A thought provoking post !
Purely a personal opinion, but I think both Hive and Leo are a good way from being at the point where any but the top few accounts can earn a living, at least in more affluent countries.
But it's certainly at the point of being a nice side-hustle, even though my focus here is more on posting interesting content and using it as an alternative to the toxic legacy social media platforms. I've seen quite a few people use HBD they've built up as a last-ditch reserve that means they don't have to borrow money to solve a short-term real world problem (usually seems to be mobile phone, PC or car related....)
I think HIVE in particular needs to look at it's internal economy. Don't get me wrong; I appreciate the effort people put into coding and development. But I beleive that for proposals other than improvements to core infrastructure, the DHF ought to be more like a lending bank than a grant giver. Too many proposals don't have a solid business case, identify what success looks like (and how it benefits the ecosystem), and explain in detail how the funds will be spent.
The cash saved could then be put into a mix of marketing and improved rewards for people lower down the food chain. This could be a mix of increased author & curation rewards, and a more gradual tapering off of witness rewards which would enable more rapid scaling if needed.
But this is all constructive criticism; for all it's imperfections, I still think Hive is the best alternative in Web3 to the legacy social platforms.
Posted using The BBH Project