Value is an evolving concept
Which is to say, we still haven't figured it out.
Throughout history things as disparate as tulips, salt, and obviously gold have been used as a store of value. We've had various reasons for doing these, be it rarity (tulips), usefulness (salt), or just plain useful-rarity (gold) and it's worked to various degrees.
More recently, we've settled on something as arcane as GDP to base our currency off of. I think this makes sense. The productive output of a country is more intrinsically valuable to a country than any one product. It's not arbitrary, like gold.
Even GDP itself is an evolving concept. It wasn't until 2013 that the US saw R&D for the investment that it is, and started measuring it in GDP.
For reference, the modern internet was designed in R&D departments like Bell Labs, Xerox Parc, and the US government's own R&D department, DARPA.
While it's still being innovated upon, there are many wells of value that GDP still doesn't reach well, or can't. That's where crypto comes in.
Crypto allows economics to reach where our current system is lacking
Our digital age allows for just about anyone to cheaply innovate & iterate on valuable things. Be it the ability to access information (Google), our ability to drive (Uber et al), create content, or simply connect with eachother — the internet has led to small startups being able to innovate on these things, disrupt large incumbents, and become the new status quo.
The birth of Bitcoin — an innovation on economic sovereignty — has opened the door for us to innovate on currency. Which is to say: we can now literally innovate on value itself.
This leads to a world of possibilities, and to the question...
What is the most valuable thing in the known universe?
Man is the measure of all things. If something is said to be valuable, it's because it's valuable to us.
Human consciousness is the most valuable thing to us, and willpower is how we use it in the real world.
The relationship between consciousness and willpower is an interesting one. We can observe it at the extremes.
Omniscience (the state of knowing everything / absolute consciousness) implies omnipotence (absolute power) because to know everything is to know how to do everything.
A plant is more conscious than a rock, and can do more because of it. A dog is more conscious than a plant, and can do yet more. A human is more conscious than both, and can do the most.
Willpower goes hand in hand with life itself and is an extremely valuable asset.
Hive as tokenized willpower
People can look at the same object and see different things. In Hive, I see tokenized willpower.
(D)PoS chains allow users in the network to direct funding to things they find valuable, and therefore encourage more of that valuable thing.
Users direct their will, and capital is generated — a willpower-based currency.
The purpose of content is to provide value to people. Hive allows for content creators to monetize their content directly from people finding it valuable. It's a perfect system, and it is the future of social... but social is just the beginning.
Our future
Hive allows for us to direct our will and generate funding (and the manpower it brings) to anything we choose. It's a willpower amplifier.
DHF proves this concept, and I want to see more of it. We can create whatever we want.
I don't know what future we'll make of this, but I look forward to building it with you ⚡️