A special thank you to @mynewlife for making the title image
At the end of last year we asked the community for input on the 2025 marketing strategy. We thank everyone who took the time to participate and fill out the questionnaire.
The key input takeaways are:
- Hive is unknown and remains unknown despite current efforts
- Personal, community efforts involving Hive members to attract others, particularly ordinary people like themselves
- Participation of the wider Hive community is a must
- Onboarded users should be guided not only how to post but also how to stake and earn through investment
- Shift focus to content creation and promote the community
This approach leverages the DMAIC quality control methodology to support continuous improvement and resource optimization.
DMAIC: Define, Measure, Analyse, Improve, and Control.
General Direction
We are aiming to prioritize digital activities and online promotions as much as possible this year.
Geographical areas which require unique approaches (predominantly LATAM and India) have their own marketing strategies.
Physical activities will be coupled with side-events where possible.
Increasing cross-use of Hive dapps and projects to amplify promotions and showcase technology built on Hive.
Defining the Audience
| Group | Reason | Method |
|---|---|---|
| Content creators [CC] | Content producers and consumers make up the majority of Hive | Onboarding, user journey, mentorship, guides, workshops |
| Builders and developers [BD] | The Hive ecosystem thrives and expands through innovation | Conferences, tech events, hackathons, podcasts, workshops |
| Investors [I] | Investors support liquidity and training while helping all aspects of the ecosystem scale | Conferences, specialized events, podcasts and digital programs, flashy sporting events |
| Businesses [B2B] | Businesses amplify Hive through use of HIVE and HBD to make purchases, showing the utility of Hive | Workshops, tool/dapp-specific marketing, targeted messages |
| Partners [P] | Current and potential partners add value through scaling, integrations, and cross-promotion | Conferences, joint events, joint promotional campaigns, resource-sharing |
| Exchanges [E] | Exchanges and trading services amplify the flexibility and utility of HIVE and HBD and support growth | Targeted messages, relationship-building, joint promotional campaigns |
Analyzing our Experience
We have covered much analysis and reflection in previous posts and will continue doing so on an ongoing basis.
Successful activities:
- Include the cooperation and contribution of the wider Hive community as well as support from Hive dapps that are relevant to the activity
- Support the sharing of resources, be they physical assets or digital services
- Highlight the unique strengths of Hive (its decentralization, ease of building on, feeless nature, monetization capability, and immutability) in order to promote it as a quality blockchain solution
- Allow for organic signups and an exploration of various Hive dapps while providing a mechanism or process to support the user on their journey through Hive
SWOT Analysis
This analysis version incorporates the feedback provided by Hive community members, which can also be found here: https://gitlab.syncad.com/hive/marketing/-/blob/master/strategy/Value%20Plan/strategy%20feedback/swot.md?ref_type=heads
Strengths:
- The Hive community full of skilled and dedicated individuals dispersed globally who are not strangers to adversity and are ready to tackle tough challenges
- A proven track record of true decentralization which is open to everyone and makes for a strong social network
- A fast and feeless, cost-effective, and user-friendly, layered cutting-edge blockchain that sees continuous development
- Ability to process payments with a trusted stablecoin due to its feeless structure
Weaknesses:
- Hive's inflationary model places emphasis on the constant need to conduct onboarding [Remediation: see Championing Community below]
- Our marketing initiatives remain limited and are not generating the desired impact due to their ad-hoc nature
- Lack of venture capital means that we are often overshadowed by competing blockchains with a far inferior tech stack but more funding
- While we self-regulate through community input and control we also self-deprecate and stifle our own potential
Opportunities:
- Hive's feeless blockchain with solutions such as the Hive Application Framework (HAF) is ideal for attracting game developers
- Ability to offer an alternative to mainstream social media, supporting the freedom of speech and access to information for all
- Take advantage of blockchain expansion in locations such as India which are becoming technology strongholds
Threats:
- Competing blockchains have rapid expansions which are supported with huge budgets beyond our reach
- Lack of representation at major conferences due to need to carefully select events due to budget limits and community member availability
- Political initiatives that aim to control decentralization, self-determination and self-control of entities through banking and regulatory means
- Hive is a target for bad actors both internal and external
Measuring with SMART Goals
SMART: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Timely goals. All SMART goals are quantitative.
General social media:
- Grow
hiveblocksX account to 50k followers by 2026 - Grow
hiveblocksInstagram account to 10k followers by 2026 - Improve communication from
hiveioblog account 1-2 posts per month (starting February) - Ensure that every Hive dapp, tool or project is supported on either X or Instagram with a post per quarter
Community engagement:
- Ensure that at least 10 accessible digital community participation or physical gathering opportunities are available per quarter
- Support activities in one new country per quarter
Also available: https://gitlab.syncad.com/hive/marketing/-/blob/master/strategy/Value%20Plan/projectgoals.md
| Project | Deliverable | 2024 Goal | 2025 Goal |
|---|---|---|---|
| Water and social impact projects | Efficient service delivery | Publicity in research papers, recognition of NGOs, publicity through joint partnerships and events | Completion of outstanding projects, no change to goals |
| Rally and motorcycle racing | Professional performance and representation of Hive | Increase in media exposure, including across socials, interviews | Successful coupling with side-events and crypto/tech-specific activities |
| Bike racing | Professional performance and representation of Hive | Partnerships with industry brands to encourage business use of Hive | Partnerships with industry brands and a focus on social media exposure |
| SWC | High-quality events representing Hive | Promotion of Hive in Colombia, focusing on investors and potential builders, social media representation, reducing costs through partnerships | Partnerships with non-crypto sporting brands, self-sustainability beyond as a marketing project |
| Education projects | Inspiring youth to explore STEM through Hive | Local publicity, recognition of academia | Onboarding and retention of talented young people |
| B2B | Onboarding businesses to transact in HBD | Exploring remote onboarding, reducing costs, focusing on sustainability | Shift from Sucre to global, focus on Distriator and VSC |
| Conferences | Visibility, partnerships and listings | Secure invites to speak at conferences | Secure high-value partnerships and invitations |
| Hackathons and niche promotions | Outstanding, professional events | Showcase Hive technology, expand utility of Hive, encourage building on Hive | Long-term engagement and retention of created projects and applications |
| Vibes | Onboarding music professionals | N/A | Gain visibility for Hive among musicians and fans |
| Arts intellectual programs, films, sponsorships | Promoting Hive as a viable solution for the arts scene, onboarding | N/A | Secure lasting partnerships with professional arts entities, promote Hive as a blockchain for the arts |
| Krolestwo and static focal points | Creation of physical Hive gathering spaces | N/A | Onboarding and retention, serve as gathering space to offset costs |
| HiveFest and community events | Professional and memorable events | Inclusion of non-Hive partners, partnerships and investment | Strengthening of the Hive community as a whole |
Improving on Key Activities
Conferences
Over the years we have established relationship with a number of conference organizers whom we know are capable of delivering good quality events and understand that working with Hive means creating opportunities suitable for a decentralized community. They understand what Hive has to offer, what our priorities are when we attend or sponsor, and how we process payments. We will be prioritizing those conferences for larger sponsorships while considering others, particularly those in areas where we had little exposure.
More:
- Main stage presentations
- Booths in central locations or sponsored areas
- Consistent branding
- Exclusive side-events
- Use of existing Hive assets
Less:
- Conference workshops (which tend to fill with our own attendees)
- Oddly timed presentations
- Addons to sponsorship packages
- Conference locations with no local speakers
We also learned a lot of hard lessons through trial and error over the years and shared many successes. While no event is ever perfect, we do better with each one.
Physical Events
Hive physical events including sporting activities, creative community activities, social-impact related events and physical get togethers. Physical events are far more expensive now than when we started promoting Hive in this manner. The cost of materials, assets, parts, and logistics has gone up exponentially due to global economic and geopolitical reasons far beyond our control. Food and transportation costs are on the rise and its plainly evident that the entire supply chain for every single item or service is affected. Not only ourselves but also our partners had costs rise mid-engagement, agreement or no agreement, sometimes exponentially.
At the same time, many of our Hive community members are having a harder time contributing to physical events. They are working multiple jobs, taking care of aging parents, and doing more with less. The impact is felt across our ecosystem.
All physical events this year will prioritize simplifying to reduce more than we already are used to reducing. We will not sacrifice quality for quantity. Hive is always presented with professionally-designed and printed material. We also do not compromise with safety.
More:
- Sharing Hive assets between events
- Using events to showcase tech built on Hive
- Focus on smaller Hive merch items
- Use of static Hive backdrops
- Exclusive side-events
Less:
- Hive merch giveaways of shirts, bottles or other larger items
- Large, costly events with many variables
- Sponsoring others' events (this is in part due to quality concerns as others cut costs)
Championing Community
While mass-onboarding was originally out of scope for Value Plan activities and only targeted onboarding events were conducted, based on community feedback and the results of our SWAT analysis and other reflective processes, we will pivot to focus on onboarding. To do this effectively, not only does onboarding need to take center stage but also a quality user experience. New Hive community members must have an interesting, clear and engaging journey when they join Hive, irrespective of what method of joining or dapp they focus on.
Empowering the Hive community digitally and physically is a priority this year. This includes our content creators, our dapps, our builders and generally everyone who is part of Hive. Our aim is to make activities accessible, particularly in digital form, wherever possible.
A strong emphasis on onboarding support/mentorship for new users was identified as a priority for this year. It is a clear-cut need as while the Hive ecosystem grows so does its complexity. Mentorship is an evident need. This focus further supports community building and dapp inclusion.
More:
- Promotion of content creation and celebrating it
- Meetups in areas where there were no meetups before
- Focusing on innovations of various Hive dapps
- Supporting the marketing needs of Hive dapps while highlighting Hive
Less:
- Marketing that avoids mention of content creation and monetization
- Prioritizing developer or investor onboarding
- Marketing short-term financial benefits (vs a long-term community experience)
Paused or Changed
Several ongoing projects will be either paused or changed this year while we consider new initiatives and improve on the current ones.
Physical Bitcoin Pizza Days: Due to various logistical, cost and general conduct reasons, Bitcoin Pizza Day will be a digital get together this year. We hope for a more positive and inclusive celebratory experience. [Paused]
Handball sponsorship: We greatly appreciate the cooperation and promotional help of the club but we recognize that our digital identity is not where it needs to be to capitalize on arena branding. We are forced to miss a season. [Paused]
Social Impact projects: We are finishing off the existing projects in Q1 and possibly Q2. No new projects will be undertaken thereafter unless explicitly warranted due to new information. We will focus on documentation and publication of the current ones. [Changed]
Rallies: We are limiting the rallies to ensure that we select locations with the most suitable impact. We also need them to have ample time between events to allow for repairs. A total of three rallies are scheduled: Monaco (completed), Italy (may be substituted), and CER. The rallies will have side-events where possible. [Changed]
SWC: SWC started out as a pure Hive marketing initiative but it became an entity. Since last year it has been actively seeking sports-related sponsors to create further opportunities for Hive and the participating athletes and will continue doing so, pivoting towards a B2B trajectory. [Changed]
Controlling Quality
Hive has the unique position of harvesting a diverse and engaged community that is used to continual optimization and perseverance to readily identify missed opportunities.
Metrics Portal
The Metrics Portal aka the Value Plan website is still in the works and is going through not only development but also an ongoing discussion regarding metrics and information analysis. Feedback, contributions and issues should be raised on Gitlab.
The website is created not only for Value Plan but also to be a functional and replicatable frontend for any DHF-based initiatives. Once launched, dapps are encouraged to clone it and customize it to their needs.
The website in progress can be seen at: https://value-plan-project.vercel.app
The website repository can be accessed from: https://gitlab.syncad.com/hive/metrics-portal
The site is currently planned to also include onboarding data. That data and its associated queries are currently being scrutinized by a small group of Hive community members with expertise in respect to metrics.
The site does include a focus on Plug-In proposals but these present a challenging aspect of organization and we are still testing them out.
Related Elements
Logos:
Account creator: A collection of Hive-themed logos can be found here free to use for any dapp or project that may need one: https://gitlab.syncad.com/hive/marketing/-/tree/master/logos?ref_type=heads (Adobe Illustrator format) The conference onboarding system is available here for integration and customization: https://gitlab.syncad.com/hive/hive-account-creator
Understanding Builds Quality
Value Plan conducts all of its financial transactions explicitly on chain and strives to outline their uses within the memos. In doing that it enables anyone to look back over the transactions without the need to uncover anything.
There are a few facts to consider while doing so. Value Plan does not "award" funds to anyone. What Value Plan does is enable Hive to make purchases of merchandise, pay for sponsorships or secure supplies for events by passing funds to individuals to pay the vendors. We do not pay ambassadors or organizers like other chains do. No one "got paid to do" anything and never will under Value Plan. It is insulting to refer as such to Hive community members who volunteer their time and act as a go in-between Hive and vendors.
The wallets that process payments are always encouraged to be cold wallets, particularly those belonging to doxxed individuals. This is for the safety of the individuals and the funds. They are not meant to be posting accounts. The use of cold wallets is a general best practice for anyone in relation to any crypto. We hope this note helps develop more understanding.
With this we conclude this general strategy document. LATAM and India strategies are ready but are in different formats, with LATAM being a spreadsheet. We will push these out independently.
Thank you,
~ The Value Plan Team
Just looking at your own metrics on your website there for 2024. They look a bit all over the place but I know it is a work in progress . Venezuela, which is a restricted country for many crypto companies that perform airdrops because of corruption, received 254,733.75 HBD in 2024. I think there is a naivety here that these funds are being used for legitimate projects. Would you not think it is a bit fishy because most of the Hive Community does?
I would say there is a little bit of "Wald's insight" into the feedback received as one of them was a top 5 recipient.
Why is there so many funded projects linked to the Threespeak Community?
Is this a coincidence is it that most of the recipients make video content on Threespeak?? I have been on Hive / Steem for a long time now and I was surprised how many users I didn't know who received funduing. I jump onto Threespeak and do a quick scroll and lone and behold, they are all there! The funding just seems a bit skewed to these users rather than the broader Hive userbase. Yes they all appear on Hive but it surprised me a little bit. Then I look at the founding fathers and it all starts to make sense.
Also who is behind @qmwallet? No explanations, No nothing but received a vast amount of funding in 2024. The lack of transparency is not good for optics. The only explanation in the Valueplan wallet is "LATAM Water project linked to Community Wells Project".
Can you not make a rule that if anyone receives more than ANY funding they should be obliged to write a post about it and share it on socials. Nothing worse than paying 25,000 HBD for a conference and one cannot find any evidence that it even went ahead. Well done to the rally car driver for posting about all their races. It leads me to believe that they have nothing to hide and they are doing their best for the Community so I tend to believe they are good even if they are the highest funded recipients.
You say Valueplan funding does not employ people and the users being funded are all voluntary. You need to wake up here. People are not doing these events out of the good of their health for Hive. People are doing this as a full time job. The GYM Street Work Out Founder is one of them and this was clarified by a number of his former colleagues. Disgruntled as they are , they provide a valuable insight into what is going on. The fact that they are very very disgruntled means there is large sums of money involved and with money comes greed and loathing, The conference presenter is another. I am sure there are more. It just looks like these people are living very well from Hive Community in developing countries. You can live well on 100,000 HBD in Europe but you can live like a king or queen for 100,000 HBD in Venezuela. All I get back is that Venezuela is difficult. Even more proof to stay well clear. No wonder all their friends are branching out into projects like bike racing and motor racing. It is clear that Valueplan is a soft touch. Easy money. I don't blame them in fairness. Valueplan needs a DOGE like audit and fast before our decentralised Community of 6 people whittle away another million in HBD this year.
You say Valueplan was set up because of timing issues for some projects. The DHF takes too long as a process. My opinion is that time should never be an issue. The opportunity has to be applied for in plenty of time. If it is too late then it is not Valueplan's fault. It is the person that wants to be funded. Come back next year earlier you dosser so we can do the a timely analysis and review and think about the funding. Anything that is jumped into off the bat is a recipe for disaster. There should be a certain budget set out for some projects and if they go over it then tough luck. That's the budget. It might make the recipients think twice. That's how much they get. Otherwise you are looking at a blackhole and where does it stop.
And finally. How come Victor's (from GYM Street Workout) mountain bike needs so much repairing & maintenance?? It's two wheels, a frame and a chain. He must be always falling off it. Can you not find a better rider? Or how about just buy him a mountain bike every year and send him on his way. It would cost us alot less than your regular maintenance payments for the bike. Most semi pros I know in cycling mend their own bike. I would be interesting to see the repair receipts. They would give us a right giggle.
Yeah its a work in progress. The site takes info out of the memos but at times the memos have sub-names instead of locations or city names there in the second field. Going forward it'll be easier to work with as they're being standardized more and more and probably soon they'll end up with custom_json data accompanying them.
People aren't doing this as a full-time job. They have their own job. The guy who runs SWC has a job, so does everyone else. Most people who meet any of the volunteers don't get to know them that well. The guy who does motorcycle racing owns a coffee factory and was a professional racer ahead of that. The bike racer is a full-time student, his parents work. Another person inherited properties. Someone else runs two businesses. It would be impossible for any of these individuals to come from a background of joblessness and poverty and contribute the way they do. I don't know where you're from, UK from what I can guess by your insults I had to look up, but up here in Canada the gov't subsidized unemployed can't just pick up and do any project, you need project management skills, networking skills from experience, be able to talk to vendors, have an education. Just think of it realistically. Most people with their best intentions can't even present to a small group. They can't organize anything.
The mountain bike takes a lot of damage every race. It's the same as the rally car, its heavy impact. Any rider would have the same. We've got receipts for parts and the costs are all online, they're universal parts that go for the same in every country. We save money by fixing the bike instead of buying a new one.
Anyways, the DHF needs strong frontend tools not only to negate the need for intermediaries like VP but to optimize every proposal that touches it. What I hope to see is others taking the VP site code and enhancing it. The site wasn't made to sit there, same with the account creation tool. There's a repo on Gitlab for marketing that needs more project management templates. All of this can also be done on the chain and it's not done.
If you're this concerned pick a chat, message me, and get involved.
Edit: Missed a few of your points. Qmwallet is just the cold wallet, updates are on @crazy.men and on LinkedIn. It hasn't been publicized yet but so far there's a lot of attention from NGOs. Water projects in South America aren't that common so it's already getting a lot of attention.
Post rule: Yes I can do that, not a problem. There are already posts but what we'll do is have an account to gather them all that's not VP.
3Speak: It's only because its our only video platform. Right now YT is the prime social media and 3S is our YT. There's nothing really behind the promotions skewing towards it other than it's a great video solution and people like making videos.
VZ in general: We are very careful with regulations. We don't hire local businesses and we are not doing any more conferences there except maybe a minor one here or there. It's a difficult country to operate with but the people are very welcoming to crypto. South America is generally good for it. This year we're focusing more on branching out to different countries.
Having worked with different blockchains as an advisor, I can say venture capital plays a crucial role in driving mass adoption of a Blockchain.
Hive possesses numerous features that are up and running which many chains have only mentioned in their whitepaper and have successfully raised capital.
Hive is significantly undervalued. By establishing a dedicated investor pool for Hive, I am confident that it could achieve a top 20 crypto asset ranking within the next two years, and potentially a top 10 position within five years if not earlier.
Do you have any ideas on how to best achieve that?
Having worked extensively with Ton, Sei, and Cypher blockchains, I have cracked down the approach in two easy steps.
First, we should establish an incubation or accelerator program focused on onboarding projects deploying on the Hive blockchain. The projects should receive grants (if they are building something new), cohort based learnings from experts and exposure to Hive Community. These projects should adhere to industry best practices and capitalize on trends such as AI agents, Real-World Assets (RWA), Gaming and Decentralized Physical Infrastructure Networks (DePIN). [Yes, Agreed the trends keep changing and so do the projects]
Concurrently, we need to secure soft commitments from investors for a dedicated venture capital fund, potentially named "Hive Ventures," (The Ventures name could be changed but Hive Ventures sounds cool) that will exclusively invest in projects graduating from our incubation program.
Setting up Hive Ventures would require time, effort and an initial investment to setup meetings, travel and explain Hive to potential investors interested in our ecosystem.
This investment from established VCs will drive the adoption of the incubated projects, ultimately increasing their value and, consequently, the value of the Hive blockchain itself.
I call this a basic blockchain rule: More dapps = More users = More transactions = More value of the blockchain. Yes, Marketing and VCs are two missing variables too.
It's important to note that this is a high-level overview. This strategy involves numerous variables, and the details provided here represent only a fraction of the considerations necessary for successful execution. I also understand the complexities and time investment required for successful implementation.
Not a bad idea at all but absolutely not doable here.
We have the DHF which is a non-advertising entity with no leadership or strategy funding projects based around pre-existing reputation.
Those that have the reputation to make a "Hive ventures" of sorts wont, as its a lot of work and responsibility and non-dev work on Hive isnt paid anything.
Those that might want to do it for free dont have the reputation for the community to trust them with the funds and running of it.
So no, this can not work here. Unfortunately.
I am working on something now in fact!
You raise valid points about the current challenges within the Hive ecosystem, particularly regarding the DHF's structure and the lack of incentivized leadership for non-dev work. I understand your skepticism. However, I believe, while ambitious, is not entirely out of reach and addresses some of these very challenges.
Let me elaborate:
You're right, the DHF as it stands isn't equipped for this. My vision isn't about using the DHF in its current form, but rather evolving it or creating a parallel, complementary structure. Think of it as a "Hive Ecosystem Fund". It will consist of private investors, VCs and more who are outside the Hive ecosystem. Their investments in projects that are deployed on Hive will eventually spark adoption for Hive.
We don't need to launch a massive, multi-million dollar program right away. We can start with a smaller pilot program, focusing on a few promising projects in a specific niche (e.g., GameFi or DePIN). Demonstrating early success will build momentum and attract more investment and participation.
I agree that it's a complex undertaking, and exploring these nuances might be premature. By addressing the key concerns you've raised and employing strategic human influence tactics, we can significantly increase the chances of success. As more outside money flows into the Hive ecosystem, the potential upside for Hive is enormous.
@guiltyparties @lordbutterfly
Can we get some funding to set up a office space ? I think, having a physical presence would matter a lot here, because people simply feel its legitimate.
It's a good question. We're not a registered company by design. But @krolestwo (Królestwo Bez Kresu) is technically a Hive space in Poland, being a tea house and cultural center.
The Kingdom is in a good position. We have a pretty strong community and we maintain our place ourselves and the funds from the Value Plan go to the cost of promotion and organizing events. It is important to know that creating a Hive space from scratch is a big effort and cost. A venue is not everything, because you need someone to be there at regular hours. The cost of hiring such a person is likely to be greater than renting an office.