Well, like BTC we print new tokens out of thin air but our print rate is not as fixed. But over time, less HIVE is created for the daily reward pool. And there is the HBD which is backed by HIVE and I think our algorithmic stablecoin is working well over the last few years. Since HBD can be exchanged for HIVE, that tends to increase or decrease the HIVE inflation rate based on conversions people choose to do.
So even though we do not have a cap like BTC, we have a fairly predictable inflation rate. That gives some trust to the enduring value of the HIVE token.
One Main Purpose of HIVE - Governance and Content Stake Based Voting
People want to have HIVE because it is also a kind of governance token. The more HP you have, the higher your vote power in witness voting and DHF proposal voting. Also, the more HP you have, the higher your vote power when it comes to voting on posts and comments which determine how much of the daily reward pool goes to content creators. This is pretty unique in the world of cryptos and it has incentivized me and others to stack HP.
Another HIVE Use Case - Easy Payments
It is pretty easy to buy things with HIVE and HBD, with HBD being rather stable which businesses rightly prefer. There is no gas fee / block recording fee when transferring HIVE or HBD, like we have in ETH and BTC. So this beats even credit cards where VISA takes like 3%. So it makes our tokens like digital cash, and can be sent semi - anonymously if you have not tied your account name to your real life identity.
Smart Contracts
We have level 2 tokens that are easy to create and trade, on hive-engine. It is not perfect as we saw over the last few days. More Smart Contract tech is coming soon with VSC and some things LEO is doing. There may eventually be some smart contract abilities forked into the base layer.
Decentralization
We have a great thing going here. We are decentralized and there is no HIVE Inc making all the decisions. It's not hard to do dev work on HIVE and people and groups can do their own way and try their own things. Sometimes decentralized systems are slower than core run organizations but we are much more flexible and unlimited in our potential.
Stack HIVE
Stick with HIVE for the long run, my friends. It may be a rocky road but the future look bright, and if you don't like something, step up and change it yourself!
Happy 2025 and beyond! :)