It is easy to focus upon the whales while ignoring the power that is present in one's hands.
This appears to be a human tendency that extends past Hive. However, for years, many maintained that, due to the design of Hive, a powerful middle class could form.
Most blockchains offer a couple ways of earning the coin. This comes from providing infrastructure in the form of a block validator or through purchase. For much of the world, neither of these is very feasible.
What about Hive?
There are a couple additional options that separate it from most. The first is through author rewards. New HIVE is distributed to users based upon the votes they receive. Here is where people without resources can accumulate some of the base layer coin.
At the same time, as that is staked, the potential for curation rewards enters. Here is where one can compound the holdings, simply through daily activity.
Hive Middle Class
When it comes to category distinction, we can consider the middle class to be Orcas and Dolphins. These achieved at roughly the 5,750 and 57,500 HP levels.
Here is where the goal is to have widespread distribution. As more people enter these realms, and more HP is held in those wallet, system resiliency increases.
Naturally, this is not a process that happens over night but thousands of active people has an impact over time.
Here is a thread that was posted yesterday.
@nonameslefttouse/re-leothreads-2ja2szhqx
The total Hive Power of these accounts is 64 million. That is a healthy amount and, as shown enough to get things done.
Mentioning the proposal is valid. The return proposal level, at this moment, is 27 million. The means Orcas and Dolphins could pass whatever they wanted.
Another way of looking at it is the middle class could, collectively, put the return proposal at a level where nothing gets funded (at the present voting).
Thus, it is a mistake to think there is no power there.
Witnesses
Most are aware of the role witnesses play. Here is where the assertion of "whale control" enters. Certainly, having whale votes does help.
However, once again, it is not as cut and dry as one thinks.
According to Peakd, the #20 witness, the last in consensus, has 66 million votes. This means the "middle class" could vote a witness to the #21 or #22 spot on their own.
What is very interesting is the top witness has 83 million in votes.
At this point, the middle class is on the outside looking in. Of course, in the real world, no witness is not going to get at least a few whale votes if it is nearing consensus. We also have to account for those below 5K HP. Their votes add up also.
The flip side to this is the middle class is not that far away from really being able to, collectively, control things.
While another 22 million sounds like a lot, there is a pathway if focused.
Percentage Gain
Another thing I wrote about over the years is the ability for smaller accounts to massive increase their influence.
The tendency is to look at the raw numbers. Instead, a better approach is to look at percentages.
If an account has 10K HP, adding 2K, or less than 6 HP per day, is a 20% gain in a year. Here is where the middle class can expand its influence.
Considering that curation and inflation adjustment come in near 11%, this means the only needs around 900 HP, or less than 3 per day, from online activity (posting and commenting).
To contrast, Blocktrades, with roughly 12 million HP, needs to generate over 1 million from the same activity. It isn't going to happen.
The situation gets even crazier when we talk about the Minnows but, for now, we are focusing upon the middle class.
Another piece of the puzzle is to get more people entering the middle class as opposed to leaving it. If there are more accounts, the numbers only go higher.
For this reason, those with 400 HP should look to get to 1K; those with 2,500 to move to 5,500.
As more people are working up the scale, the total impact, over time, shifts.
Long-Term Focus
Here is a chart that is a bit dated but it shows the breakdown into each category.
There are roughly 2,000 accounts in the middle class.
Looking at the chart, which goes back to Feb 1st, from a MVest perspective, we can see the middle class plus the Minnows have almost as much HP as the whales.
Again, going back to the ability to gain influence, the smaller accounts can increase their position to a larger degree.
The key is to have a long-term focus with one's account.
If you are a smaller account, say 1K HP, what are you going to do to triple your account and get to 3K HP this year? How would you like to start Next year with 3K, then build from there?
That is the ownership mindset. Treat your account like a business. If we view each coin as digital real estate, are you expanding your empire by amassing more.
The potential impact on one's wealth is obvious. What also should be clear is the effect on the ecosystem. Each time a smaller account increases its influence by an outsized percentage, i.e. g reater than what the larger accounts can do, it adds more resiliency to the ecosystem.
Here is where we see Hive's middle class developing.