Hello hello everyone, but particularly to @pattyalexx who is the friend I was working on getting onto Hive.
As you can see by her intro post she worked it out. Thanks again to @niallon11 for setting up the account and even delegating some HP to get Patty started.
Patty and I have been good friends for a couple of months now, and so it was only a matter of time before my enthusiasm for Hive spilled over into conversation. Patty has been in the cryptoverse for a while, but I wanted to use this post to explain a few of the nuances of Hive - and to ask everyone else what they would suggest be part of the initial learning curve.
Patty is keeping her keys safe and has set up Hive Keychain.
However, young lady, be really careful with following links on the Hive blockchain, people have been known to set up spoof websites just to get your keys and the content of your wallets.
So you know that Hive is a blockchain, however, instead of just transactions like other cryptocurrencies; posts, comments, transfers, delegations, etc are all treated as transactions on this blockchain. Posts and comments are on this public blockchain forever, as are all the transactions. There have definitely been bad actors in this space, but it's usually only a matter of time before someone tracks down all the details on the blockchain.
There are many different ways to read the transactions on the blockchain. You've met Hive.blog but there is also PeakD.com which is what I'm using right now. You'll love the PeakD Dashboard.
This blockchain uses Markdown so you can get a little fancy if you like...
So, your twitter link didn't actually work because the @ symbol is reserved for Hive accounts (also known as mentions... ie, since I've already typed in @pattyalexx you'll get a mention notification).
Similar to the one I got from both your post and a comment you wrote:
To properly link a Twitter account, use this instead:
Find me at [@PattyAlexx](https://twitter.com/PattyAlexx) which looks like:
Find me at @PattyAlexx
Lots of apps on the Hive blockchain
The Hive blockchain is pretty easier to interact with... most of the info that a web developer would need can be found here. This means that progress on this blockchain is honestly hard to keep up with.
There is a list of other applications that use this blockchain:
Source
There are a lot more Dapps (Decentralized Apps) to come, for example, the one I use most of all Xhaust made by @exhaust isn't in that list, but totally uses the Hive blockchain.
Hive isn't just for blogging, apps like 3Speak (video) and Splinterlands (game) use certain parts of the blockchain but then build their own layers over the top. You'd barely know Spliterlands used the Hive blockchain just by looking at it.
These Dapps will often take a percentage of your post rewards for using their service, but they often have a pretty powerful vote so it usually works out pretty nicely for the users.
If you want to get super nerdy, Hiveblocks is a good way to see what's happening on the actual blockchain itself... all these dapps just interpret and display the information from the blockchain they're interested in.
For instance, you can see your own post on the blockchain:
becomes
Things like images and videos aren't kept on the blockchain itself, just the links.
You can do this for any post by changing the
https://hive.blog/ part of the URL to https://hiveblocks.com/
Value is created by different cryptocurrencies in different ways. Bitcoin requires miners to solve complex equations to earn the right to produce/confirm a block of transactions, and for that effort they earn Bitcoin as a mining reward and so Bitcoin will be constantly created until it hits 21 million. XRP has already had all it's tokens created and the XRP Validators are volunteers who validate the transactions.
BTC can get a bit centralized if one country or company supplies the majority of the hash power, XRP isn't as centralized as people think, but as far as I know only one none-Ripple update to the blockchain has been made. Hive is completely decentralized. Anyone can make updates to the blockchain code if enough witnesses agree.
Witnesses are like the XRP validators, except they are voted in by the members of the community. You can see the list of witnesses here, and at some point in a few weeks you should cast your own votes.
The witnesses earn Hive for confirming the blocks, and so it's important to vote for the witnesses that make your experience on the platform better.
If you log into PeakD.com you can also see the proposals that people have suggested for blockchain development. These proposals also get a portion of the reward pool for their development.
The Hive reward pool is created each day, similar to the new Bitcoin miner rewards, and portions of it go to the witnesses, investors, active proposals and then our votes.
Voting
When you write a post or a comment, and someone upvotes it, you'll get a percentage of the reward pool based on how much stake/Hive power the people upvoting you have.
You have 25 Hive Power at the moment, so your vote isn't worth a lot... you can check all that here.
Your Voting Power is the wheel in the top left hand corner.
This bit gets confusing, but basically when you vote at the moment you are using 100% of your voting power... and your voting power is replenished 2% every 2 hours. So ideally try not to let it go lower than 75-80% (so that it can replenish back to 100% in a day or so.
The amount you can vote is determined by how much Hive Power you have (you have 25 at the moment). You get Hive Power by taking Hive that you're earned through rewards or purchased and powering it up. You can do this in your wallet.
This is what my wallet looks like at the moment...
Once you get over 500 Hive Power, you'll get a slider so you won't have to vote 100% each time.
That means that if you were giving out $10 votes, then at 50% you'd be giving out $5 votes.
This will make it a lot easier to keep your Voting Power around the 80% mark.
You also earn Hive for the votes you make... depending on how many minutes after a post/comment is created and the value of the votes that follow you...
... that also means that you won't get the total value of the amount your post has been voted
You get half of the amount, and the people who voted you get the other half.
I know this initially seems really unfair, after all, you created the content and all they did was vote you... but trust me that the voters earning 50% helps them actually vote and to look for good stuff to vote on.
We've had other systems in place previously, and in my person opinion, this works really well. I'm sure people still have strong opinions on this... but just by looking through my previous post payouts, I'm still earning way more getting 50% of $14 than the 75% of $1.
Communities
You've already found the OCD community for your Intro Post, good work on that.
Like the Dapps, communities also take a percentage of your post rewards, I think it's 5% across the board... but also like Dapps, they can come with some post rewards, and a lot more exposure.
I'm not sure how to do it on Hive.Blog, but on PeakD.com you can cross post to different communities...
... although be aware that each community will take it's own cut of your post rewards... but you're also exposing your post to more people that wouldn't have seen it otherwise.
How do I make more Hive?
As people mentioned in the comments of your intro post, the best way to really experience Hive is to engage with it. In your earlier days, you're probably likely to get more upvotes on comments to other peoples posts than your own posts. That's most people's experience when they first join Hive... so get out there and make some friends.
Asher made a lovely welcoming comment on your Intro post, and he is the king of engagement on this platform. Check out his Engagement League Posts and see if you can get involved. It's a great way to meet a lot of the wonderful people on this platform.
Also keep an eye out for the various competitions and writing contests going around. There are many groups of people actively going around looking for quality content to vote on.
Once you've got some Hive to sell... it's currently listed on Bittrex, Binance, Houbi and MXC. I've actually never done it myself, but I can't imagine it's super hard...
I'm sure I'm missing out on a ton of information for you Patty, but hopefully friendly friends in the comments will help fill in some of the gaps...
Welcome to Hive! I couldn't be more excited to have you here!!
