A couple of weeks ago I took a look at the Rally Car in more detail to find out how much it has been costing over the years and more importantly , how were they doing? Not good was the answer and you will find the post here. But I was not mad about the car as many of you are. I think it does what it says on the tin. They participate in events that cost a bucket load of money and come last. But the exposure it gets is in the national press is pretty good for Hive I suppose so who cares where they finish , right? But today I wanted to look into another highly funded project over the years. It is alot more controversial than the rally car as former Community members have spoken up about it and are regulars in my comment section of these posts throwing accusations around here there and everywhere. Now what I found about Communities , Committees and even family over the years. They normally fall out with each other and the fall out is usually about money. So when there are large amounts of money involved then the falling out gets messy and this seemed to happen in the GYM Street Workout group. Now there are two sides to every story. I only see one side because there is never any answer back from the Street Workout Community leaders. The Street Workout Founder has been like a mouse over the last year with these Valueplan posts and this does not look good on his side either. This post is going to look at the facts. The numbers. How much is this project costing?
So there are 2 users that I will be mentioning in this post. The original @marscrea account that was set up by the founder of GYM Street Workout @manuelramos . Valueplan funded this account from March 9th 2022 right up to October 26th 2023. I remember quite a bit of heat was on this account because it was receiving so much funding. The majority of funding was then transferred to the GYM Street Workout Community account know as @swc-oficial and another wallet called @victorwallet used for the production of leaflets and posters for the events. For those of you who are not aware , the GYM Street Workout are a group from Venezuela that perform calisthenics (or bodyweight workouts) in outdoor parks or malls. Now why Hive is investing in a Community that has only 56 active users is anyone's guess but put a couple of Hive stickers on some GYM equipment and away you go!
So let us take a look first at the funding received since 2022.
Thankfully all their funding is received in HBD which simplifies matters. (Dam rally car nearly killed me)
| Year | HBD Received |
|---|---|
| 2022 | 67,858.40 |
| 2023 | 128,548.30 |
| 2024 | 103,473.80 |
| Total | 300,255.50 |
300,000 HBD which converts to around $300,000. Alot of money in a developing country considering the average monthly salary in July 2024 in Venezuela was $230.76 USD.
Point to note that one payment to the @marscrea account is below which I did not include for the GYM Street Workout was for K13 Motor racing. I was wondering who @king13wallet was. I guess now I know. Interesting. With another street workout group member @victorwallet getting funded for the Mountain Bike racing and now we see the Manuel here is linked to K13 Motor Racing. It looks like the Street Workout crew are doing very well for themselves!! How do they find the time for their real jobs in real life?
Sent to marscrea-375.000 HBD
Jun 29, 2023
K13 Racing | 3rd Valid of the National Championship | attendance logistics cost for Hive marketing at site and documentation of event | transport and logistics
On August 6th 2023 @king13wallet started receiving funding from Valueplan for motor racing in Venezuela and has received a total of 23,970 HBD in total to date.
Medical Issue in 2023
Due to a medical emergency in 2023 Valueplan had to fund the GYM Street Workout a total of 1490 HBD for injury and transportation costs (I presume an ambulance) , unexpected costs. In one wallet explanation the wallet explanation was :
Sent to marscrea-200.000 HBD
Mar 8, 2023 200.00
SWC | medical issue costs | hopefully final payment to resolve medical incident
The question about liability insurances raises its head here. Does this outfit not have the adequate insurance?? If it does then there should be a payout from the insurance company regarding any injuries sustained at an event. But the only refund that took place is 350HBD to @marscrea in November 2022 so if there was an insurance payout then it wasn't refunded to Valueplan. So is it a case that this group has no insurance whatsoever???
Raising Some Eyebrows
I remember I first started looking into Valueplan when I saw this payment to the @marscrea account for 726 HBD for a replacement laptop. It made me look more into Valueplan as a result and here I am now. The Coffeezilla of Valueplan. Who would have thought!!
Sent to marscrea-726.000 HBD 726.00
Oct 18, 2022
SWC | technology | laptop purchase to replace one lost in flood | unexpected costs | 10% contingency included
OK I get it that your computer was lost in a flood but it ain't Hives fault so why should Hive be paying for a new laptop. Buy your own laptop.
The Word "Unexpected"
There are many things "Unexpected" in this life but it is normal for unexpected extra costs to crop up with the GYM Street Project.
Mentioned :
2022: 7 Times mentioned in wallet transactions
2023: 6 Times mentioned in wallet transactions
2024: 0 Times (Somebody must have had a word with them. Replaced with the word "Contingency" 5 times )
Question about Mall Events
One of my roles back home is running shopping malls and we deal with marketing budgets in the millions to use for radio adverts , events planning, functions etc. Some events cost anywhere between €5000 and €8000 to organise. The likes of fashion shows are a popular event. We regularly meet other Shopping Centre's agents to share ideas about what can drive footfall. One event we held recently was a HYROX event where we got members of the HYROX local club to come in and do a promotion. The event cost us a few thousand to set up but included in the cost was to bring the club in. It attracted lots of people and everyone was happy. The tenants were happy especially the sports shops , we were happy because our footfall increased and the HYROX club was happy because we paid them to come in. I see the GYM Street Workout go many mall events so the question is do they get paid to do these events? So what I am getting at here is if they run a Hive event and Hive pays them to carry out the event , are they getting paid by the mall's marketing people as well? It is a legitimate question. If a group offered to do a free event in one of my malls , I would bite their hand off but it is always the mall that has to go out and hire the group. Every city and town have groups who charge a fee to perform. If they do not charge a fee then the event organizer would at the very least cover their expenses. But in the case of Hive , we are covering the lot. Unless of course there are payments we don't know about? Now I get Venezuela malls might not be paying $3,000- $5000 and more like $1000 - $2000 but the point is do other parties pay them for their events?
Merch Merch Merch
The GYM Street Workout ask for alot of funding for merch from Valueplan. Merch was mentioned in wallets 26 times in 2023 and 13 times in 2024. It is merch merch merch. But what is the merch? They are hardly giving away pens or hats at these events like they do at conferences.One source claims they have a tiered system for their uniforms (merch). Those who post on Hive regularly and are active in the community will get a gold level membership and certain sports supplements, permission to attend events in different countries or cities and participate in certain events. This is exciting especially for the younger people who would not get the chance to travel much and it is a nice opportunity for them. So this is where the merch comes into play. It is of the opinion that the merch is very low quality but I can not substantiate these claims. So in essence the Hive platform is paying for a Community to post in order to obtain certain uniforms and merch. Does this mean Splinterlands and Leofinance can apply to Valueplan to supply them with tshirts , hats etc if they post alot?? Is it not the same thing? We are now essentially a Proof of spandex network! 😂
Victor and his posters
We are now in the era of Canva and AI images. Printing companies and graphic designers are going down the pan faster than Drugwars and Musings. Valueplan are paying @victorwallet a large amount of funding to print a few leaflets and posters. A canva subscription and a decent A2 printer would set you back about $2000.00 at the most. Ink and Photo paper maybe a couple of hundred quid a year. Just seems like a nice handy "Paid" number for Victor here who is very precious about his printing gig. Who prints leaflets anymore anyway? They just get thrown in the bin. Advertise it on Facebook events or Tiktok. Job done and it is better for the environment.
In Summary
I mentioned in the rally car post that I thought even though it costs the most money and the rally car wasn't doing very well, at least I think that the rally car guys were trying their best, With this project however , I can see holes everywhere. I can see how there could be corners cut in this type of project. I see this as a business and Hive are footing the cost. I can see minors or young men getting sold the dream to participate in these events but in the end get disappointed. I do not understand why Hive would take the risk here. Some of the claims that the founders stay in the best hotels are one sided. But I actually do believe them. In Valueplans most recent post which can be found here they mention in their pausing or changed section
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]
The trouble is, it was always an entity. We will see what changes in 2025 regarding payouts but as of 7 days ago very little has really changed!!
