3 Years On Hive - Forever Learning

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3 Years

The other day, I received a notification from @hivebuzz that I've been happily using HIVE blockchain services for 3 whole years. I thought I had joined later but obviously my memory isn't as good as a blockchain's haha! It's been an instrumental part in my knowledge relating to this crypto, decentralisation and blockchain malarkey but it's been really exciting as a two-bit content creator, sharing my music, travel and general blogging ramblings.

I'll try to sum up what I've learned over the last 3 years and highlight the basics as best I can so you can slide right in if you're new (or even if you've been around a while)! Entering a Web3 world is all about you owning your experience so hopefully I can help get you started!

Also, shout out to the 1,000 folks who follow me on Hive! I reached this milestone on the same day I hit 3 years so thanks a lot for the support!

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Take It In Your Stride

When I first joined, there was hardly anything other than a blogging frontend but these days, there's so much to get stuck in to that it makes even those who've been around for a while a little dizzy! So my advice when you first get started is take it slowly! I remember it taking me a little while to understand the basics of just using this chain but it's been worth it! You just have to take it in your stride, play the long game and not be overwhelmed - little by little, you'll get there!

Account Setup

This is probably the most daunting part of it all but take your time to understand the following and you'll be set! Remember, it's a little different to what we're used to from Facebook and Twitter but the great thing about having a HIVE account is you don't need to have any other login info to use other Hive powered sites, games or apps. Spend the most time understanding this section as it's SO important for the security of your account - you own your passwords, no-one else.


The Keys To Your Hive Experience

Make sure you understand what your "private keys" do first and foremost as these are your various passwords to get in to your account. Keep them in a safe place and don't lose them or give them away to anyone! Remember:

  • Posting key (level 1 access) - for posting, commenting and voting on content
  • Active key (level 2 access) - for wallet transfers (sending crypto), voting on community proposals and voting witnesses (who maintain the chain)
  • Memo key - to send encrypted memos put # at the beginning of a wallet memo. You use the memo key if you have received an encrypted memo so you can read it.
  • Owner key (level 3 access) - to change all keys in case of a breach in your account - don't lose this
  • Master Password (level everything) - your absolute last resort - keep this in a safe place and offline!

Keep Your Keys Safe

Once you feel comfortable with what these keys are, Hive Keychain is a great password protected browser extension to download and put your posting, active and memo keys in. It seems counter-intuitive but these keys are designed to be impossible to remember for your own safety so you can't change them to your usual passwords you use elsewhere.


Recovery Account

You won't have to use any email address or personal info to create an account on HIVE which also means that keeping your keys safe is of paramount importance. It also means you will need to have a trusted account on HIVE to be your "recovery account" should something go wrong - hopefully you will have been brought on here with a friend that will help you recover your account but make sure you can contact whoever owns that account so you can get your account back.


HIVE Power

When you first start, you can only do limited activities as you won't have any HIVE Power (HP). Essentially, using all these Hive powered sites consumes resources on the network which you can only acquire by having HP. Think of it like when your Netflix keeps buffering during a movie because someone else on the network is livestreaming, there's not enough bandwidth. HP is your bandwidth and you probably need about 100HP at an absolute max for optimum use but there are services willing to loan HP to you for free to help you with this. If you're a bit more au fait with crypto then you can buy HIVE from exchanges, send it to your account and stake it this way.

OK, that's the account setup stuff covered, the rest of the sections won't be quite so intense as once you're set-up, you're good to go mates! But where the heck do you even begin? Let's say you have specific interests and want to meet like minded-people instead of just posting in to the abyss...

Communities Of Specific Interest

Before you do your first introduction post, my recommendation is to take a look around at the vast array of communities of specific interests that are available and start commenting - get your name seen on posts and network like you would do in any other social site. It's a great way to meet people and build a rapport/following! Then you can do your intro post and away you go!

I have created an "Evergreen List of Communities" which has 27 different communities of various topics with links to all of them so you just need to click whatever takes your fancy and subscribe to that community page. There's all sorts - Music, Travel, Sports, Crypto, Photography, Entrepreneurship, Poetry, Sewing... pretty much everything is covered and each community is buzzing with activity.

If you're going to join one of these communities and share your posts, then make sure you...

Keep Your Content Original

Plagiarism, copy paste, recycling old content word-for-word, spamming are all seriously frowned upon and will land you in a hot steaming pile of manure. My recommendation (what I do) is to make sure that your content is all your own or stock/commercial-free with sources to the original link if you have used others work - different communities will specify what they are looking for so read and follow their guidelines.

Discord

Discord is usually where a lot of these communities have their chat rooms as there isn't anything created yet on Hive that allows you to interact instantly (other than a prototype PeakD chat function). For me, I don't hang out on Discord as much any more but it can be a great place to get to know others - not compulsory but a lot of announcements are made in various Discord servers so you may have to get set up there too (it's a bog standard email and password for that one though)!

If You're Stuck, Just Ask

Nothing more to say about this really! Best place to ask for help is probably in any Discord servers you're in but there are plenty of helpful people around the place who will be happy to answer questions if you are struggling.

Get Involved & Have Fun!

Hopefully when you're settled in to this new approach of social sites, you'll have fun with those of similar interests and keep on coming back to get your fill! There's so much to explore here and I hope that I've covered the essentials on the social side - yes there is a crypto and gaming side to Hive too but as I'm not a financial advisor I'm not going to get in to that here and this post is long enough already!

Thanks for the good vibes everyone, here's to the next 3 years!

How has your experience been since joining Hive? What have you learned the most since being here? Let me know in the comments below!

Take care

Nicky

P.S. here's my latest Trance music release from yesterday in case you missed it - hope you enjoy!

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42 comments
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First of all, Happy HIVE Birthday! And these types of posts are great for newbies. Even users that are already experienced in HIVE can learn a lot. Well done! I'm thinking of improving my keys' security, they are safe, but they can be more organized. I will buy a printer and a special USB Drive or HardDrive, change all the keys for my active accounts and save them in a way that easily I can have access to them, but at the same time, I can also protect them from any harm.

Keep it up! @EddieSpino from the @Aliento Project.

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Thanks a lot man!

Yeah, as I was typing this one I was finding I was learning it better and was clear in my head! That's a great tip to keep everything offline there - changing keys regularly is probably a good thing to do as well just in case but if you look after them and never use owner/master key unless you absolutely have to then you're pretty well set! I may have to do another post about crypto security as well...

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Yes, I've been thinking about organizing my keys for a long time, and your post helps me decide. This coming week I'll see if I can buy everything I need. Thanks again for the tips!

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Happy birthday brother. Lol, I think I was on a break when my 3rd birthday happened during the summer last year.

So much great information in this post... if I were new I'd know exactly what to do! Awesome.

That trance track is great too. Was bouncing my head to that as I wrote this comment... reminds me of my trance days when me and my dearly departed friend Matt used to go see 'Above and Beyond' whenever they played either Manchester or Liverpool. It will tell you how much I love my trance that a Scouser would step foot in Madchester ;-)

Happy birthday... and here's to 3 more years on hive :)

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It won't be long before your 4th one then! A seasoned veteran!

Thanks for the birthday wishes and glad you're digging the trance track celebration! Sorry to hear about your friend but sounds like you had some great memories of those rave days, even if you had to dirty yourself up by going to Manchester haha!

Here's to the next 3 - we could be whales by then lol!

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It won't be long before your 4th one then!

August this year.

If I'm a whale by then I'll eat my hat 🤣

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Hahaha! Glad you said "hat" and not what a certain Mr Mcafee said he'd eat if a certain prediction came to fruition!

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(Edited)

Ha ha, Mcafee and his dick chugging ways... yeah, defo my hat dude. I might eat my socks if Bitcoin hits 500k this year tho 🤣

But even then, there'd have to be some type of BTC bet involved, I'm a bit loopy... but I'm not Mcafee loopy.

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Haha I'll be eating more than the cheese toasties if that happened with BTC mate! Unreal figures!

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nice one!

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Thanks mate! Hope you found this little run through helpful Question Master!

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1,001st follower on Hive, even though I thought that those steemit follows carried through. I've been a fan for 3 years too.

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Killer jam dude. Also, grats on the anni! Takes commitment to stick around that long and you went through the shitstorms with us so kudos bro.

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Thanks a lot mate! Haha, yeah it's been an eventful 3 years! I'm sure there'll be brighter days ahead, just hope it's not the eye of another shitstorm lol

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I have a feeling all of crypto will be targeted soon and a financial war will take place between the emerging free world and the banking tyrants of yore.

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You might be right there although I think we're already seeing some of the battle begin to play out with the mainstream media getting their FUD on!

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Congratulations @nickyhavey! You have completed the following achievement on the Hive blockchain and have been rewarded with new badge(s) :

You distributed more than 24000 upvotes.
Your next target is to reach 25000 upvotes.

You can view your badges on your board and compare yourself to others in the Ranking
If you no longer want to receive notifications, reply to this comment with the word STOP

Check out the last post from @hivebuzz:

Feedback from the March 1st Hive Power Up Day
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I should be 3 by now.. but still haven't had my birthday sticker (sulk)...

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Hmmm, have you checked your Hivebuzz page? It might be there. Did you mute notifications from the automated messages?

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(Edited)

No I get them, I will look later.., it's not a big deal.

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Three years on Hive! Wow! Congratulations @nickyhavey on your 1000 followers. I'm going on three months as I joined on 2nd January and it's been an exciting ride.

Like you said, there's much activity going on here and that's what I love about this platform. When a friend asked how's its going, I said I'm like a child surrounded by sweets and trying to decide which to take first. 😄

Your article is detailed and will be helpful to newbies. I wish I read this post before I dropped my introduction. I would have visited communities, dropped comments and get to know my way around before my Intro post. It's all well and good.

I hope to keep learning as I believe Hive will keep getting better and more interesting! Cheers 🙂🍀

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Hey @kemmyb! Thanks a lot - it's been a long process but it's been all organic which is what I'm most happy with!

And welcome to HIVE too - there's lots to explore and plenty of fun to be had here, really glad you're enjoying it - love that description of a kid being surrounded by sweets haha!

No worries, it sounds like you've really embraced being here and got to know your way around too so well done! I look forward to seeing your 3 year post in 2024 😄

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2024 is still a looooong way to go! I'll take my journey here slow and steady. Thank you 🙂

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Haha, it will get here before you know it 😃

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I missed this post, sorry, and Happy anniversary with some delay :)

In some 4-5 months I will celebrate my first year hehe, I hope that I will be persistent as you tio! 3 years! 👏👌

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Aha thank you bropiano 😂

It's been a long journey for sure but worthwhile in my opinion to share creations and music! Looking forward to reading your first year too!

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bropiano

I vote for this nickname 😇🤣

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🤣 hahaha! Then we'll keep with it until something more fun pops into our heads 😆

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But keep changing, it is funnier then :-) but this one is cool 😎

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As always, awesomesauce information, dearest NH! And...

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Thanks so much for your wickedawesomesauce help in my 3 years TY! I'm glad we met 💙

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