Let's see what we have for this week's roundup.
Week on Hive
HiveFest Preparations and Details
A new post was published with details for HiveFest 2023. Location, tickets, and a number of speakers already set in stone have been announced. Tickets are cheaper the sooner you buy them! There will be price increases later on.
On top of that, @gtg included in his witness update post details about an up to 15% discount he managed to negotiate with SkyTeam, a major airline alliance, for traveling to the Hivefest. The discount codes were included in the post from the @hivefest account linked above.
If you are going, read those Hivefest posts carefully, or contact the organizers, as that can mean a difference in the price you'll pay or the hassle you must go through.
Hive Core Developers Updates
It's been a while, but this week we had both an official monthly meeting, and you can watch the recording on @howo's update, as well as a post from Blocktrades with a presentation of what their team has been working on lately.
If I were to pick one thing from what Blocktrades was / is working on to highlight, I think it would be adding support to embed HAF apps into other HAF apps, to gain further functionality and open the possibility to create more complex HAF apps by allowing modular design.
SPS Staking Multiplier for Ranked Battle Rewards
Splinterlands team released what will probably be a powerful use case for SPS. Going forward, the amount of staked SPS has a huge influence on the amount of rewards one can earn in ranked battles. This is their announcement.
Staked SPS also becomes rentable, which is another way to drive value to it.
It is likely they discussed the new system in this week's town hall, but I haven't had the time to listen to it yet.
SPK Network... and Team Updates
Last week SPK Network launched into public testing (or demo) its Proof of Access model. Go through the recording to see how you can get involved (particularly useful for more technical individuals with access to more than home computers hardware).
One of the lead devs on the SPK Network team, is also deeply involved into creating a second layer smart contracts platform for Hive, called VSC. We've talked about it before. They published some updates this week.
Life of Hive
This week I inaugurate this section where I'll add some worthy news, events, or something related to the localized communities that are thriving one way or another. Feel free to point me toward some other direction I am not covering which may fall nicely under this umbrella.
9th Borehole in Ghana completed
These guys are really pushing it in Ghana. From boreholes to blockchain seminars it's a huge difference, and yet they are pursuing both directions, which shows they are driven to make as much difference as they can. Here came the completion of the 9th borehole in Ghana.
I don't remember when they started with their first Borehole Project, but I'd like to see how they are used after a while. Maybe some impressions from the locals.
HiveCuba at the Crypto Maniacs Podcast
@manuphotos from @HiveCuba was invited at Crypto Maniacs to speak more about the Cuban community and their struggles as well as wins.
The moment coincided with HiveCuba launching their own witness node on Hive.
Hive Barquisimeto at Lara Fest
The Venezuelan community Hive Barquisimeto participated at Lara Fest this week as announced before. They've put out a post with their first results from the participation. I like that at the end they showed their Web2 reach breakdown during the festival.
New Football Contest From HiveBuzz
Women's Football World Cup is coming up. It's practically a tradition already that @hivebuzz has some kind of contest for the football WC. Last winter, the contest for the Men's World Cup was fun. I imagine the one for the Women's World Cup will be even more fun since many football fans don't know much about women football, so bets will be more like guessing in some cases.
DailyDAB: HIVE Drips Started, DAB Staking Soon
HIVE Drips for DAB holders started at the beginning of the week, and so far so good. Never going down if you don't sell DAB, as promised.
DAB staking rewards start in a few hours. Those who will stake DAB will receive DBOND drips for the amount of DAB staked instead of HIVE drips.
dCity Changes Ranking Rewards from HIVE to SIM
This is something they have announced in a few recent posts that is coming. Besides this change, they also announced future incoming changes regarding new combined buildings and SIM BOX collection drop.
Serfdom & Sorcery Update
The discord game developed by the PsyberX team now has staking requirements to be able to withdraw. About that and other updates in their announcement.
Week in the Crypto World
I use this crypto part of the news to add two pieces of news from last week that have also more or less an impact on the Hive ecosystem.
Meta Launches Threads, a Twitter Clone on Instagram
Meta seems to have become quite proficient in copying others. For a Web2 business, that is quite surprising. So, what did they do? They cloned Twitter and linked it to Instagram and its massive user base. Is that all? Nope. They copied Leofinance's Threads name for a short-form content platform and named their platform like that.
LeoThreads might be able to leverage this naming conflict to draw some attention our way.
One Less Competitor For the "Hive Blockchain" Keywords
The crypto mining company "HIVE Blockchain Technologies Ltd." (in short, HIVE Blockchain) decided it is best to rebrand to "HIVE Digital Technologies Ltd.". That is obviously a good move for them but also for us, since now there is little risk of mistaken the two.
I've talked about both topics more at large this week.