Hive Power Up Day (#HivePUD) - 1 July 2020

Thanks, yeah, first day back at work after a week off and lots going on - always the way! Anyway, I'll try to answer briefly those questions here:

• Where are the tokens coming from

These are generated each day on the network, by the underlying blockchain technology. Every 3 seconds, all transactions (posts, comments, wallet transfers etc) are recorded on the blockchain in "blocks of text" known as a ledger. This generates tokens at a set rate with the rate of token generation set to decrease every few hundred thousand blocks so eventually, the amount of tokens generated will be decreased.

• How to exchange hive for money

There are many exchanges available to do this with. Some don't require any details other than an email address to sign in and create an account which are more favourable (no bank accounts needed). The most common route I know of is to exchange HIVE for BTC and then BTC to your local currency. Some allow withdraw to PayPal, others to your bank account, really depends on personal preference and what is available in your country.

• How important HIVE crypto currency is?

This is a bit of a tough one to answer as it depends on what you define as "importance". Some people can actually use HIVE as their main source of income and use it to feed their family, I'd argue that it's VERY important to them.

For me, it's a definitely got importance too as a side income with my blogging and I want to eventually use HIVE to help pay for my music production and things relating to my blog. I'd love one day for it to be able to pay for travelling and holidays (when we're allowed to travel again).

• Just like Bitcoin, how can HIVE be used. Meaning now if I have $20. I know I can use it to buy something. But if I have 20 HIVE, what can I use it to do?

Actually, you can use HIVE to buy things from merchants that have installed a plug-in on their website for products and services and there are games that are running that require Hive to be used to buy things in the game.

More options will become available as time goes on I'm sure.

• Is hive legal. If it crashes, who is held responsible?

I'm not a lawyer so not really qualified to answer this and every country has their own laws on it but I suspect it would be treated like any other cryptocurrency.

For example, in the UK, anyone can buy and sell cryptocurrencies but don't have to pay tax on it unless you withdraw over a certain amount in to £.

Depends what you mean by "crashing"? If the price crashes, that simply means there's no demand for the token as the open market dictates that. If the blockchain crashes, then it's the witnesses responsibility as they are the ones who maintain the chain and ensure it runs. Different sites like peakd, 3speak etc are run by different people so it's their responsibility to ensure they keep things up and running there.

• If crypto currency is turned to physical cash, which country would claim it.

My understanding is that cryptocurrency would never work as physical cash because you would have "offline" tokens/money that wouldn't be able to be accounted for on the blockchain. The whole reason for cryptocurrencies is that they are secure and highly encrypted so can't be doctored and money can't be given that isn't there.

No doubt, governments and countries are looking at how they can control money and use blockchain technology as we see the current financial system in chaos.

• Are we like ripping off others when we win or earn some of these crypto currencies?

Not at all, in fact, others should be joining in the fun and try to win or earn some of it themselves because we're seeing a huge shift in the way we think about wealth distribution.

Some people can't believe it and think it's too good to be true, too complicated, must be a scam... when I've asked these people a bit more about it, the common theme is that they simply don't understand the fundamentals and philosophy of what's going on.

It's their loss ultimately and people will feel aggrieved when they see what they could have when the prices shoot up. As you see on Hive, once you have a log in (your posting key), you can actually just write a post like you would do on any social network and start earning - this is available to anyone so no-one should feel they are getting ripped off.

• What's cryptocurrency?

In general, it's just another form of money that has no physical form but all transactions made are recorded immutably on a public ledger known as the blockchain.

These transactions are recorded by computers owned by various people throughout the world and not just one entity. This is known as "decentralisation" because you don't have a centralised, single organisation to rely on to keep the blockchain running and transactions recorded.

I hope this helps answer some of your questions - I may put this in a post if you're OK with that? Others might find it useful and we might get more clarification on some of the questions 😃