Hive is missing the boat on something great.
As we stated on a number of occasions, Hive is unique. There are many characteristics at the base layer that make Hive different from most other blockchains. We can (and do) point to some of these in our discussions.
There is one aspect that gets overlooked. This is actually not only done by people on Hive. Instead, it is almost all who are involved in blockchain.
We have everyone focusing upon price they are missing powerful technology that is before them. This has caused the development by entrepreneurs to focus upon tokenization and leveraging that. While that is a sound approach, it is missing something even more fundamental.
Our delving into this subject starts with the investigation into blockchain. This is where it becomes evident as to what is possible.
What Is Blockchain
Blockchain is often called distributed ledger technology (DLT). It is the ability to write transactions into a data structure called blocks. Each block is joined to the others in the network through hash.
This came to prominence with Bitcoin. That network has a ledger of transactions going back to the genesis block. Any coins that are moved are charted by the network with the miners arriving at consensus. The key is to prevent double spending, an issue that plagued developers before Bitcoin.
The ledger that is created is similar to that of a bank. It is a bunch of financial transactions over time. Think about your bank account. When you log in, there is a listing of all the debits and credits along with the latest account balance.
In short, your bank maintains a ledger of all the transactions its customers make. This is integrated with the ledgers of other banks, a combination which keeps track of all the money moving through it.
The difference with blockchain is that the ledger is decentralized. Many different nodes (computer) run the software, most unrelated to each other. The protocol is responsible for how consensus is determined, ensuring all nodes agree on the ledger as new blocks are added. This is how account balances are maintained.
A new way of maintaining a ledger was a powerful change to the financial world. At this point, no longer were intermediaries required to update the ledger and balances.
Cryptocurrency
Many look at blockchain and the only thing they see is cryptocurrency. This is the wrong way to view things.
Cryptocurrency is simply a use case for blockchain. It is not the totality of it nor is it limited to just this application. This is akin to email. When this was introduced, it became the first use case for the Internet that was mass adopted. However, nobody would ever claim email and the Internet are synonymous. The latter is obviously much bigger than email.
The same holds true for the relationship between blockchain and cryptocurrency. While it is the most successful application tied to this new technology, it will not likely be the biggest. We will see it eclipsed over the next decade by other use cases which enter the public consciousness.
This is no different how social media, another application on the Internet, usurped email.
Thus, when we delve deeper into blockchain, we can see that it is a decentralized database. This makes it much bigger than cryptocurrency. It means any financial ledger can operate on blockchain even if it doesn't have the medium of exchange attribute to it (think inventory ledger).
Decentralized Text Database
Thus far, we used the term "ledger" to describe the database tied to blockchain. This is an intentional approach.
When we look at the databases of many blockchains, at their core they are ledgers. The ability to store text is not native to many of this. This is not the case with Hive.
Hive has the ability to immutably store text at the base layer. This means we are dealing with a permissionless database that can house any text document, akin to either Microsoft Word or Excel.
This is what the network has written to it. What that text is can be anything. Here we see a host of use cases opening up. Unfortunately, it is something that few have considered to much of a degree.
Consider all the data that is available online. How much of it is on centralized servers? The overwhelming majority. Of course, most of this is useless information that doesn't matter in the long run. However, there is a lot of stuff that humanity would suffer it is was lost.
How much of this is being transferred to immutable, decentralized databases? What projects are even looking at this as a means of setting up a business?
It is a major point of value that Hive is missing.
Podping
One project that is already running is Podping. Early on, some were upset at the "spamming of the blockchain". This shows how we lose focus of what Hive is all about.
Podping is a podcasting updating service. It basically takes new episodes and broadcasts the URL out. This negates the ability of indexing services to censor particular content by burying the URL.
With this service, podcasting application can simply scan the Hive blockchain and incorporate the updates as they are delivered. Here is a powerful use case for the network since nobody can censor or stop the data.
Since the introduction of the service, many applications have started to utilize it. We are also seeing other features being constructed such as a global notification system. This was not possible before Podping
Wikipedia On Hive
This is something we discussed in the past.
One of the major use cases is creating repositories of information. While people posting about their travel experiences to the Alps is useful, it is only the tip of the iceberg. There is a lot more data out there which is vital to preserve.
We mentioned the idea of Wikipedia of Hive. That is mostly a text database that has become the defacto "encyclopedia" for researchers. It also is one of the best ranking sites for search engines.
How come nobody undertook the task of building something like that on Hive?
There are an assortment of other ideas that stem from this. Just consider the data tied to:
- sports such as stats (baseball reference)
- films and entertainment such as IMDB (which is owned by Amazon)
- historical data
All of these can be reference centers built on Hive.
Then we have other aspects such as shipping manifests and passenger lists. Of course, the fact the data is public for all to see makes it difficult to place. However, posting data in encrypted form could serve as a possible solution.
Heck, has anyone even put the capitals of the 50 states in the U.S. on-chain.
A decentralized database that is maintained by a diverse group of unrelated node operators is very powerful. With censorship and rewriting of history, we can see how this could radically alter things.
For example, what is all government data that is used for things such as unemployment, climate change, and other policy tools had to go on a blockchain like Hive. Then people could sift through it to see what was really taking place.
Naturally, this is not what governments want since control is their business. Yet, aren't we do the same thing by ensuring that other data that is beneficial to humanity is housed on Google's or Amazon's servers?
Basically we give all power to them.
Obviously, not all data is going to be on (or even belongs) on a decentralized database. Nevertheless, there is a lot that could be. Hive should have a couple dozen projects working on this since it is easy to start and requires no grand intelligence. This can even be accomplished with no technical skills whatsoever.
The bottom line is that if we look at Hive through the lens of the value of the coin, that is like believing the Internet is just email. This is a pretty foolish approach yet that is what most do.
It is time to start changing that.
By creating useful databases of text, something that cannot easily be done on other blockchains, the value of Hive can skyrocket. After all, resource credits are required to do anything.
To me, this is one of the most valuable use cases for Hive.
One final thought: one a few of these are built, what happens when other projects start looking for a new chain to operate upon? Suddenly there are examples to point to of how Hive already is able to handle it.
Business 101.
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There is this thing called too much information.
Maybe an AI frontend patching all the text into consumable, accurate, and coherent content is the missing link.
Taking your podcast example, all the link even though censorship resistant is not valuable if they are content people don’t want to consume. Search engine serves as a curator, a mechanism needs to be incorporated and not just random links.
So build it.
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My bag is not big enough to quit my nice paying day job and dedicate the time and energy 😼😹
I think that is a problem for a lot of people. Already have debt obligation and good paying jobs to remain status quo.
Yeah you are right. Many do find themselves in that situation.
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This is a great idea and a valuable use case for the Hive blockchain. There have always been drawbacks with storing text information on centralised servers and the risks that come with that. Having a public and decentralised blockchain store this information will be a boon for many people.
Great article. I thought/think the concept of "thread storms" and LeoGlossary are heading down that path. I definitely see the use case for this and I think Hive is the right platform to develop this on; the reason being tech + the community! Am not sure about the encrypted database on chain though. I don't see the value for this (yet)?
Well if companies are using a public, permissionless database for things such as inventory management, they would want it encrypted.
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While building applications that is focused on tokenization which is where most of the focus is in the crypto space, building Apps like Leoglossary which no one is focusing upon in this space is another one of those moves that will Hive ahead and these developments have a way of indirectly impactive the price of the token positively.
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That is going to be the game changer. We will see when someone develops an application that using Hive as a database. Just like Podping figured out.
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The fact that the Hive blockchain started with the purpose of content creation gave it the advantage as its infrastructure was built to support this natively. This is the major gain over the other blockchains and I think like you pointed out that there is so much growth that can come to this ecosystem. And on top of that we have started to adapt the infrastructure for "everything" app, what you can imagine you can do it on Hive!
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Imagining and doing are two different things.
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Yea something like wiki on Hive is a great thing, but that can already be done using IPFS frontends.
Great ideas that would definitely help out Hive. We would need someone with the programming skills to set it up and that unfortunately isn't me...
It takes no programming skills to post content on the blockchain.
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I wonder if it might be worth reaching out to archive.org ? They are really into archiving both information and media, but use centralized servers. Blockchain would save them a ton of money, I imagine.
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Reaching out is always a good thing. However, it is important to have some things developed for others to look at. Like a proof of concept.
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So it might be a good idea to wait... I don't know anyone there, I just like what they do.
The Hivipidea idea sticks with me, and every time I see you mention it I want to further pursue it, the overwhelming size of it always puts me off, where to start? Sometimes it needs someone else to get the ball rolling! Leo glossary is a great example. I recently found 'HiveWiki' also, which I feel has some potential, it's an open-source wiki page that people can edit, might be worth utilising it along with the glossary to further enhance the SEO and text database. It can be found here. Maybe it could be made into a web3/Hive frontend to further benefit Hive too.
The task doesnt get smaller as time passes. LOL
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One day at a time, it's on the list, slothly does it and all that
I hear you. There is always something to do on chain. Too many opportunities and not enough people helping out.
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Actually, I have a few concepts in mind. If we can find folks competent enough to work on these ideas. I'll be happy to discuss them further.
I love everything about this. Yet, I'm more than a little frustrated by my lack of knowledge about the basics. Especially…
Well, the intelligence required might not be grand. But it's greater than mine. Because normally, I would research a project and see how I might adapt it for my own needs. Or, better still, align myself to a database project that interested me. Then I could hopefully contribute something useful.
However, the only project that I'm aware of is Podping. Both as a result of your post. And from some rudimentary searching for hive database-related articles. Now, my research has only just begun. So I hope I might find something more relevant to me.
Anyway, if a Hive database project is "easy to start", do you (or anyone else) have a pointer for my first step? [Please ignore that - I just found your https://ecency.com/hive-167922/@taskmaster4450/using-hive-for-a-database-business
So far, the most serious attempt to create blockchain-based online encylopaedia was Everipedia. It was interesting project, but apparently it made terrible mistake of choosing EOS for the blockchain. Nowadays it is rebranded into IQ.wiki with focus on crypto subjects and is using Polygon blockchain.
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Hive is so much more than a social network. The decentralization of information and data will bring about more change in the future than any government could ever dream of preventing. Mark my words, this is only the beginning.
The Revolution will Not Be Televised - It Will Be Decentralized
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