The comes a time with technology when things start to take off. After enough is developed, suddenly a point is reached where the heavy artillery comes out.
Many have wondered what the use case for HIVE is. At the most basic level, is it what allows for activity to take place on the blockchain. Ultimately, it all comes down to Resource Credits. One needs a certain amount of resource credits to be able to transact. This is acquired by powering up HIVE.
The more Hive Power one has, the more Resources Credits allocated to that account.
Many have heard that Hive is "fast and fee-less". It is the Resource Credit system that enables transactions to be fee-less. Notice it does not say "free". The transactions are not free. They are built into the system whereby one needs enough stake to warrant that activity.
Resource Credits operate like voting power. Nothing is actually removed from one's account, in terms of HIVE, and it does recharge throughout the day. Thus, to the user, there is no direct fees for transacting.
Up until this point, there is nothing, as a whole, to worry about regarding Resource Credits. There are plenty around as denoted by the liquid HIVE available.
According to Hiveblocks, here is what the present Hive distribution looks like.
If we include the HIVE that is locked up in the Proposal Fund, we see there is about 160 million HIVE. For the present activity, that is a ton of Resource Credits available.
The question is will that always be the case? My view is thing will be changing quickly as some of the heavy artillery is rolled out.
Here is what we see coming.
Hive DeFi
@blocktrades mentioned on the last developer call about setting up Smart Contract servers. At the same time, Hive-Engine is working on providing standardized smart contracts on its platform to enable developers to instantly be able to select the contracts they want to use and rapidly implement it into their development.
Whatever system is brought into existence, the key is that, on the second layer, there is smart contract capability on Hive. This is a big step forward since we see how valuable that has been to a chain like Ethereum.
One of the biggest benefits to this is it allows for Hive to insert itself, in a fairly significant way, into the DeFi game. A big drawback to DeFi on Ethereum is the transaction costs. When the blockchain gets busy, the fees skyrocket. To the larger players, this is not much of a concern. It does, however, exclude a lot of smaller ones since the numbers simply do not work out.
EOS and TRON are trying to take advantage of this. Both are starting to see DeFi projects offered on their platforms. Hive could also insert itself in the game by having the ability to set similar things up on here.
This is where the fee-less transactions come into play. People will be able to trade on DeFi platform to their hearts content. As long as the Resource Credits are there, one can perform the operations. At the same time, the way DeFi works, is HIVE will end up being locked up in liquidity pools.
Leo Microblogging
This is a feature that is going to be rolled out in V3 of the Leofinance interface. With all the negative attention given to cryptocurrency by the traditional social media sites, it is becoming a bigger risk to interact on there. Accounts are being banned all the time for discussing cryptocurrency.
We saw each of the Big Three go through their cycles. For this reason, a feature is being set up which will allow all people involved in crypto a place to share their thoughts in a short, concise way. This will actually be tied into the larger platform, being just one option that is being offered to users.
What is applicable to this discussion is the fact that people tend to send out many microblog posts a day. They also forward them, upvote, and make comments. In other words, they will require a fair bit more Resource Credits than the average "posts once a day and add a few upvotes" person.
Since the project has not been fully announced, some more applicable points are being omitted until it is made public.
3Speak
This one will not receive a lot of detail since I will probably do a more in depth post about this shortly. To be honest, I want to go through the audio again since there was so much there.
Let us just say that 3Speak is working on an upgrade to their platform that could change video social media as we know it. With all the censorship that is taking place, it is becoming an issue on the minds of a lot of people. For this reason, the upgrade starts with decentralizing video storage.
Hence we are going to see a situation similar to SIA. This will be available to Hive users to start. They will have the opportunity to use their excess hard drive space to house video content. Of course, in return for that service, they will be compensated.
At the same time, the platform is going to be able to incorporate all video platforms. Thus, one is able to use things such as Lbry along with this system.
The key is that content creators will not only be able to protect their content, but also tokenize their communities. Another feature is, eventually, the community members themselves could be incentivized to host the content creators videos. Thus, that community becomes it own economy.
If one wants to listen to the audio about this, here is the link:
None of these features focuses upon bloggers. Each is catering to larger communities, ones that are showing how much interest there is. Naturally, the job is going to turn that interest Hive's way. However, with all that is taking place, these opportunities provide Hive with some of the tools to make a push.
While 160 million tokens on the open market sounds like a lot, it really is not. Many will say it is impossible for Hive to get to the point where there is a crunch if Resource Credits. I recall this same conversation about Leo and that it was impossible for it to run into liquidity issues, yet here we are.
As we can see, a bit of activity really changes the sentiment quickly. The online world is full of people who love to interact. Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter all leveraged that to their own benefit.
We are starting to see the tools appear that will enable Hive to really push forward. All that is cited here was mentioned publicly. At the same time, it is by teams (individuals) who have a history of getting things done.
Thus, I feel confident in saying that, over the next year or so, we will see things changing to the degree where Resource Credits become scarcer. This means that people will have to pay up to get them. Since HIVE converted into Hive Power is the only way to generate Resource Credits, it is easy to guess where that impact will be felt.
If you found this article informative, please give an upvote and rehive.
gif by @doze
