I've only been posting for a few months, so I have no idea how things were during the Steemit days.
All I know is that with over 400 Layer 2 tokens branching from Hive there are winners and losers. Regarding the winners, people staking those tokens believe in the projects attached to those tokens. Compared to returns to be made elsewhere, maybe elsewhere is better; even so, ROI is just one reason why those people stake their tokens.
Just at LeoFinance, I keep reading about projects such as SPK Network and Project BLANK (name to be determined later). SPK network is meant to be a censorship-resistant multimedia platform, and we all know how much something like that is needed. Project BLANK is supposed to be a microblogging platform closer to Twitter in features and functionality. At the moment Hive has alternatives to SPK Network and Project BLANK, but these are supposed to bring it to another level. That's the impression I get from the buzz around these projects, so over timr we will see if the buzz is deserved.
By now it's obvious that Splinterlands has given Hive a massive boost the last 2 months or more. It's become the number 1 ranked game in all of crypto even as Hive flies beneath the radar ar 205 out of 9468 cryptos listed on CoinGecko (which puts Hive at the top 2.2% of all cryptos listed there). Play2Earn is a big deal, and Hive can capitalize on that to find a way to gain greater visibility for the rest of the ecosystem. After all, how many Splinterlands players even know about the Hive ecosystem and blogging platforms? If they know, do they even care? And does that matter for us?
The team at PIZZA is investing heavily into blockchain gaming, including getting that token integrated with another Hive game, Rising Star. Known for being "just" an engagement token, PIZZA is involved in a number of projects which are expected to bring income and new accounts.
Each person has his or her reasons for investing in HIVE or LEO as investors first and participants second. Just from my perspective as a new Hiver, though, it looks to me as if all the action is at Layer 2. I'm the wrong person to consult regarding "dollars and cents" and APR and ROI, but it looks as there there are some worthwhile projects which can benefit from an injection of income to accelerate their development before they can go online.
18 months after Independence Day for Hive, there are more tribes and projects than existed during the Steemit days. Having HIVE locked up for 13 weeks before being totally unstaked is a big minus no matter who we are. However, Hive has to have something worthwhile about it to keep people at Hive even with that major drawback. Maybe the solution isn't at Hive's base layer but rather at Layer 2. If LEO isn't justifying ROI, there could be some undervalued Layer 2 token which could provide good ROI provided it has what it needs to take off.
That's just my 2 Sats.
Posted Using LeoFinance Beta