Steem lens. Hence I thought I should do a post on how I see Hive and what this blockchain is to me as 5+ years old user. Yes, it is still a "toddler", but this kid knows how to play and it is damn good at playing certain games.
First and foremost, to me, Hive is "the blockchain for everything". This thing is no longer just a "blockchain-based social media platform" as Steem used to be. It is the foundation on top of which certain blogging communities and interfaces have developed, but it is not reduced solely to such a purpose.
Hive is about long-form content, as the one I've been creating for over five years, but it is also the home of "decentralized vlogging", games like Splinterlands, and much more than that. Hive is more about functionality than existence. Steem simply existed, Hive is a fully functioning system.
I often times call it a society because that's how I see it. It has an economy of its own, different types of users(citizens), the law of the code that works flawlessly, and an ever-expanding potential.
It is WEB3, you know. Cuz in order to be able to interact with the blockchain through the plethora of apps that are operating on it you have to have a "blockchain account". You can't signup or sign-in on it as you do with Facebook for example. Your keys, your account. Lose em and you lost your Hive legacy...
What else is Hive?
It is clearly the epitome of free speech. No one can censor you from expressing yourself freely here. Even if your posts are downvoted to zero your content is still saved on the blockchain for as long as the blockchain will run properly.
For some of us, this thing has also been life-saving. The development of the second borehole at the Asamang by hive is ongoing at the site in Ghana. As you can read for yourselves in the linked post, some folks in Ghana are having access to unlimited fresh water thanks to funds coming from Hive.
No, the blockchain does not "donate money" or somehow direct tokens to such a project, but it made it possible for the fundraising that paid for the borehole.
Then there are the "full-time bloggers" like myself who made a living thanks to this blockchain, but Hive is not just about that, although Hive is about that too. Hive is the soil in which anyone can plant almost anything. However, there are still plenty of users taking it for a WEB2 project and treating it as such.
One day they will probably be able to see it with different eyes, but not today... What about you, what is Hive for you?
Thanks for your attention,
Adrian
Posted Using LeoFinance Beta
Hive is a learning tool that will earn me a passive income through community interaction.
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Hive is not just long-form content. If we want to get with the times and encourage broad participation then that line of thought needs to be expanded more than just a little.
The Hive white-paper : https://hive.io/whitepaper.pdf
Makes no explicit mention of 'long-form' content anywhere.
In particular, it mentions that the interactions to evaluate content are "reminiscent of both social media networks and traditional economies"
Now, I don't know if you know, but medium has 50 million users, and twitter has stagnated at under 300 million for the past decade, meanwhile, you have instagram, tiktok commanding over a billion. The latter managed to do this in just a few years.
Anyone who is arguing that long-form is the only acceptable form, is protecting their interests for fear of becoming obsolete. It is what it is, and I understand that view, but such is the way humanity advances, and advancing it does, whether you are onboard or not.
Hive's 'value' is what people are willing to pay, on the margin, for the coins that people can earn in the various activities that happen on Hive. As a net buyer of Hive, and not in an insignificant way, I buy because I am a participant in certain corners of Hive and wish to see them thrive. There are plenty of people who opine about what 'Hive' should be, but very few of them put more than just their time in as skin in the game. I do both.
The white paper also speaks of competition for attention. Attention garnered from reputation, popularity, quality among other things. The ability to attract users is actually the first rung in a ladder which extends much further. The more users competing for that attention, the cheaper it is for stakeholders to direct attention around. I'm a student of on-chain relationships between attention and fundamental value. (see my posts on twitter about Brain energy)
Being able to capture and direct attention is one of the ways participants can really empower their communities. Whether your community is based around an app such as Liketu, or just a Hive Community, or even a creator wishing to strengthen their relationship with their followers. In the end, it is all about the marginal cost of acquiring and directing attention.
Whether or not long-form or micro-blogging is valuable is a pointless discussion when it comes to attention. They are both valuable, so long as we define "value" to be something which drives the sorts of things which lead to downstream positive participation, whether that's engagement, views, and subsequent purchases of Hive, powering up of said Hive..
The next time someone wants to assert that Hive is not micro-blogging, I'd be happy to sell them a few million of my Hive and let them negate my votes. That's decentralization in action and I'd be fine with that.
Either way, we are all early adopters and we yearn for change. The problem is, the world is changing very fast and we simply cannot afford to hold out-dated, asinine views.
I will also add that threading is an excellent solution to a "problem" that shouldn't even exist in the first place - a problem mostly rooted in the bigoted and somewhat fascist view that valuable content (the kind which drives traffic, user retention, investment) can only come from people who wish to pump out wordy rehashed drivel, with the illusion of 'effort', day in day out.
The last I checked, tiktok was pulling 60 billion USD in revenue a year.
We have a lot of work to do.
Quite comprehensive your comment. I really appreciate it because it adds value to the post.
However it will take long until the majority on Hive will realize short form content has its place on Hive and it should be encouraged.
We should be careful about spamming though.
He seems not to understand too well about threads, I believe he will when he has been told a lot about it, Hive is truly an everything app, that's true.
The first network state our there!
BTW, your stake doesn't support your claims...
Details?
Such grandiose statments at the end of your post from someone with active power down and almost all the earned HP dumped on the market?
It just simply doesn't add up for me. If Hive is so great, how don't support it with a stake?
Nothing personal, I even enjoy your content from time to time but here I can see major discrepancy. I just started to monitor stakes of high reputation accounts recently and it tells a lot.
Or your words about treating Hive as Web 2.0 are self-descriptionary, then pardon my comment.
Do you know what I mean?
It is that great that it managed to keep me away from a regular 9-5 and the system that I hate for about two years. I had to power down a lot. Will stop that once the bull market is over and I will have some cash saved so I won't have to rely on my earnings 100%.
I support Hive with what I do, not my stake. I don't believe I'm harming it in any way by selling something like 300 HIVE a week.
As mentioned in the post I see it as a society and in a society every citizen decides to do with his earnings what he considers best.
Some are into reinvesting and more after building a stake than spending while others are not into that.
For now I can't consider myself a stake holder in Hive. I just produce content...
I won't be doing that forever. Hopefully by the end of the bull market I will have enough HBD in savings so I can afford covering my expenses without powering down anything.
I don't try to look grandiose. I'm far from being in that position. Just a Hive content creator...
Something I already mentioned in the post.
I'm far trying to redirect your stream income, believe me :) You are absolutely free to act in any way on your stake, however you action are perceived in this transparent ecosystem. And here I come just with my OPINION. You are free to ignore it, obviously, however I would treat it as a friendly advice. Take into account please I put that into blockchain, creating vulnerability for myself out of the care for the common benefit.
Also, congrats on the optimism with seeing this part of cycle as bull market. And considering valuation of around $0.40 per $HIVE as attractive enough to sell en masse tells a lot about your believe in this society. Or the concept of stake is alien to you?
Money speaks louder than words. And 300weekly amassed to more than 30000, that's also a drop in the ocean, sure, however what if all bloggers here would act that way?
Yes, I consider this is the beginning of the bull market, and no not everyone does the same with the stake they hold. There's always going to be diversity and change.
I thought you meant the other way, since you were selling during the bear. Yes, I believe we are on brink of bull market too.
Anyway. We are over here. Thanks for responding in civilised manner. And honestly, I wish you success with your strategy!
By no means do I ever try to be rude. That's just me. Simple man, simple words, simple life...