The HIVE Tug of War

in LeoFinance3 months ago (edited)

There is a tug of war in the background of HIVE as people argue over how to deal with differing behaviors on our blockchain. On one side, we seem to have profit-seekers trying to earn tokens just to sell off as fast as they can for fiat or Bitcoin. On the other side, dyed-in-the-wool HODLers look down their nose at anyone who dare take a profit. At least, that's how it might look at a glance.


Source image credit

The Debate

I know a lot of our users are from countries with failed currencies and collapsing economies, and thus may rely on selling liquid HIVE or even directly using HIVE-Backed Dollars (HBD) for exchange. This is about survival, not crypto-bro day-trading. I doubt anyone has a problem with this. I hope to see a world where people have financial freedom to use crypto along with fiat without governmental intervention all across the globe.

There are a lot of plagiarists and spammers siphoning tokens for profit with low-effort posts, and trails of "curators" trying to profit from these grifters. In the last year or so, AI-generated posts masquerade as content, too, because plagiarizing robots still isn't authorship. This is a cancer for the blockchain. Ruthlessly downvote such trash when you see it, and help prune this disease out of our community.

Less black-and-white is the issue of delegation to curation projects and following curation trails. On one hand, this is a valid way to put your Hive Power to work when you can't be online and engaged. On the other hand, this means allowing someone else to decide how your votes are used, which can include supporting plagiarist spam or even inadvertently downvoting content unawares. Further, the rewards many curation guilds offer are sometimes exploited by stakeholders as a way to gain and sell off more HIVE without actually doing anything. Passive income isn't inherently bad, but leeching off the people trying to keep HIVE going is worth questioning.

My Advice

Curate manually. Find posts you like, read them, comment, and upvote as evidence you directly support the creator. Human interaction is the foundation for successful blogs. You write because you want to share ideas with the world, right? Be the world experiencing what others created, and let them know with substantive, relevant comments that create conversational opportunities.

Delegate and trail with caution. I delegate some of my Hive Power to a few different projects, and I increased my support over this past summer when life got a bit too topsy-turvy for me to manually curate as much as I would like, but I am reclaiming my delegated HP bit-by-bit as autumn approaches and my activity increases. I also save my earned liquid HIVE in order to better participate in HIVE Power Up Day at the beginning of each month. I don't flip it for altcoins.

Remember, the true value of HIVE isn't its current market price, it's your ability to own the blockchain we use. If you stake your tokens, you can carry more weight with each vote you make and have a say in how HIVE grows. This is a special project. Facebook, Twitter/X, and all the rest of web2.0 corporate social media want you as a profit generation engine. You're a product, not a customer. Ad revenue is their main goal, your content is data-mined, and dissent can be censored at a whim. Here on HIVE, you own your content and as much of the chain as you stake in HIVE Power, even if your reputation goes negative.

Final Thoughts

Are you here just to make a quick buck and move on? You're reprehensible. Are you here because you believe in the project, and want a free internet where ideas can be shared without government or corporate control? You're part of the solution, whether you stake or sell. This project has survived over eight years of booms and busts, attempted coups, "experiments" by whales, and so much more. Come along for the ride!

dizzy d20 128.png

HIVE | PeakD | Ecency | LEO

If you're not on Hive yet, I invite you to join through InLeo or PeakD. If you use either of my referral links, I'll even try to delegate some Hive Power to help you get started.

Posted Using InLeo Alpha

Sort:  

Hmm, I never thought about leaving a comment as a proof of curation, but it makes sense. Sometimes a post comes across my feed, which I read and upvote, intending to return to reread and comment. If a day or two has passed before I return it seems as though the moment has passed and my thoughts aren't as relevant anymore lol

I know a lot of the votes I get are from auto-voting and trails, which is gratifying in vote count and payout, but doesn't tell me my ideas had any impact on a real human being. Comments relevant to the post help.

Yep, the human aspect of a comment is more encouraging than the payout...unless you are only in it for the payout lol

Loading...

This stinking shit-pile of a blockchain requires three different interfaces to use its full functionality, it used to be two, and will soon be four. I'm done. Hive sucks, fuck you all. Either move to Substack, or I'm never speaking to you again.

Basically everything I want to do one HIVE can be done on PeakD, Ecency, or Leo. Not and. Or. I see the main hive.blog and its wallet as more of an occasional use and backup option. Keychain makes things pretty painless. I don't get the hostility.

No, it really is AND, at least for me, and I've tried multiple browsers. But then, I guess Hive itself doesn't want me here if every interface loses half its functionality after a while. No, seriously, PeakD stopped working for the crypto side of things a long time ago and Keychain is completely useless. Ever wonder why I stopped participating in power-up days? That's why. But I can live without any of that, it's the fact PeakD has the better creator interface, but has become so slow that I can type out an entire sentence and then the letters won't start appearing on screen until after I've finished typing. Basically, I may as well create posts in MS Word and then copy them to PeakD, and that's assuming my pictures will even show up!
I'm not the only one with these complaints, BTW, so it definitely isn't just me, half the people I follow really have stopped posting. If you don't have these issues, lucky you, but I think it's time you accepted that this is a dying platform. WordPress had a similar issue, with lots of people experiencing issues that made it impossible to live with, but which everyone else was like "I never had anything like that happen," so only the lucky (or stubborn) loyalists still use it. Hive is but one chapter behind in the exact same story.
Also, been in a really foul mood lately, but I will not unload my personal problems here. Those will be in my farewell post. Unless Hive somehow gets its act together soon, I will leave the platform before year's end.

I haven't had issues with PeakD. Firefox, if that matters. I know my ancient Vista machine revived with Linux used to be weird about texting entry, but that was a combination of bad hardware and bad internet. I don't have any way to diagnose what's happening for you, but perhaps the PeadD discord is in order? Leo has been buggy for me, but the bugs are getting squashed but by bit. Still, if HIVE is not working, I understand leaving. Just don't burn bridges.

Ahh, Kaja, I miss your posts on here, but it's all good, I read your lovely wordsmithing and heart it over on the Substack realm too😊

This isn't the first time Hive has rendered itself unusable, so maybe I'll be back. Then again, I'm starting a new chapter in my life, so while I'll have plenty of interesting stuff I could share, I probably won't have time to. Offline is the new online!

I have a few folks I auto-vote, but I also make a point to go back and read their stuff when I'm on - mostly its so that when I disappear for a week randomly because of life nonsense that they don't feel the absence. That said, I set that up when I had a 20 cent vote, and now I'm working to get back to a decent vote. But, regardless, I agree that following trails a lot is a bit of a trap.

Sweet, another prominent author encouraging virtual strangers what to do with their Monopoly money. I haven't seen the same thing everywhere I look every single day or anything.

And here I thought I was encouraging people to participate in the community more than worrying about how they used their tokens.

You probably were, dude. I guess if they squeezed a VW on a Subaru assembly line I'd probably think it's a Subaru after staring at the same assembly line every day.

While I'm here, thanks for spelling out tothe. You know I thought it was to the forreeeeevver. = } Cheers.

I have been on both sides as a one time staker that now leans towards selling. I have over 35 years experience in the equities markets, so I cant ignore that. I was a proud believer that brought over a fair share of folks from other platforms. Now I am more skeptical and never mention Hive to anyone, yet I still manually curate and enjoy posting.

I still think the censorship resistance we have is our biggest selling point, but in spite of everything we 2.0 social media has done to harm their users, most people aren't ready yet. And the antics of some users here who shall not be named doesn't help.

I am here to stay, you make good points

There are too much leeches on the chain, that is a fact. But as long as there still thousands of us Stalin and curating, our share of the chain will grow compared to that of the leeches. Which in the end will make us bigger and their sell offs less affecting… We have to keep on doing what we are doing!

Only the Sith deal in absolutes!

I am here to make money and grow. I want to build my Dolphin account to an Orca and beyond. I want to see a massive family of Dolphins and Orcas on Hive! I want to build and grow that stake but I also want all this work to mean something financially and sustainably for the long haul!

Right now its all about staking and saving!

The Sith code from the old KOTOR games made more sense to me than the Jedi code, but the path of the Grey Jedi is best of all. The Force is a whole, not separate parts warring against each other.

Indeed.

In general, I feel that there is no action or mindset that can only be pursued singularly without the benefit of perspective tempering your choices. There is no one single thing a person can keep doing to the exclusion of other choices.

For instance... it is good to be understanding, gentle and forgiving. You cannot continue to be gentle and understanding when your life is in danger. Then it is time to put down the nice and civil mindset and assume a mindset that espouses survival and defence. When the threat is passed and there is peace once more, you put down your weapons and attitude of strife and assume again the way of peace. ☺️

Excellent points, we should all open our eyes to the path Hive blockchain evolves to and where we want it to be headed.

Great post ! Your thoughts are pretty much what I do already; all my curation is manual, all my delegations are carefully thought through and regularly reviewed, and although I don't downvote obviously AI-made content, I don't knowingly upvote it either.

I've never powered down, and stuck all the HBD I've earned in savings. My only regret is that I invested as much fiat as I did rather than taking the patient route and growing my account through author and curation rewards. I really hope the price of Hive goes up eventually just for my own ego, so that I can look at my account and not see the investment as a loss.

Excellent points made. I am in it for the long haul and hope to make more content now that I am settled in from my interstate move. !BBH

Well put, and always enjoy your posts and opinions. I've been here for six of those years. The ups, downs and other. Change is good, without change (ourselves and our companies) we become stagnant.
!PIZZA

PIZZA!

$PIZZA slices delivered:
@ksteem(2/10) tipped @jacobtothe

@jacobtothe! @fiberfrau likes your content! so I just sent 1 BBH to your account on behalf of @fiberfrau. (4/20)

(html comment removed: )

Loading...