I Charles McGarnicle was told to cut short my trip to America investigating the disappearnnce of Genesis League Sports to bring you this special report.
There was shock at Hive Gazette HQ yesterday when the Hive viviprinter displayed some startling results. The 10,000 active users per day was actually much more inflated than first thought. Yes there metrics showed 10,000 active users but it did not take into account that many Hive users have alt accounts. Exactly how many is anyone's guess but in one such investigation it was revealed that resident mouthpiece @Jane is also @janie, @janet , @janny , @johan , @jenny, @jessica ..... and this is just the women.
So what Hive devs thought about the 10,000 active users per day on the platform , it turns out that there is only between 400-500 people really on the blockchain and most of them are dam right psychopaths, McGarnicle travelled to Venezuela (yes Venezuela where all Hive scams reside) to interview Jane , Janie, Janet ,janny, fanny, danny & Johan.
I, Charles McGarnicle has been in grotty places before but this took the biscuit. There were areas of Gaza that were in better disrepair. A quick hop skip and jump over some needles and we were at their flat which was the side of a derelict high rise building.
Jane's set up was relatively sophisticated with 10 monitors all set up to show each one of her alt accounts. And the tap for each of her discord names was minimised on that specific monitor. As like most of Hive users Jane was unemployed and hustled on the likes of Hive , Steem , Blurt and all the others to scratch a living. She had built up quite a persona although her youthful and lets just say perky looks were not evident under the stained vest. One could say the bikini clad siren was not the same Jane as I saw in person where each post of "A day at the beach " was earning $45 in Hive from all the horny Hive dolphins and whales that were hoping their HP upvote would attract Jane to them in more ways than one. Nope Jane was pushing 60 and the wind was whistling through her saggy tits.
I noticed that there were ten other monitors in the spare room and he spotted the user name @John, @jim @Giavanni (the muscular mode) , @jimmy and others on these screen. Jesus old Jane here was running what was akin to a Hive drug cartel. There was one username who is a popular guy in the Hive world which McGarnicle cannot reveal today or they would be trouble,
Jane had written 20 posts using AI this morning alone and had reaped rewards of 1000 Hive by 1pm. Her afternoons were spent replying to posts in the guise and personality of the alts in question. Some of her alts were angry people, others were happy and ditzy, one gave it to the system and the man, a renegade. Another was happy walking to the shop and photographing an oak leaf. Another alt account was a hobo with a bird. The world was Jane's oyster. She loved the switching personalities and photoshop was a key talent.
"Yeah there is lots of us doing this full time. I have a guy coming in doing the nightshift now. He sets up an alt account on a weekly basis so he puts time into the introductory posts because that is where you get your payback for the $10 dollar you spend setting the account up. But it's constant building of a persona and keeping to it. Once you have a couple of good accounts built up then you can upvote each other and everybody grows"
"Some of the Hive regulars set up a jane.hive, jane.leo, jane.sport. jane.boobsout for example but I just perform to use different names as I do not want jane.boobsout interfering with my main account. You gets me."
"I have a couple of blokes in love with me especially my bikini babe so they are putting my kids through college. Hive is great."
"I have another alt account that is applying for DHF funding as a marketing guru. I don't have a clue what I am meant to be doing but they are paying me 3000 HBD some event I am meant to be supplying merch for it."
"When Jane explained the full extent of her operation , McGarnicle was taken aback that even some of his friends that he knew on Hive were actually Jane in disguise. Jane was the painter & decorator guy, the scrap guy, the guy that wrote shite every day and got $50 for, the Splinterlands guy, The girl on Leo. She was everybody. How did she get the time?"
"Once you are logged into your alt account , its easy really. People on Hive are thick, they think they are talking to a young attractive blonde. A couple of compliments and I am in like Flynn. The female accounts attract more than the men' so I tend to watch over those myself but my web spreads far and wide."
"And its not just me. I can tell an alt accounter straight away. We give each other a nod and like cats we try to avoid each other and focus on different people and networks. Why do you think there are so few at Hivefest. The 50 of us that go all run 100 accounts each.
It was time to end my chat with @jane because she had to take her afternoon nap. It was a startling end to my week. A week where I needed time to process. Next week I travel to a sweatshop in China and find out how much Hive merch really costs.