Crypto and Blockchain Empowering Users and Developers
NOTE: This post was written for crypto curious people on Medium. It's the second in what is becoming a series. I'm posting it here for the benefit of new people who might find it helpful.
During the 20th century business models that scaled their structure successfully grew and flourished. This is not the case in the 21st century. In this century building scalable digital ecosystems is what is driving success. Companies like Google, Amazon and Apple have all successfully built digital ecosystems on their platforms.
Being An Entrepreneur on Amazon
Amazon has enabled millions of entrepreneurial people and organizations to build their own businesses over the last twenty years. They provide an ecosystem that makes it possible for the smallest of businesses to bring their product to a global market and deliver the goods. BUT, Amazon always has the upper hand. They always have control because it’s their ecosystem and they are inviting those entrepreneurs in to add to their bottom line.
I publish my books on Amazon. I’m well aware that for every dollar I make, Amazon is also profiting. That’s business. It’s not without value return for me. The printing costs of the paperbacks are cheaper than I could get from any other supplier. I don’t have to take the time and cost of shipping product. If my customer is a member of Amazon Prime the books are shipped at no charge. Amazon’s algorithms do some of the marketing for me even without me paying for their advertising service.
BUT, that upper hand is always there. I must follow their rules and they have the right to shut me down completely if they believe I’ve broken the rules.
The Hive Blockchain
Recently I wrote about the last five years since I discovered the world of crypto and writing to earn it.
I also wrote about the value of taking the time for the learning curve in crypto.
As I prepared those posts, I realized there is much more I want to share about Hive but it would take more than one post. This is the next post.
How Hive Came Into Existence
Hive hardforked (split away) from Steem. Let’s have a look there for the origins. I joined Steem a few months after it produced its first block in 2016 and about a month after it started paying rewards to content creators. The concept of content creators being able to earn crypto for producing content was so new, many called Steem a scam. They didn’t believe the model was at all sustainable.
Steem wasn’t intending to be just a place for content creators. The main development firm, Steemit Inc., was foreseeing a digital ecosystem developing. Unfortunately, their founders lacked the focus and commitment to enable their developers to rapidly bring the ecosystem infrastructure to the chain.
The sale of Steemit Inc to Justin Sun of Tron in 2020 led to the formation of the group that hardforked the chain and formed Hive. What they left behind was an ecosystem more centralized than decentralized.
Those who moved with Hive wanted to see a decentralized ecosystem with an infrastructure allowing anyone with the ability to do so, to contribute parts of the ecosystem.
The Hive Ecosystem
Five years is very early days in building an digital ecosystem. Many refinements to improve the user experience have been developed but many more are being worked on to create a user experience even people who have never encountered crypto can comfortably navigate.
The Social Apps
The blogging platform that Steem started with and was usually the first contact for many new people is just the tip of the iceberg. Even the blogging experience has changed in the first five years. Initially, there were expectations by the community that blog posts would be long. Short form content was actively discouraged. Using images and video was not always a good experience. Finding content of like minded writers was difficult.
Communities
Five years on, Hive has communities. Places where posts can be focused on topics and relevant discussions can take place. Anyone can create a community, their own rules and moderators to police the community. There is a broad range of communities available on just about any topic you can think of. If one isn’t available, then create your own.
General Frontends
When I started there was one choice for posting content from. Entrepreneurs on the chain saw the demand for different ways of delivering content and started building apps designed to let people find their comfort zones.
Hive.blog and Peakd.com are two of the most commonly used frontends for bloggers. They are designed primarily for computer. Ecency can be used on the computer or you can download their app (Android or IOS) for mobile.
Connect Blogs to the Blockchain
If you have your own Wordpress blog and would like to expand to an audience on the blockchain, the Exxp plugin will enable you doing so automatically. It also enables adding the comments from the blockchain on your WP blog. This enables those taking part to earn Hive tokens from your blog.
Or you can build your own blog right on the blockchain at dBlog. Use your own domain, no hosting fees involved. They currently have three templates available. There is no charge to setup your blog, as you earn rewards they take a percentage as their income. This is a common business model across the blockchain.
Manage Comments Across the Chain
Speaking of comments, if you’ve been actively reading and commenting on Hive you can find catching up to replies a bit time consuming. Log into Engage to manage your comment replies. It will pick up where you’ve been mentioned, comments in your feed and on your posts and those coming from communities you take part in. All in one place.
Earn Multiple Tokens at the Same Time
The development of the Hive Engine and Tribes opened up a whole new way of taking part in more specialized content creation and earning multiple tokens at the same time you’re earning Hive. Usually you can trigger earning the tokens by the use of tags on your posts.
I think I’m going to explore the Tribes in another post. Stay tuned, to find some really neat projects. Meanwhile, let’s explore the variety of experiences you can find on the Hive ecosystem.
Do you prefer to create videos rather than text? There’s 3Speak and D.Tube to post them on. You can livestream your content on 3Speak and VIMM
Do you prefer sending out short, Twitter like content? Use D.buzz and earn Hive.
Are you a traveller? TravelFeed offers you a place for your travel blogs. If you want to blog directly from your mobile as you travel, use the Truvvl app to post to Travelfeed, your own blog or to Hive. Your choice.
NFT Showroom
Hive offers an NFT Showroom built directly on the chain. While it currently is mostly digital art, you can also create NFTs for any digital product.
Games
An overview of the Hive ecosystem would not be complete without a look at the games available. Tokens earned in the games can be traded on the Hive Engine.
Splinterlands
Splinterlands is the most popular app on the blockchain, surpassing the blogging frontends. It’s a collectible card game run on multiple seasons. Each season has a new release of cards.
Most gamers need to do livestreams of them playing games and build a responsive audience of followers to earn as gamers. With Splinterlands, you earn within the game. Any player earns. I’m not a gamer but I did buy some cards in the early days. I’ve made some profit selling those cards and still have some I’ve not checked in on for a while.
There is a mobile app available to play it on. A marketplace to trade, sell and lease cards. Guilds to join. Tournaments to play in. There is cross-compatibility with Ethereum, Tron and WAX. You can earn crypto and digital assets as part of building your portfolio.
Poker
Before Splinterlands there was Lucksacks Poker Leagues. Since 2020 it’s been exclusively on the Hive chain. You play for free against other players in games like Hold-em, Omaha, Stud and Razz. You can drop by and play a few games or you can be part of playing in leagues. Want to create your own league or tournament, you can do that too. For a price.
Rabona
You a soccer fan? Build and manage your own soccer club and the stadium they play in in the Rabona game.
CryptoBrewmaster
Are you into brewing beer? Play the CryptoBrewmaster game. Complete quests and tasks to earn free ingredients for your own brew. Then trade your brew to earn the game money.
Final Thoughts
I’ve touched the surface of the Hive ecosystem here. I’m going to use separate posts to look at the Tribes and their role in the ecosystem and another for an overview of the projects. Many of the projects are tools that enrich the user experience.
If this has developed over five years, imagine what can come in the next five.
This has been built not because some corporate entity is allowing it. It has been built because individuals have invested their time, talents, energy and funds into building on the Hive blockchain. They see the value, the potential and have invested their commitment.
Shadowspub is a writer from Ontario, Canada. She writes on a variety of subjects as she pursues her passion for learning. She also writes on other platforms and enjoys creating books you use like journals, notebooks, coloring books etc.
She created Prompt A Day to share with others. You can subscribe to Prompt A Day to get started. You’ll receive a new set Mondays and Thursdays.
Another five years, and they might be socially active. 😂
I have time. I am here for more than 4 years (since 2017.05.17).
Yes, but why? There are already many communities, most of them lacks of real human comments. Nowadays there are too many communities, too many content creators, but only a few content consumers. Hopefully there will be more content consumers in the future.
Nowadays I use the mobile (Android) version of Ecency, and nowadays this is my favorite Hive application.
I write "nowadays" so much, because anything can change anytime.
We are touching it together. 😂
Doesn't matter the ecosystem you look at, there will always be a minority of groups rise to the top and others linger virtually unused. It gives meaning to the cliche, cream rises to the top.
The more content engagement through commenting is encouraged, the more people will consume others posts. Projects like @wil.metcalfe's @comet.ranker and @dreemsteem's @dreemport will also help to bring more content consumers and engagement into the ecosystem.
I've not recently looked at Ecency on the mobile. I'm more likely to prepare and consume content on the computer. Options widen the field for users.
THIS. It's rare to see something built by the people for the people that isn't a top-down system exploiting others. Sure, there are whales, but there are incentives for curation and programs to help newcomers succeed.
This is a great article highlighting some of the strengths of the Hive ecosystem. Glad to see it being shared on Medium as well as the blockchain.
Thanks Katrina. I'm writing them for the Medium audience in that I'm assuming they are not crypto literate but thought they might be helpful here on Hive as well.
Good comprehensive post about where we came from and where we want to be headed.
I also learned a thing or two. I didn't know there was a poker app on the blockchain, for example!
Posted Using LeoFinance Beta
There are some pretty cool apps available on the chain and more always being developed.
Thank you, this is a nice and informative article, I have a couple of questions,
how exactly does the article earn or generate money? is it through viewers or reading?
like let's say someone spends 1 minute reading a 7-minute article, would you get paid by mileage? or is it solely through voting? and does it count for non-hive members from external traffic? like search engines?
And I wanted to ask, do you earn points or money when you share your or someone else content on other social media? like Facebook, Twitter, etc?
If you're talking about a post on Medium, they earn money based on reading time by paid members. How exactly that is worked out, no one seems to know who is telling.
BUT, since you're replying on Hive, I'm going to answer you for posts posted on Hive. When you post on Hive, people upvote you if they like your post. The amount that upvote is worth is based on how much Hive Power (HP) they have locked in. The more the voter has the more you will earn. SO, yes, the voter has to be a Hive member.
ALSO, you share that upvote with those who do the upvoting. So half goes to you and the other half gets divvied up between those who voted on your post. That is called curation. Every member can curate on Hive.
You don't earn for sharing on other social media. You can however get it in front of other Hive members who might not have seen it or you might get
someone's attention who ends up joining Hive. The more the merrier.
Does that answer your questions?
That answers my questions, but brings another questions why not at least pay for people to encourage them share on social media to bring more traffic and raise awareness?
Because did you know If it wasn't for duck duck go I wouldn't be here?
Google filters a lot than what I thought.
That's interesting to know about Google. I've recently seen some articles claiming that Duck Duck is the better search engine.
So here's a thought. If you're a member of a community, like Hive, do you really need to be paid for every move to support that community? Or would you want to pitch in and do what you can to help it grow?
I was just looking at your account. I see you were on Medium, glad to see you made your way over here.
Also, is that a community you created where you're posting? You might want to also reblog your posts so they show up on your general blog as well as in the community. You're doing pretty decent on Hive. Nice work.
I know where you are coming from, and I see your point. So for example I have published my book on hive, something that I could easily sell. Publishing it online that means someone else might copy the entire book and sell to those who know nothing about hive. As long as it's public we don't know who is on the other side of the fence but if it was exclusive for members that would be better. Don't you think?
Yes I was on medium, but I wanted to see what hive is all about, so far I am liking it, I need to learn more about it because I thought it was just a blog but I see there are videos, video games and such its a bit overwhelming.
I consider Hive a lot like sitting down to eat an elephant.. one bite at time and pause often to enjoy that bite knowing the next one is still there to enjoy.
if you have a book that you can easily sell, then it would be best not to publish it on the blockchain which will can be found forever. The blockchain is fully transparent and stays there forever. You might want to read the post I put up a few days ago The Crypto Learning Curve
I write on both Medium and Hive. I look for regular income on Medium but treat anything I earn on Hive as an investment for future use. Was just reading your post about how you came to Hive.
Getting posts in front of viewers is not easy on any platform. You might want to check out the @dreemport account. That's a project that is currently in testing that is focused on curation across platforms. It's really cool.
You might want to have a look at this post from last month of mine -- Cross Platform Curation Project which will describe the project.
Can you help me on setting up my community, I want to know how to collect info on specific tags
Posted via D.Buzz
Congrats! Very good and clear explanation of the Hive ecosystem for newbies must say. Thanks for sharing! 💪😎
Thank you.. I have found that each part I've written has shown me there are more parts to write, so I'll keep adding them over time.
Keep going! 😎
This post is indeed helpful😊. I'm not much knowledgeable about crypto and blockchain, and I learned something here in your post😁. Thank you for it💕
I'm glad you found it helpful. It's an interesting journey to take and well worth the learning curve. What was it you learned?
The various games😁
Great Post. It occurred to me when i was looking at the comments on this post that there is a whole other area of the ecosystem that is not often talked about but is really valuable and unique. The efforts to combat spam and plagurism and how the chain self regulates. It might be a good topic for a post too.
You are correct on that, the more I have written on this the more I"m finding I need to add to the list. But that's okay, writers write :)
Nice summary of things on Hive. I think an archive of articles summarizing various aspects of Hive would be useful.
Posted Using LeoFinance Beta
there has been some excellent articles written over the years on the topic of the chain and what it offers. Course, the good news is, they go out of date as more develops on the chain.
Hi Shadows!
I've been here a little while and I still learned things by reading this post! Congratulations on making a real hay-maker here!
Having someone who's practically been here from the beginning is so valuable. You have context... I think that's why I really appreciate the things you have to say. Your posts and comments are always so chalk full of experience and wisdom!
We need this more than many know...
People who are friendly and have been here awhile are instrumental in setting the cultural tone for Hive.
Thank you for continuing to bring your best to the blockchain! 🙌
@wil.metcalfe ☄️
Thank you for your kind words @wil.metcalfe .. I have some more to write in this series and it has become a series. Hope to get the next one out by the weekend.
ShadowsPub
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I think all these apps, frontends, tokens etc are confusing for new users. Have talked about this with 4-5 people who registered and left after a few days and weeks. They felt overwhelmed with all the information. If you look at successful blogging platform or social media networks, they have one thing in common, simplicity.
Not everyone is willing to learn.
There is nothing simple about Facebook, Twitter or Pinterest to name but a few, yet people find their way there. They spend their time there and they provide it with content without earning anything from it. The whole time, those platforms are collecting your data and tracking your movement so they can then make a profit from it.
People come to an ecosystem that doesn't track them or profit from them and expect to not have a learning curve. That doesn't make a lot of sense to me.
You can make the blockchain as simple as you want it really. You can use one frontend, choose communities or no communities, and not bother using any tags to earn tokens with. If a person wants to earn Hive they still need to post regularly, comment and engage with others and build a following. And use the wallet.
Or just play a game. There are a lot of people who only play Splinterlands on Hive. They are quite happy to not bother learning anything but the game.
Yes, there can be a lot to learn. A lot of new concepts because they haven't been into crypto before. That is never going to go away. Just like there is a learning curve for someone new to using a computer. The choice is learn or not bother.
Thanks for posting, it's good for new people like me! But is it really possible to earn money through games?
!PIZZA
Depends on the game. Some games you earn Hive through playing, others you earn Hive through trading the assets in the game like for example, the cards in Splinterlands. I write, I don't play the games. I do own some of the cards in Splinterlands and have earned some Hive by selling them.
Okay. I have to research more about Splinterlands haha 🤣
@shadowspub! I sent you a slice of $PIZZA on behalf of @soturi.
Learn more about $PIZZA Token at hive.pizza (4/10)
does anybody play the poker any more?
We're having a 100 HIVE Community Celebration game Feb 16th! DM @bethalea in discord or tag her here if you want info/help!
Thank you for this information, I've learned a lot from it. I can use this knowledge to navigate the Hive ecosystem.
Great read!
Just commenting to show some love for @dcitygame.
Still a bit underrated imho.
Apparently you're a fan of the game. I don't play them so I can't comment. But just keep promoting it, the audience will grow :)
Yes, as an old SIM City fanatic, I'm a big Dcity fan 😅
Recently got a little addicted to Splinterlands, but Dcity remains my first Hive game.