LET'S TALK ABOUT HIVE: DEVELOPMENT, MARKETING, DAPPS.
Honest conversations are usually the hardest to have, especially in an ecosystem where 99.9% of its users have to pander to whales for upvotes. It is no surprise because more than half of the active users on Hive are from second and third-world countries. However, I will speak my mind despite the threats of being cancelled/downvoted for sharing unpopular opinions about Hive, but before I go into that, I have a few genuine questions to ask the community.
How do you feel about the current state of the blockchain?
I have been here since 2018. There are a handful of users who have been here this long. Most of them are going about hive passively--posting (because they are guaranteed upvote). No one cares about the blockchain. Those who do have been forced out through various means, but that's all in the past. The problem now is: What are we doing to grow the hive ecosystem?
I dare anyone to mention 3 dapps on Hive with a thousand active users. Signups are still shitty; there are very few active developers/witnesses who engage the community; content discovery is still shitty, however, we think these issues will resolve themselves. Well, I can bet that they won't, and chances are things would get a lot worse. Remember we were on this trajectory before the hostile takeover that rejuvenated our passion for Hive but that flame has long burned out.
As much as we would like to talk poorly about Steemit (and their antics), Hive/steem blockchain had direction back in the day when they were in charge. We had infrastructural plans; dapps and developers had support to build. Now, we have the DHF which is a joke to me because it is underutilized. I doubt there are a thousand people outside this ecosystem that are aware of its existence. Even active users on Hive don't know as well. With the current structure in place, there is zero chance of small projects getting funded which mitigates innovation and development. This is where we are now as a community.
In addition, and this is something most people won’t say, Hive has one of the worst PR in the crypto space. Getting institutional money into the system is near zero due to the debacle between Justin Sun and Steemit vs The community. The community itself isn't working in unison. We've had several breakaway communities from Hive. Should I also mention that the blockchain has a bad rep amongst the most popular crypto influencers? So explain to me how we plan on getting new people (users, developers, investors, etc) into the ecosystem.
The truth is almost no one knows (or even cares) about how Hive will reach the masses. There are few efforts to get the word out there. Dan is doing his best to promote 3spk and Hive; leofinance is doing the same. Recently I have seen Crimson hosting spaces and AMA for Hive and that is it. Even their effort isn’t supported by the said community because we’ve all become too tribal. We are just creating fractions and badmouthing each other. Has that gotten Hive anywhere? No. It has made Hive harder to grow because projects won't even collaborate. This is the only blockchain where such things happen. Ethereum supports its EVM blockchains. Those EVM blockchains support and build projects on their chain. Projects on those chains collaborate and are compatible with other EVM chains. The case is different on Hive.
When we are not hating on other projects on Hive, we turn to the poor people here who keep our chain active like they are the reason why Hive isn’t doing well. It seems we’ve settled for drama than actually doing the work needed to move this chain forward; it seems many people are comfortable with the way things are and don’t want to change. Well, I am not fine with the state of things on HIve. I see the effort other blockchains and projects are making to get people into their ecosystems. So if we do not have any concrete plan for moving this blockchain forward then I am sorry to say but we are on our way to the bottom.
But we've funded so many projects in the past that amounted to nothing. Why should we take more chances?
This is the most common and ridiculous excuse most people make whenever a new initiative comes on board. My answer to the question is simple: It is simple the prize we have to pay for growth. There isn’t much we have to leverage. I even dare say that the infightings are the major reasons why most communities and projects have failed or left. Dtube? Musing? Steemit? Blurt? Proofofbrain? If splinterlands leaves today it is over! This used to be a blockchain with high-ranking dapps in the crypto sphere, but where are they today?
Sorry to say but this space has become anti-innovative. We’ve scared projects away; we’ve scared communities away; we have scared people away, and for some reason, we think everything is fine. We think the next bull market will come and people will come back (so we can shit on them again).
There are barely two people I know who join Hive in 2018 that are still active on the blockchain. Everyone has moved on or is moving on and I am still holding on to this dream I was sold half a decade ago.
Just four things are keeping me on Hive. The first is hivenaija because I strongly believe in empowering people from my country and giving them a safe space (so they don’t wander around the hive blockchain seeking upvotes from people who see them as sub-human). Secondly, I enjoy writing and this pays the bills. Thirdly, leofinance, because it is the only active space on hive right now, where real development is taking place. Lastly, Dan and 3speak (I am a Dan fanboy. That man has inspired me ever since i heard him speak and as long as he is here I am willing to ride to the end with him).
There are a lot of people who don’t have any reasons to be here asides from their upvote and their stake. There isn’t much of a hive culture to imbibe and when people try to change this they face resistance. At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter how much stake we have if Hive doesn’t grow. Innovation and growths are the product of trial and error, and we need to create a space where new ideas can flourish.
Hive needs to be a safe space for developers and founders; Hive needs to be a safe space for creators; Hive also needs serious marketing. Any effort geared towards promoting Hive or any app isn't a waste. We give people thousands of dollars for posting and upvoting shitty posts no one reads. We can do better things with that money.
Vote for the leofinance DHF proposal for the following reasons:
It is the most active community in the hive ecosystem. The Team is active and engages with the community regularly.
They are building on the Hive.
10,000 new users are going to be added to the hive ecosystem if they succeed.
Marketing is important. There is no successful brand, company, organisation, etc in the world that doesn't have a marketing project.
The DHF is set aside to support projects on Hive and Leofinance is an active project on Hive with a good reputation.
Also, use the leofinance frontend to create your content. They also have an amazing microblogging platform which fosters on-chain interaction.
Posted Using LeoFinance Alpha
Well said, I'm impressed and like you I am not happy with the current state of Hive and haven't been for a long time. The truth is, the big guys don't want growth, because they don't want to share more of the rewards pool, period. Anything else they use as an excuse is simply to hide that.
I like to deal with the real issues rather than fixate on names. Everyone who has been here long enough knows that Hive needs a face-lift and we probably might not be able to achieve due to some of the reasons i have mentions. The best we can do is promote dapp, communities, initiatives on the chain. If they are not gaining traction we change strategy. To leave the growth of hive to chance and time is a fool's game in my opinion.
I don't have the stake to influence anyone's decision here but i do have an opinion, which i think is valid.
Just in case anyone is curious about what i have been doing with all the hive I have been earning for the past 4 years
...and you can donate to help your favourite African Prince. :)
I strongly believe in few years to come, hive will change the space of Blockchain
I have spent 3 months here but believe me it is becoming complex day by day. Today I learnt a new thing "whales upvote" what is that? Are the big big users?
Whales are users who hold a lot of HP (not sure how many, i guess over 200,000 - i'll try to find out). They therefore have large curation votes, witness votes and DHF proposal votes, so it's difficult to earn decent amounts on posts/comments without whale votes, difficult to get a DHF proposal funded or get into top 20 witnesses without whale support. It can therefore be hard to make changes which do not financially favour whales in short term. However there are some whales who play the long game so will support.
Hope that clarifies.
If you don’t expand when others are cutting down and playing it safe you won’t be able to get massive returns when the market bounce back. It’s something I learn from the 10x rule by Cardone.
I think the fact that many people have tried onboarding users in the past with no chance of success should inspire us to see this one as another opportunity to try again. And this time Threads(the everything app) is going to be the prominent driver for this campaign.
I think the fact that many people have tried onboarding users in the past with no chance of success should inspire us to see this one as another opportunity to try again. And this time Threads(the Everything app) is going to be the prominent driver for this campaign.
As it should be. We cannot give up after one or two attempts. We all have a stake in this game and we need Hive to succeed. From what I am seeing many hive given up on Hive and are just trying to protect what's left of it and by doing so making things even worse.
well written brother.
i've only been here since Jan '20 . From that date i've been attempting to drum up support for #Matrix8 which i hold a strong conviction can be a game changer.
It is clear now however that it stands no chance of being adopted for Hive community governance unless/until it is first proven in a community.
Today i made post proposing we begin to design and experiment with a Community voting system for some aspects of #Leofinace organisation.
If you've not seen it you can do so here https://leofinance.io/@atma.love/potential-leo-community-voting-system
Your input would be greatly appreciated.
Peace and love, Atma
i did look at it yesterday and I think it is a decent idea. I will drop my feedback later in the day.
Thanks, it would be much appreciated.
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! help(no space) to get help on Hive. InfoWhat I hope to see is constructive criticism and meaningful collaborations. You say something won’t work. How can we make it work should follow.
There’s so much to offer here than unproductive virtue signaling and finger pointing.
Make these dramas no dey make me feel like fool for Twitter abeg.
Guy you no dey see wetin dey occur. Dem no won collaborate. Na to dey form caucus for discord they sabi. E be like self-sabotage. We all know what's going on but just unlook. It is certainly not the way forward. This is by the best chain in terms of infrastructure but the tribalism is killing innovation. Maybe we fine with it because one app on the chain has become mainstream.
Its important to remember it's bear season.
I'm a little excited that Hive/Steem documentary, being lead by lordbutterfly and others might be interesting.
But in general, Hive Whales banked on projects like Splinterlands, which has had an awesome run, and like everything else is struggling in the Bullseason.
They, most of the Hive Whales haven't pretended to care about the "Blogging" side since they decided almost everyone is a farmer, years ago.
That would be a fine decision if they were doing magical things to onboard apps.
I guess we shall see if Hive rebounds in the Bullseason (6 months or so away)
but it's hard to see any evidence it will.
I still feel fond of many people here, but I gave up on the idea that Hive's going to ever make anymore than a handful of people any meaningful amount of money.
Still you can get a small chunk of Hive for a blog, might as well ride it as long as it lasts, and meet some interesting people along the way
Those that really matter though? I know a handful of other projects (ReadOn, Phaver, Lens, etc) that are doing better. Venom, zetachain are projects on Testnet but they have a more active community. Why? Because they are getting their marketing right. How is it taking Hive over 7 years to figure out what works?
Depending on a project like splinterland they can choose to leave. As much as people would hate to deny it there isn't much loyalty in this space. It is a game of incentives. If splinterlands get a cheaper or better to run their infrastructure elsewhere chances are they will. We need more active dapps.
They are equally doing the same--farming. They get the chuck out of the reward pool. So they need to make up their mind on how to move forward with hive. Or come up with a decent plan to promote this chain, rather than let people print millions of hive daily.
This is where I am currently. But I will like to be proven otherwise.
I read on Discord that splinterlands are leaving Hive blockchain soon.
i don't think any chains offer feeless transactions which are important for their business. Let's see how things pan out.
Koinos chain can.
Upvoted and reblogged
Thank you...
$PIZZA slices delivered:
@atma.love(1/15) tipped @nonsowrites
I haven’t experienced much of Hive, I love reading your post cause you speak with experience and knowledge.
Thanks for still being on this space and sharing your knowledge.
You are weclome. I am glad you got some value from this post.
Thank you ☺️
I strongly agreed with you and that´s why i am excited by the work Leo, Value Plan, Hive Creators and Crimsonclad is doing. And i think we really need to do a massive Hackaton to bring many developers cause we need them, we need more people building, even if they dont come now cause its bear market but they will know about Hive.
Also, i really think we need to build a way to make evergreen content on Hive base on views, time visualization or time reading. Lot of people arent creating great content cause they are creating it just for the upvotes when they should be focusing on generate traffic to their post from web2 and build an audience around that. Evergreen content could make think about that and i am sure they will start thinking of their account as his own personal brand, SEO and more. I think Leo is working on this so...
Let´s see.
I am all for anything that brings value and attention to the blockchain. We can all learn from these experiences and share ideas on how to move forward.
I am of the opinion that we are what we reward. If we reward those who aren't putting in effort people follow the trend/money. Leofinance is looking into this and other initiatives to bring value to the space. They are not folding their arms and concluding that hive is doomed like many other stakeholders. This is why I support them
The truth is painful.
I am glad you found someone and something to nourish your belief in a better future.
I have too, but my faith in the chains future is waning. The economic censorship here is well known. People constantly deny it, but their constant denial attests more to its existence then absence.
The lack of support for initiatives, ingrained players sucking up the lion’s share of the reward pool, outright hostility to newcomers, innovation and disagreement with their views here is well known.
Many seek to preserve their giant pieces of the reward pool at all costs.
I share your ride and die attitude and currently feel the chances of Hive ever becoming widely known are basically slim and none. The forces of progress and encouragement are too small, and the forces of darkness to large.
I see a slim chance of a better future, that chance is sick in bed, and the prognosis is poor.
Which is sad, because the flashes of brilliance here are amazing, but the flashes of ignorance staggering.
Go to antisocialist's blog. He recommends that we small fish and dolphins may power up. Or, read his comments, that may be better. I am going to do that after I have found my keys. LOL
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Talking about onboarding which seems to be the only thing I can say I can be 'proficient' at asides creating content, I have personally been discouraged from onboarding.
The uncertainties of coming in are just too much. Sometimes, I wonder if the social aspect is really different from the usual social media space we're used to.
Perhaps the only thing that encourages me is the slightest notion that what value I bring might be rewarded.
I once pitched Hive to a highly influential person in the health space which I'm in by training and the rules and processes just discouraged her from start.
Only one or two people from the people I have onboarded are really active.
People are not exactly looking for "rewards". They are looking for a place where they can be whatever they want to be and an icing on the top would be "rewards". One of people I onboarded would rather spend hours wasting time away on the usual social media than be in a space where everything is regimented but value can be built.
I really don't know about projects, but I know people love to be "happy" and the projects should sell what makes people happy.
Hive would grow so fast when everyone is just naturally interacting.
I think this boils down to how people value their time and social interactions. I would rather spend time creating content on Hive and earning pennies than use Instagram to earn likes. Not everyone can become a web2 influencer (these spaces are already saturated) but Hive guarantees some form of reward for your social activity.
I think in the nearest future more people we begin to value their social activity and demand on compensation for using platforms.
Hive's major issue right now is sign-ups. It is not easy to get people in and the learning curve is steep, and there isn't the instant gravitation of getting views and comments. Once this is sorted out and we implement proper marketing, I do think the blockchain has a chance. I know it is doable because I was here in 2018 and I can tell you for free that things were a lot better back then.
Progress seems slow, but I believe we are about to hit an inflection point with HAF being almost complete, layer 2 smart contracts being rolled out in the near future, and the SPK network coming online soon. I am excited about the SPK network’s ceramic accounts. I think that will help with onboarding.
We haven’t been ready for mass adoption in my opinion, so a full out PR push to get people to join just seemed like a waste of time and resources. But we are closer to that moment. Having time to develop out of the spotlight I think will ultimately be seen as a blessing when we look back on it later.
There is major development happening (I remember recently reading that the @blocktrades team is pretty large now, I just can’t remember how many), but that development doesn’t necessarily show on a day to day basis from a blogging perspective. The work that is being put in should make it easier for non-blockchain developers to come here in the future, something that would be massive because that could really open the floodgates to massive growth and innovation on Hive, especially when we get out of the bear market.
I want things to happen faster too, but decentralized development with no VC funds just takes more time. Our budget is small compared to what others have but our vision for true web3 means that the progress we make is real and not fake web 2.5 progress that, while able to generate hype by those who don’t know any better, doesn’t lead us to where we want to be. I would rather take small steps to our final destination than large steps that lead us in circles.
Thanks for your submission. I agree that a lot is been done work to improve hive's infrastructure. There is no denying that because I have seen and read about those changes. How these changes are communicated isn't effective. There are people on this change who don't even know who Blocktrades is, this goes to buttress my point about Hive's PR.
Also as much as we want to build slowly, we should not forget that there is competition out there. Decentralized social media is the new meta and many blockchains are jumping on it. We need to occur in this space because we provide the most value to end users. We have the best product in the market currently but we are not doing well enough to promote it. I understand we are building, but we can do that with thousands of active users, we have the incentives to keep them active and testing, providing the much-needed feedback we need to improve. Two truths can co-exist.
I will support an initiative geared towards promoting Hive. I am active member if the community and I support projects on and off chain. So I am not on some smear campaign against Hive.
About the leofinance proposal. Yes, we can talk about what Hive can or cannot afford to fund. I do not think leofinance is asking for too much esp when I compare their proposal to some of the already funded projects.
With the largest curation account voting the majority of its take to dumpers, I'd suggest that their intent is to ride hive to the bottom to spite their outspoken critics.
IF I had made my money from the space, I'd have my funny bone tickled by forcing it into the dirt by taking out as much as I could, too.
It's just how greedy minds work.
Power used to help others is less sweet.
As long as 'we', as a community, vote rewards to those that dump, any failure of the hive is our own fault.
We are slitting our own throats, and asking not to die as a result.
Insanity.
Fyi, the top 20 accounts take 50% of the daily pie, and have been since sometime after the orcas started getting established.
It was worse before that.
The way out of this mess is for the little crabs to power up and take that power away.
Does it make more sense to have a bunch of little people deciding, or a few big people?
Reward those that power up, at least to some determined minimum probably scaled by reputation level.