Background
Although I knew about Bitcoin since 2014, it was the year 2017 when I started taking interest in various dapps and the crypto ecosystem in depths. So it was obvious for me to search for something like a social platform where the blockchain can bring more transparency, more freedom, and a way to monetize the socializing activities.
Then I started reading about the whitepaper of Steem blockchain and it was an amazing experience to get into its nomenclature and design.
But it was the year 2019 when I finally decided to start blogging in a blockchain-based social platform. At the beginning of this journey, I was clueless about how and where to get started. But luckily I come across the blog page of @theycallmedan and the initiatives. That served a beacon of light in this journey. I must admit here that it was not the platform that fascinated me to write something but the initiatives by @theycallmedan (Although both are integral to each other) to write something on this platform.
Towards the end of 2019, I joined. I also contemplated what I am up to in blogging, what are my interests, and in what way I can contribute. Then with the available resources and based on my skills, experiences, I figured out that I can be good at writing tutorials, explaining a white paper in simple ways for the general readers, macro photography as I have got my Canon DLSR with a prime macro lens.
So I started with photography related posts on this platform. Then in Nov-Dec 2019, I come across the initiative by @theycallmedan endorsing promo-steem tag where the idea is to promote Steem in Quora so that it will get exposure to the Quora community through Question and Answers related to this Blockchain. So there were many people who joined the space created by him and started asking questions and I started writing answers to many of them. You can check my profile, it is full of them.
Then comes the fork of the chain leading up to the event of the birth of Hive Blockchain. For the first time in history, a hard fork happened to save the decentralized governance and this is going to be a case study for the next generation of blockchain.
By principle, decentralization is very fundamental to a public blockchain, but the next best positive iteration going forward in the crypto sphere will be the "community". Both go hands in glove in this ecosystem. Interestingly Hive is the only blockchain to have the privilege of both of them right from day one. That is very unique about Hive.
Crypto has gone beyond finance as a use-case, and in one decade it has proven that many other use cases can also be served apart from finance or monetary transaction. Many things that were not monetized before are now being monetized with blockchain technology. So one of them which was much needed to monetize was socializing and giving the people absolute authority, true digital home, freedom of expression, and potential earning benefits.
The best thing that 2017 has seen in crypto is not the all-time high of 2017, rather I would say the shift of just being finance in crypto to decentralized autonomous organization. On a similar note if the 2020 year will be remembered ever in history, then the caption would be "community can not be bought". A community is the next best thing to preserve the idea of decentralization, hence the hard fork to preserve that is a natural readjustment to such an ecosystem,
Before writing my testimony on Hive, I thought this must precede this testimony.
My Testimony
Hive maybe a 5 months old platform, but its ideas, stories, concepts have been as old as 4 years or so. These ideas, stories have stood to the test of time and many challenges ranging from combating spam, plagiarism, to reviving the PoB concept with necessary changes in its algorithm, with just finance to decentralized autonomous organization, to the struggle to keep the community active when the price of the native token visited an all-time low.
But despite this effort, when all of a sudden an authoritarian entity pops up and suddenly invokes a threat to the vibrant decentralized spirit of the chain, then it is certainly an attack on the very soul and spirit which is the underlying foundation of this platform. So that leads up to the event of a hard fork when the community splits and then decentralized community parted to fork a new chain called Hive.
I have seen many types of social platforms and in fact, also experienced some of them in my short tenure. But I found that in some form of the other they may not become an underlying infrastructure of a futuristic social platform. Here Hive can inset the ideas, the communities, and all sorts of social sphere niche by niche. Hive is not just a social platform rather it's the underlying infrastructure that can inset all types of social communities. That is why it is absolute, that is why it is comprehensive.
In most of the platforms, there is a trilemma of scalability, earning potential, and decentralization. And the tradeoff does not allow all the three parameters coming together, but for the first time in history I have found Hive to be a perfect combo of all the three critical elements that are- scalability, earning and decentralization coming together with the power of the community-driven social platform.
Technically Hive chain is super scalable(easily scale 10000 transactions per second), earning wise there are authors earning as high as 2200 USD a month(with a low Hive price of 0.25 USD, just imagine the potential when the next bull run hits), and the community acts as a precursor to decentralization.
For me, I don't see this place just for authors and readers, although that is primary objective being a social platform. It caters to number of players ranging from developers, marketers, investors, vloggers, bloggers, curators, readers, etc. A truly censorship-resistant platform that one is yearning for, can come to this place and experience this vibrant social platform.
When I further talk about a social platform it is not limited to one kind, as I said earlier it can inset all the existing niche of social spheres as well as all other social spheres that are not yet conceptualized and in a future time that would manifest as a social concept, that can also be accommodated in this infrastructure.
I was really skeptical when I joined this platform on how to make money while socializing. I will be honest in my submission, that for me the predominant goal was to make some decent money(maybe 100 USD per month or so). Luckily I got introduced to the initiatives by @thecallmedan. And in a hindsight, I realized that then I have earned beyond my expectation. I seriously engaged in making some quality answers to the #promo-hive and #hivequora initiatives and I was very well rewarded, my highest earning in a month was approx $238.
In my difficult situation, I even got a loan. So my social account, not just a blogging account, it's a thriving economy, I can never get a loan for my Twitter and Facebook account, but my Hive account can get me a loan in a difficult time.
Consider this coronavirus outbreak, the pandemic, and subsequent lockdown which brought the economy to a grinding halt. Many people have lost their jobs, but I would like to tell you all that, being a decentralized platform, it equally offers an opportunity for all. Come and join this platform and earn your living if you are hard hit by this pandemic.
If you are a serious blogger like @tarazkp and many others then I am sure you can even make 1000 USD to 2000 USD at the current rate of HIVE. Just imagine this figure when the next mega bull run hits. That could be a game-changer for many. The engagement by @tarazkp and his quality blogging reflects his sheer determination to earn that much money. If you are committed like him, you can also earn money. But always remember you have to be a part of the process, a part of the socializing, the hard work to manifest that kind of success.
My finding of the Hive platform is that, if you like vlogging, then it has threespeak, if you want a multi-lingual platform, there are communities that support languages other than English, for example GEMS community. There are many other top-ranking communities like OCD, Onchain Art, Leofinance, etc and many others. The list goes on. Be it gaming, gambling, blogging, vlogging, photography, arts, sports, finance, STEM, etc, for everyone it has niche by niche communities to cater to. That is why it is unique and special.
The rich content should be the identity of a social platform followed by engagement. Here I have personally experienced and come across a plethora of rich content. To be honest, I have learned a lot and improved my English writing skill when I go retro and revisit my previous year, I definitely stand in a better position now, but as it is a continuous journey I seek to improve a lot every day, I would learn.
As I said earlier, you can find different social communities niche by niche with the underlying Hive Blockchain, that means it's an all-in-one solution for all kind of socializing that exists int his earth. I can bet nowhere you can find such a beautiful social blogging platform. That is why I say Hive as a Blockchain is unparalleled and a comprehensive platform.
Over the last five months since its fork, it has gone through very rapid and tremendous development. That speaks the hard work of the backend team, again the feedback is taken from the community for the development too. Everywhere the community is integral and pivotal to any change or upgrade that is made in this platform, be it a critical element or a non-critical one.
I am really grateful to be a part of the platform since day one. It has rewarded my effort, always honored the decentralized spirit, last but not least it has always progressed as a community.
Thanks to @theycallmedan, @stateofthedapps, @clivemartin for being involved and supporting this idea of Hive Testimony.
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