Is speculating on a HIVE user name a crime on HIVE now? Turns out, YES.
Hello Friends
I am on the outs with some in the community due to my dissenting voice on one topic they support, so why not talk about another taboo topic?
Today, let's discuss HIVE user names.
One of the many unsaid and enforced rules is buying or acquiring other HIVE user names and holding them to sell later on.
I am not talking about an alt account you may use for your business and a main personal account you use for personal things; (some say that is also a crime and scamming... )
- I am talking about picking up premium HIVE names and offering to resale to the larger community for profit.
link, which is a VERY substantial acquisition.The other day, @hivewatcher caused me of identity theft
Here is the screenshot of the post by them.
They stated that : I "created a lot of fake accounts that engaged in identity deception/identity theft."
First off, none of those accounts have any posts on them, no content, not even a link or any Hive Power. So, deception... No, as there is nothing on them, nothing engaged with, on, or about.
Second, they are accusing me of this crime, with no evidence? Just that I have accounts and I was looking to sell them. An act, that I thought was ok in a free market, and Ok on Hive.
Why should it not be?
Perhaps the argument is that maybe I will use them for fraud in the future. So they should all be marked as scams and blacklisted?
My thinking on this :
Let's look for precedence on the topic and at the world wide web and domain names.
If you buy a domain name, you can then resell that domain name.
Many major brands had to buy their domain names from others who bought them before they acted on them. That is a standard practice. Not to mention other TLD names for things like .IO or .Fun.
Domain flipping is a big (legitimate) business.
For a closer parallel to HIVE...
More so, you have crypto domains from businesses like https://unstoppabledomains.com/ that sell crypto domains, and yes, you could pick up premium domain names and speculate on if those domain names will be wanted the future, or not, and yes, you can sell them. No Drama. So why dram on hive about this?
According to @hivewatcher, you are not allowed to buy a cool hive user name, or buy a hive username for a major brand with the intent to sell it later on to them or others, as this is "identity deception/identity theft".
- Sure, yes, if I posted on the account and said, "I am Dollartree", YES, that is fraud and ID theft. But again, none of the accounts have content on them; I am buying and selling a user name ONLY.
Further, they said that "he intended to sell for insanely inflated prices".
Sure, Yes, I did intend to sell them, as I thought that was ok.
Why Not? (see argument above about Doman names).
Is there a document people can reference on actions like this being a crime?
I think user names have a premium price, and their is no set base line, so why not set a price that is on par to what I value the names at?
What do you value them at?
Further... Anyone before me, could have bought the names for 3 HIVE had they thought to search for that name and then buy it, and use it as they wanted.
- I saw an exciting chance to speculate on the future value of a user name(s), so I picked them up at my own cost and then opted to offer it at resale for profit.
- This is not fraud; it's not a crime. This is the free market and being an Entrepreneur in a developing ecosystem like HIVE.
- Why cant we do HIVE name flipping like people do Domain name flipping?
I would further argue that if a scammer did want to buy one of these names from me for what we now know is an "insanely inflated price", then they must have some solid plan or / gambling on losing a large sum of money, or they are the real person or company who wants to move into HIVE.
If anything, I would make the case that a price like this is keeping the names for people who really want them and not scammers looking to cash in.
What are your options on buying and selling HIVE user names?
- Do you think hive users should be able to buy user names and then resell them without fear of reprisal?
- Do you think you should have the option to do this for profit or just give the user names away?
- Do you think an account with no information on it, also publicly listed for sale, is guilty of identity theft, even though people buy and sell brand names on webpages daily?
- Do you think I am guilty of fraud on this issue?
- Should we make an official DAap that could be a marketplace to buy and sell HIVE usernames like Godaddy does with domain names?
Let me know in the comments, or just downvote this, as I am on a backlist.
SIDEBAR
Regarding the attack of wanting to "onboard them" and then sell them the accounts, here is the email I sent to Elong jet regarding the account.
I am not sure people realize fully what an advocate for HIVE I really am.
For the longest time, I have dreamed of ways to help HIVE grow and flourish, and ways we can use HIVE in new and exciting ways. Name flipping is just one of those ways.
I am on a blacklist for a one-time issue of plagiarizing content, something I took ownership of and issues an apology to the community. But cause of that, despite a long history of supporting HIVE, I am now listed as a scammer for life. Further, I am not allowed to get upset that there is no community-voted TOS (terms of service) for hive outlining rules like this one above and others.
HIVE is fast becoming not a place to be an Entrepreneur and experiment with ideas on.
The unsaid rules say...
You are only allowed to post 2 times a day, content that is 300 words or more, not post in the wrong place, not say the wrong thing, not have any ideas that differ from whales, and not make any errors or slip up in any way, as if you do, you have labeled a plague on the community right away. You should power down and leave after being insulted and attacked.
And we wonder why HIVE is not taking off as the next BIG social network.
Thanks for reading!
I think that if selling an account with a premium name is a crime, the first person to commit it is whoever sold the account to you.
It's actually a pretty good point. As long as you're not impersonating someone else, you should be able to buy and sell account names.
Although I agree that this sometimes happens, I've found plenty of helpful people and healthy disagreement on HIVE. I'm personally stacking and powering up ALL my HIVE to counter centralization of voting power with the few whale accounts.