Hive (formerly known as Steemit) is a wonderful piece of technology, but, to the regular user, it may have quite a steep learning curve. On the surface, it looks like a simple, normal social media site, but under the hood there are a lot of revolutionary, and sometimes complicated, processes.
I decided to put together a post in which I'll try to answer to the most basic questions, providing then links or guidance to other posts in which I go into details on a specific topic. If you're new here, I recommend to bookmark this post as the "root" of all the explanatory posts linked form here. Also, feel free to share it with other people, if you think it's useful.
Without further ado, let's start!
1. Where Does The Money Come From?
Simply put, from inflation. Hive is a website built on top of a blockchain, which produces tokens, just like Bitcoin and Ethereum do.
I know, when you hear this, at least a dozen of other questions are arising, so you'd probably want to know:
- how is the money distributed?
- in what currency am I paid?
- what is the reward pool?
All these questions, and a few more, are answered in this article:
Hive Newbie FAQs: Where Does The Money Come From?
2. What Is A Witness And Why Should I Care?
A witness is a person operating a witness node, which validates Hive blocks. It has a similar function with a miner in a Proof of Work blockchain, only in Hive, you don't need that amount of hashing power. In simpler words, witnesses are the ones supporting this blockchain, without them, there will be no content, no voting, no tokens.
As always, I can sense the next questions:
- how do you vote for a witness?
- there are different types of witness: top 19 and runner up? Why?
- can I delegate somebody else to vote for witnesses on my behalf?
The answer to all of these and a lot more details about how the block generation works on Hive, here:
Hive Newbie FAQ - Witnesses: What Are They And Why Should You Care
3. Can I Get Hacked On Hive?
Hey, this is (still) the internet, of course you can get hacked. Only here you get hacked in a different way. The most important difference is that your account is not stored in a central database, somewhere, that somebody can recover for you. Instead, it lives directly in the blockchain and you're the only one responsible for its security.
Wait, but what about:
- what is a public / private key pair?
- if my account is public, everybody can access it?
- what is the Hive master password?
All these, and a few more, are answered in this post:
The Beginner Guide To Not Getting Hacked On Hive
4. Is It Ok To Ask Around People To Upvote Me?
Short answer: no.
Long answer: no, and if you do this, a unicorn will die in wonderland.
Seriously, there is a lot to be learn in terms of social behavior on Hive, specifically because this site is loaded. The presence of money changes dramatically the goals and the approaches of people here. From spamming to whale-hunting, newcomers are trying all sorts of strategies to increase their rewards. Most of them fall dramatically.
If you really want to make it here, I recommend starting here:
Netiquette: How To Avoid Being A Hive Douche?
5. How Accurate Are The Rewards Displayed Next To My Posts?
Not very, at the moment. It has to do with the currencies in which you are paid and also with a thing called "the peg" between HBD and the USD, which, at the moment, is broken. So, if you really want to understand what is going on, I highly recommend the explanation on the following article (it also has a nice simulator, so you can see in real time how much you're getting for any arbitrary amount - also, there are a lot of nice stats there):
Hive.Supply: Rewards Calculator
6. Can I Mine The HIVE Token, Just Like I Mine Bitcoin?
It used to be possible, in the beginning, but, due to a bug in the implementation, the mining queue was hijacked by only a few players, making it almost impossible for other people to get something. It may be possible that mining will come to Hive in another forms (specifically, for mining the fee for creating an account), but, at the moment of writing, there is no possibility to do that.
If you want to know all the details, have a look here:
How Can I Mine Hive And What CPU / GPU Power Do I Need For That?
7. Can You Make Money On Hive?
Short answer: yes.
Long answer: yes, but...
I'm gonna be really, really, short on this one and send you instead to a longer post I wrote last year, after I reached my 5000th post here. Yes, you read that right: the 5000th post.
Can You Really Make Money On Hive? 5000+ Posts Later My Answer Is: "Yes, But..."
Well, that's it! I think these are the 7 most fundamental questions about Hive. If you have suggestions or questions, feel free to ask them in the comments.
I'm a geek, blogger and ultrarunner. You can find me mainly on my blog at Dragos Roua where I write about productivity, business, relationships and running. Here on Hive you may stay updated by following me @dragosroua.
Wanna know when you're getting paid?
| I know the feeling. That's why I created hive.supply, an easy to use and accurate tool for calculating your HIVE rewards | |
good info for people who dont understand how this works
That would be ME @lasper! lol The info in this post is exactly what I needed, after floundering around on Steemit for the past few weeks. Excuse me while I do a Happy Dance...
Add this: Is Steemit fair?
No, it's not.
Grasp that reality and move forward.
WAY more fair than Facebook slave labor! lol
Very, very true.
Took me a bit to embrace that idea. Before that, I was merely writing everyday hoping for a break. Now I comment and get to know others.
Don't play fair in an unfair life to get ahead in life.
Disclaimer: Don't be an asshole.
That's my approach too, and I still stand firm behind the idea of commenting more than I post. I have learned so much in these few months that it's hard to imagine life without Steemit everyday.
Getting to know others helps build a stronger community and you find value in being on the site regularly, or at least I do!
Chicken and egg. Once you get higher rewards you'll definitely be posting more.
Yes, I can see where it would become addictive! It already is for me! I really enjoy the feeling I get from interacting with others here, unlike being on the mainstream social media websites.
@dragosroua
This is by far the best guide for getting started i've found here on steemit. And i really searched a lot to inform myself. The work you put into it is simply overwhelming. I subbed and will check your posts first every day, because i have the feeling that i can learn so much from you. Thanks again. I Can't thank you enough.
What if someone with a regular account got voted in as witness? Is the steem client hard to set up amd run? How do we know we are voting on a good, up-to-date node? I could probably give 7 questions here.....🤔
Have a look at the specific article first, it may answer some of the questions.
You can't get votes as a witness if you're a regular account. In order to signal that you're eligible as a witness, you have to broadcast a specific transaction on the blockchain, which basically says: "hey, I set up my client and I'm ready to produce blocks". From that moment on you can receive witness votes.
Makes sense. Usually a logical answer if machines are involved.....humans, not so much. I have a bunch of machines, 2 of them powerful. I feel they should be raking in some cryptos, somehow....
go for it :)
What's necessary to set up a client? I'd like to look into this in the future.
I just now noticed this post. I read it with wide eyes and bookmarked it. I really enjoyed the netiquette parts.
Write on.
Resteeming this for friends who've just recently joined.
Thanks for sharing!
Having seen (and commented on) so many "where's the money from" entries lately, this answers a few fundamental questions. Thank you. I'd resteem this, but I'm suffering from "bandwidth issues," along with half a squillion other people right now.
Hey, this is exactly the post I was looking for for a long time! You've already answered some of my questions directly and I just cannot wait to take time to read all the referenced posts. I will share the info also with my brother @nebgajic who joined Steemit yesterday :)
It is hard not to sound like a spammer but all I can think of saying is "Great Post" or may be I should say really useful for all newbies like myself. Thanks for taking the time to write it and linking to other cool posts :)
I have a question, what can I do to run as a witness . What’s the process . I have all the technical parts completed as well . What’s good way to advertise
you have to campaign, which means create enough value that people will vote you.
@dragosroua I have been here for a year and a half and I learn something New all the Time. That is a Good Thing. The more you learn the more you can share with others..............
Number 6 intrigues me... we may not be able to actually mine Steem or SBD, but we mine our minds, our passions and our emotions all the time. This platform is a "Proof of Self". Keep it coming sir.
The minining, is us.
No wonder Unicorns got extinct. :)
Regarding making money, I guess people can make it from the very first day by contributing to projects like utopian-io, dtube, slothicorn etc. I wrote a post yesterday explaining how people can earn rewards from the very first day. Though it took me 6 months to cash out some bucks but now if you are hard working and consistent, you don’t have to tease any whale to get an upvote.
Thanks for this summary and the links. I would say my 2 biggest challenges, 6 weeks into Steemit, is how upvoting works and what the figures mean with regard to powering up.
I've read numerous posts and watched numerous videos but still don't get these 2 things in particular. What's missing for me is easy number examples, in the case of powering up, e.g. it Steem was at $6 and $SBD was at $10 it would mean this. However, if Steem was at $6 and $SBD was at $2 it would mean this.
And, I wonder, does it really make much difference when youre starting out. at one point I was getting 1.5 roughly for my SPD now it seems to be around 1 so I've stopped powering up. Have not idea if that's a good plan or not.
I'm hoping, one day, to meet someone in person who can sit down at the computer with me and talk me through the graphs and respond to my "what if this changed" questions.
Looking at your "Can I make money" article I'm glad to see that it took you 6 months to work out your strategy. Mine's already changed from when I'm started. I still post every day but now spend most of my time reading. commenting and responding.
Have a look at http://steem.supply/rewards it's all in there
Thank you. I'll take a look and get back to you if I'm still stuck? 😊
When I first started, I really had tons of question that nobody seemed to answer which I could comprehend. I have read some of the articles you mentioned here before. So thanks a lot. I appreciate you being human and helping others make it to this platform.
I'm just amazed by your good writing brother, especially the format, just super refreshing. Solid content as well but man I dig your writing to the bone.
Being a developer myself I've been thinking in terms of contributing to the forum through code, I checked your steem.supply and like the concept of building something small but useful. Do you have any pointers towards any resources etc to develop upon the Steem platform that you would recommend? As a note I haven't developed anything related to crypto, mostly work with AI and machine learning at my job noways. (got a solid full-stack toolkit or knowledge bank in my backpack although)
Keep writing these posts, will honestly stay tuned for more of these, great work. 🙏🏼
Thanks for the nice words, appreciated :)
As for resources, you may start with the libraries and tools described on https://developers.steem.io. If you're familiar with PHP, you can have a look at my experimental fork of php-steem-tools.
Other than that, just a lot of exercise and digging through the code, this is not your regular "follow the docs and everything will be clear" approach, because there aren't really any detailed docs. It says even in Steem Github page: "code is documentation".
Good luck! :)
Sounds good, thank you for your pointers 🙏🏼
See you around!
Excellent information for newbies and a great refresher for novices too! Thanks for writing this up, it's definitely helpful
Should have included the most/only successful way to technique to make money is through engagement and not by begging for upvotes.
@dragosroua In this article
https://steemit.com/steemit/@dragosroua/can-you-really-make-money-on-steemit-5000-posts-later-my-answer-is-yes-but
You say:
"it took me about 6 months to figure out the exact amount of time I should invest and how should I split it"
Would you mind talking a bit about that, not necessarily exactly how you do it, even more generally, what do you think it's a good practice.
P.S. Where can I read if I was mentioned in comments, I know where to find where I have been replied to, but not mentioned...
I think it's a question of trial and error, really. Trying different strategies and see what works for you. What worked for me, may not work for somebody else. You may find out that your photography gets appreciated, or tutorial or news. Just try and see what works.
As for notifications, I recommend an app called Steemifications, just do a search for it in AppStore.
Thanks for the recommendations !!!
I personally recommend GINABot for notifications. It works great :)
https://steemit.com/ginabot/@themarkymark/ginabot-the-secret-to-your-sanity-on-steemit
Yes but... why is so hard this days to get upvote for the quality post?
Define quality post :)
I'm going to share this with those who may have questions regarding getting started on Steemit!
As a newb still learning the platform thanks for the knowledge going to dive into the other articles. I have noticed a lot of people on different post talking about things I have done thats not so good to the community like maxing out my votes, and using votes that have no value. The steemit platform and blockchain behind it is similar to social media platforms but the etiquette is totally different and post like this are the ones that help us rookies to understand it more. Again thank you off to read the other post now.
A lot of new information comes to my mind right now. I'm trying to understand it few a few. I found all very useful for people joining to Steemit.
Thank you for your amazing work, persistence and dedication.
And congratulations for your more than 5000 post in the platform!! =)
Informative as always, thank you. Was at a girls game night Friday and two of my friends expressed interest in Steemit. I sent them links to this post as it answers much more fully than I could. Thanks again.
@dragosroua Can you please explain about how "potential growth" also present in your steem supply is calculated? Is it just the upvotes or something else as well...
It means how much the account will grow, if all the projected rewards will be filled. If your account is worth $1000 and the projected rewards are $100, the you will have a 10% growth. I use the term "potential" because no reward is guaranteed until the actual moment of payment.
Got it, Thanks!!!
@dragosroua Since you're a developer maybe you're interested in this, thought I'd pass it along
https://steemit.com/utopian-io/@luzcypher/looking-for-developers-to-help-build-a-dedicated-open-mic-website-built-on-the-steem-blockchain
Great summary. I wish I knew it all when I started!
i definitely need to bookmark this post you covered every topic of it :D
Imagined that massacre for a second :'(
Nice post.I respect you very much because you contribute to steemit.I will do activities like you.I would like to extend the steemit.
Smart post sir...
Actualy I'm waiting for weekend SBD pump...but it is not working....what happent sir...
@dragosroua It will be interesting to see how things change over the next couple of months and of course the more competition the better it is for the customers..............
I am new at steemit and you helped me a lot,but I must ask how.can I gain more steempower in a short delay,I have a lot of friends but still far from getting what I expected?
Thanks for the helping information. #upvoted
What is that but doing? Can't wait to read that post. Five thousand whao!
Great post. Even in life, one keeps learilning new things day after day
Awh, thanks a lot for this, I tried logging into Steemit.chat and it requires a username and password which I did and it still saying incorrect password. What could be wrong Pls.
You have to make an account for that, it's separate from Steemit.
Nice update here @dragosroua I have been follow your post closly, you really improve this great community with nice creation!
Yes...Money is a reward. Money brings opportunity, security, and power. Money is strength and energy. A large amount of money means I can have and do a lot.
A large amount of money means I have done something well or been very good.
What a high level of publication, I think it's wonderful what you've done, so intelligent what you've posted, is the kind of fruitless content I'm looking for to know more about this magnificent platform. I am anxious to read your next post. You are amazing. Regards
thes eare great questions and answers wich alot of people will find very interesting!
@dragosroua: you are missing the 8 Fundamental Question
Why those huges fights about Reward Pool being Raped.
If it is true and happens is because of you, my dear Witnesses. So better do something before that noise kill the system.
Hello, Dragos!
This guide would have been very useful to me last year when I created my account. You have answered many questions and I appreciate you for clarifying these things for newbies.
Have a nice evening!
hi @dragosroua i am only three days in steemit. Please guide me.
help follow and upvote me yes.
wow thanks! this is one of the best tutorial set i came across brings really in-depth info for newbies like me. There are a lot of posts which just scratch the surface and give me nothing. Thanks for that a lot!
Thank you, thank you, thank you @dragosroua for this information!!! It is exactly what I needed, at the time that I needed it.
cool men
Very good information. I really appreciate as i am a new steemian. Thank you very much.
Thanks for the million dollar information!