The latest Hive Core Dev Meeting was pretty interesting, and not because major releases were announced, that was last week or the one before.
This time there are at least two points of discussion that draw my attention.
Hive Scaling
The first one, which I noticed @taskmaster4450 wrote about as well, is the tests done by the Blocktrades team on HAF regarding its ability to remain synced at a much higher block size.
The block size of Hive is 64 KB, and it's more than enough for the activity we have on the chain now. I remember at some point there were some discussions on the previous chain to increase the block size to 128 KB, but the decision was against it, for good reason, because it wasn't necessary, and time proved it.
Since then, HiveD was tested with a block size of 2 MB (roughly 30x the current size) and passed, mentioned Blocktrades in this month's Hive Core Dev meeting.
But they didn't know if HAF would support such a block size, so they tested it now. And it passed too.
Basically, from the block size perspective, Hive can handle 30x in activity (even more since our blocks aren't filled right now), without a problem. Of course, that's one of the factors that matter for scaling, but we know scaling is a major focus of the Blocktrades team.
Backend Work for Potential CEX Listings
I don't like CEXes. I know many of us on Hive don't. And I understand that they can potentially harm Hive, even if not directly in a coordinated attack, as Binance and others did on the previous chain. They did it before, and they will again if that suits them.
But I am realistic enough to say CEXes are the best route for onboarding new users (especially as investors) from outside the crypto space, which is very important for a social blockchain and ecosystem.
How do you bring fiat into the crypto space, other than peer-to-peer? Mainly through major CEXes, which also represent on-ramps from fiat.
Now, if you can buy HIVE directly with fiat on such an exchange, or even if they can load fiat and then buy HIVE on the same exchange, and then send it to their username on Hive, it's much easier than any DEX solution I know. And easier to explain to someone who comes from outside crypto. Tell me I am wrong!
Well, it looks like we keep trying to get Hive on various CEXes... By we I mean @crimsonclad... 😅
She got some feedback from Coinbase, for example, that before we talk with them about a listing we need something integrated. Currently, @howo is working on integrating Rosetta with Hive, which is a prerequisite to even begin discussions of listing HIVE on Coinbase. This integration may help listings on other exchanges, where this is a requirement.
What we should be aware of is that things don't stop at listings, if we get them. We need liquidity and transaction volume. Without a regular transaction volume, most listings are lost after a while. No CEX will keep a pair that doesn't bring them any revenue. If you are involved in the Splinterlands ecosystem, you know of the repeated and tweaked proposals to hire (and extend the contract of) a market maker for (in the final version) ALL SPS listings. Without a market maker, there is generally insignificant volume, and the risk of delisting for this reason alone grows.
Otherwise, I am very happy with our focus on improving our DEX listings and bridges to other ecosystems. That makes us less dependent on CEXes and more resilient in case of potential delistings from CEXes. As someone who is already on Hive and who is/was worried more about not remaining isolated rather than finding a way in, DEXes are perfect for me. But for newcomers to crypto, probably CEXes are still the easier way.
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The other main one I used for hive was bittrex but they have shut down, I think the regulator got to them.
Yeah, I know. It was one of the only ones that had a HBD listing too, but they were very unreliable at the end, when Hive pairs were often in maintenance mode without a reason.
Hive actually has one of the highest volumes of many alts I follow - there is millions of Hive traded daily on Binance and Upbit which is probably the reason why we haven't gotten delisted there. I prefer the DEX route, but it is nice to have both.
@tipu curate
Upvoted 👌 (Mana: 55/75) Liquid rewards.
Yes, I know the volume increased seriously on Binance, which is a great thing. As for Upbit, well, I'd rather not comment on that.
But every new listing we get would need trading volume. And I know we lost a few minor listings. In some of those cases, trading volume was probably the reason. In other cases, probably the exchange went under.
It's good news to see these things worked on and it's nice to know that Hive can possibly work up to 30x the current traffic. So it seems like we just have a onboarding plus retention issue.
As for exchange listings, I think they will help but I don't know if many of them will really keep Hive there. The regulations will get harder and I don't see it being easy for us to stay on those exchanges.
We do have that, it's true. The onboarding part is being worked on from a technical standpoint by multiple teams, with the addition of lite accounts.
This will be a problem, indeed. And probably our problem won't be HIVE, but HBD, if a stronger stance will be taken against algo stablecoins. Hopefully, they'll let them breathe. just not grow out of control (the thing they are most interested in).
It's not like we can't go on with HBD without gov't approval, but they can limit our freedom of access to CEXes and possibly pseudo-DEXes too, for both HBD and HIVE.
I have also read the taskmaster post, and it is nice to know that we at least have some breathing room when it comes to scaling. As for the CEX, I think it is a necessary evil. I'm glad people are working on it, but I hope we take care to protect ourselves.
If they wanted to list us we couldn't stop them... 😆 We drew some conclusions and made some changes after what happened on st**m, other than that, it's a matter of what the market/stakeholders want. I don't think we are comfortable with most of our liquid HIVE being on Upbit, for example.
I guess that's true. Although I would have wanted them to list us on their own volition instead of the other way around. I am just basing this off of what happened in SPL where we are paying for MM, and not much is really happening. I do agree that we don't want Upbit to have most of our Hive.
The price action on SPS doesn't encourage buyers, and without a market maker, some listings on smaller exchanges would have almost no liquidity and trading volume.
I wouldn't like it even if Upbit was an open exchange, but this way is even more problematic.
Inasmuch as we don't want the CEX way, we still need it for better integration. DEX are still relatively new and crude, hence we still need to play the CEX game for better adoption and other things
I agree. I can afford to play mostly in the DEX world, but a newcomer will most likely buy via a CEX if they are not in the crypto world and versed in the DEX world.
Interesting point about the Rosetta integration. I wrote about it a year or so back. Not only would a Rosetta integration make it possible for us to be listed on a CeX like Coinbase, it would allow seamless interoperability between blockchains, in that it'd make transactions deployment from an interface outside the ecosystem completely possible.
Presently, though. I think its purpose for now is to just get listed on Coinbase. Who knows, maybe we'll find it useful when we get friendly with other chains.
Interesting! Great avenues to explore in the future. Interoperability can help a blockchain immensely.
What’s a block size?
Does every cryptocurrency have block sizes too?
Yes, they do. A block size determines what is the maximum amount of information a block from the blockchain can hold before a new block needs to be created. It doesn't mean blockchains wait for blocks to be filled until they produce new blocks, they usually produce them regularly (Hive produces them every 3 seconds), and it doesn't matter how filled the previous blocks are. But when blocks get regularly filled, then usually the discussion of increasing the block size arises, as a way to further scale a blockchain. Before that, it's not necessary to increase the block size, even if you can.
I'm not convinced in cex, hive should stay all decentralized or you risk too much power in one hand
We don't need to depend on them and shouldn't. We should continue our work to build DEX listings/liquidity/trading volume and bridges that allow us to move between ecosystems, but that doesn't mean we cannot use CEX listings for better exposure to new users in the space who may become interested in Hive, and don't (know how to) use DEXes yet.
Hive scaling and the potential for CEX listings are important for the growth and sustainability of the Hive ecosystem.
It's great to see the community actively exploring ways to enhance scalability and accessibility for both existing users and newcomers.
Absolutely! Without easy access to bring more people, improving scalability doesn't make the ecosystem sustainable in the long run, so it's great we are approaching things together.
Getting listed on more CEXes will open more doors for outside investors to get in on Hive, I think others users will also find it useful in having easier options to get in and out of Hive.
I agree. For Americans, in particular, a listing to Coinbase would mean a great deal, since they don't have access to Binance.
I appreciate the fact that I can learn at least a little thing from this article of reasoning.
I have come to know that we can bring fiat into the crypto space Mainly through major CEXes, which also represent on-ramps from fiat.
Thank you so much for this inspiration into the Crypto System. It was really enlightening.
You're welcome. Thanks for dropping by.
@tipu curate
Hello, @gadrian. Thank you for your article on Hive Core Developments. " Slowly but surely awesome things are happening and will happen on Hive!
This is exciting, positive news about Hive. Barb !BBH !CTP #ctp
@gadrian! Your Content Is Awesome so I just sent 1 $BBH (Bitcoin Backed Hive) to your account on behalf of @adcreatordesign. (1/1)
Thank you @bbhbot 😊👍
That's true, Barb. Developments never end.
It's forever going on and changing @gadrian !BBH !CTP
The way we are seeing it at the moment is that within the next few days we will see a lot of new users on the platform, which will cause the price to go up a lot as the market cycle changes.