Wen Jailbreak?
Every once and a while someone on Hive asks me the easiest ways to buy Hive. It always seems like a silly question at first until I start thinking about it a bit and realize how difficult it is to onboard new users into a brand new system like this one. It's not like they can just boot up Metamask and point it to a different node and magically start using a new EVM chain like ETH/BNB/POLY/ARB can do. Interoperability and the ability for users to know the gist of the system in advance is a pretty killer feature.
If we ask a data aggregator we get some interesting answers.
Hive is listed on Binance (international) and MEXC (which I use). It's also listed on Gate.io, which I've heard of but don't think I've actually used. And then it also shows DifiFinex, XT.COM, BYDFi, and CoinEx, all of which I've never even heard of let alone considered using. Seeing as Binance still has over 60% of the volume even after getting slapped by the law that really is the main option right behind MEXC.
This is a crazy spread considering how much liquidity comes from the USA. Binance (international) is now KYC after being captured by regulators and USA isn't allowed to use it. Binance.US doesn't list Hive, so that's annoying. So basically a huge amount of capital that would buy Hive does not buy Hive because there are zero ramps into it.
I mentioned before that I use MEXC, but again technically I'm not allowed to use it (or rather technically they are not allowed to serve me). I use a VPN and route my IP into Mexico, Switzerland, Sweden, or the Netherlands to get around the IP block. I'm always surprised to learn that it seems like 90% of the people in crypto are not comfortable with doing the same. They'd rather do it another way or simply call the entire thing off.
There are a couple of other "hidden" ways.
The first main one is depositing funds into HiveEngine.
There is a 0.75% fee on deposits. Ethereum, ERC-20, BNB, BEP-20, Polygon (POL), Polygon ERC-20, and Solana (SOL) deposits have no deposit fees.
You can deposit on HE through something like SOL and it doesn't cost anything until the Hive gets unwrapped to the main chain. Then depending on https://beeswap.dcity.io/convert liquidity you might be able to exit HE on the cheap. Of course all of this takes a lot of knowledge of how things work and guiding a newbie through it would probably be a huge pain in the ass.
There's also the https://v4v.app/ by @brianoflondon that connects us into the Lightning Network at great pains. Of course that solution is for smaller amounts normally... assuming you actually have sats on LN or happen to want sats on LN. Other than these options it's pretty slim pickin's. There are a couple of other paths that escape me at the moment but it's clear that we, as a network, have been cut off from liquidity for quite some time. Honestly I'd say the token has been preforming well considering how screwed we've been. For example I assume that a listing on Coinbase would immediately 10x the price of Hive because it gives us to access to gobs of money that we didn't have before on top of everyone who would be frontrunning the FOMO.
And of course there's also the LEODEX integration with the MAYA network, but again as far as Hive is concerned that gets routed through HiveEngine. But if UX is the problem LEODEX could be the answer in terms of the ability to create a Hive account more easily and one-click swaps directly into said account. Just depends on the situation really.
Crime Season
So I was thinking with all these legal victories under crypto's belt and all the regulations being rolled back maybe American citizens will get access back to their Binance accounts. Hell just the other day the DOJ sent a memo out to ICE agents telling them they don't need a warrant to invade private property. It's clearly crime season on all fronts. Why shouldn't crypto catch a few breaks?
But then I went ahead and asked AI what the chances were, and while it did not give me a definitive answer, the answer was essentially a resounding "no", and the reasoning for that was paragraphs long, so I'll spare the details. Nope, the only path forward in terms of Binance in USA is Binance.US, which Hive currently does not have a listing (and is banned in places like New York), so again, very annoying. We need liquidity, and it seems like we're on our own in terms of where to find/build it.
VSC?
One of the main goals of the smart contract protocol being built on Hive is to provide this exact type of liquidity that we require. Using these contracts and HBD collateral we may see some interesting pairings pop up on the network like HIVE/BTC or HBD/BTC. Surely that would make it a lot easier to move in and out for those of us who have been routed by delistings and regulations. Of course this is not the first time I've mentioned such things, and it's actually been quite some time coming, so I continue to wait and see what's up.
However it is worth pointing out that what VSC can provide in theory is a system we can build on top of without really having to worry about delistings or regulations. Also having tokens like BTC wrapped into Hive means that all of a sudden a Bitcoin-pegged asset can move about the network with zero fees, which is something I'd certainly like to see. Best case scenario we could start giving the Lightning Network a run for their money considering how absolutely clunky (absurdly overcollateralized, centralized, and disjointed) that system turned out to be.
Another interesting feature that VSC is promising is the ability to control an entire account with a single set of keys from any chain. In theory we could send Bitcoin to an Ethereum wallet, and then that Ethereum wallet could control their entire Hive account including that Bitcoin. It's an interesting prospect to be sure with potential I'm sure hasn't even been considered just yet. Again: interoperability like that is key to moving forward.
Conclusion
I feel like I've been saying this for years, and it's kind of sad that it's still true, but Hive needs a lot more liquidity. The tech doesn't matter so much if people can't actually enter or exit the system. While it would be nice to get some killer exchange listings, that's clearly not something we should be expecting. Even if we get them it's still a centralized connection that can get removed whenever some government wills it to be. Best to focus on permanently rooted solutions to this problem, but a couple of quick fixes couldn't hurt either.