Hello Hello and welcome to this post about HBD!
First of all, some of you reading this may well be thinking what the heck is HBD.
Great question and HBD stands for Hive Backed Dollar. HBD is the stable coin for the HIVE blockchain and it has mechanics in place to keep it pegged more or less at $1US.
With the collapse of the TerraUSD stable coin and its sister currency Luna in recent days, the spotlight is firmly focused on stable coins and cryptocurrency again. Regulators will be rubbing their hands and getting ready with regulations surprise surprise!
In the background we have our HBD which is trading currently at 1.009 USD HBD Market Value by coingecko
This is excellent news and we can see that the HBD is behaving like a stable coin is virtually pegged at bang on one dollar.
Now I live in Scotland in the UK and 1 HBD = 1.009 USD = 0.82 GBP
Yes that is right 1 HBD gives us eight-two pence in the UK, what can you get for that, well maybe a sweetie if you are lucky! Actually, you can get five bananas, well that is much healthier than sweeties right?
So just what does HBD buy you in the UK?
This post will answer the questions posed in this post Leo Challenge: The real value of HBD from @leogrowth
I just went online to my local supermarket and saw that a packet of 20 Marlboro cigarettes costs £13 ! Yes thirteen pounds or almost 16 HBD for a pack of cigarettes!
Well holy smokes, at that price they really are HOLY SMOKES!
So part of the challenge was to see what 10 HBD would buy in our local country, well the answer is not even a packet of globally known cigarettes.
Do you drive? I sold my car at the start of the pandemic and either walk everywhere now or use public transport, it is much cheaper and better for the environment, although I do go through more shoes!
This is my local supermarket which is a seven minute walk away downhill (coming home is uphill and ten minutes walk with my messages, hey I am no spring chicken anymore, so enough with the sniggering in the back row thank you very much!)
Their petrol or do you say gasoline is more or less 2 HBD for one liter of unleaded. I imagine that is higher than you pay?
I will stick with supermarkets for the moment. Do you have discounts or whoopsies in your country? At the end of the day, places here will mark down goods if they have not sold. Sometimes I will shop at Morrisons at around seven pm (they close at ten pm), if I am lucky I can hit a few bargains on fresh produce, pies and sausage rolls can be marked down from £2 to £0.50 which is a pretty damn good deal. However, I usually miss this, and when I am there, I see the cultures waiting to pounce and elbow people out of the way.
People can be rude so and so's!
In the UK we do have a range of supermarkets with Waitrose taking the high end of the market, Asda Tesco and Morrisons taking the middle road and then the German budget supermarkets of Aldi and Lidl.
I remember a few years before I left to live in Spain, Aldi and Lidl were pretty crap in more ways than one. Now if you are prepared to have non designer food labels you will get some cracking deals on food.
We have an Aldi close to our train station, which is about a 13 minute walk, so come with me as I had a wee shop on Saturday.
Here is some Scottishspeak for you ... When we want to go and get groceries from a supermarket or a shop, we say we are going to get some messages!
So let's go and get some messages!
Some bedding plants for the garden? 2.20 HBD
Naw, I don't have a garden anymore, so let's go inside!
I love to make green smoothies and I will alternate between using mangoes and avocadoes as the fruit.
Over three HBD for two not so big Avocadoes, I remember living in Spain I would go pick them for free (don't tell my ex neighbour haha!).
Who loves cheese, meee I do and one thing we have is awesome cheese and this extra mature cheddar is a must in my fridge, I eat cheese in some shape or form every day!
Tuna is another staple here in my household, and that is a pretty decent price of 3 HBD for four cans.
Bread is like many cultures rice and another staple that is eaten daily by me. This 1.40 HBD is a good price for 800g
One last pic then go go check out and pay I think!
6.20 HBD for a bottle of South American red wine.
Come on and get your wallet out, you don't think I am paying do you? Remember us Scots have a reputation to uphold!
Sweet tooth me had to bypass this aisle, or I would have spent my weekly budget!
Oh wait a moment, I saw a present for @coquicoin
Look Super Eli a scratcher for your new wee cat Ageese
okay okay we are going ....
The eagled eyed amongst you will see that some Snickers chocolate bars Snuck into the trolley, yep sweet tooth won yet again, let's hope the might Rangers win in Sevilla on Wednesday. Make us Dream ( a bit like HBD is doing now!).
Now then guessing time, how much did my trolley cost, there was a 500g pack of mince or gound beef in there as well plus a couple of packets of cold ham and chicken for sandwiches, also onions tomatoes and potatoes.
Total is 31.65 GBP or 38 HBD this does not include coffee or laundry detergent or anything like that, so without batting an eyelid we can spend 100 HBD a week.
Some other household costs (monthly)
Rent 600 GBP 735 HBD
Council Tax 120 GBP 147 HBD
Electric 120 GBP 147 HBD
Gas 80 GBP 100 HBD
Home Internet 20 GBP 25 HBD
Mobile unlimited data Sim 20 GBP 25 HBD
My SIM and home internet are from SMARTY and is a good deal if someone signs up through me both myself and them get a free month, I have done this a few times!
Eating out varies in cost, this burger and a drink cost about 15 GBP or 18HBD and you can pay up to triple that quite easily.
So there are some costs for living in Scotland and what HBD gets us.
However amazing nature - they (I do wonder who they are) say that the best things in life are free!
Views like this and the interaction with amazing nature - Free and Priceless, this park is only a five minute walk from my house!
Has the cost of living gone up recently?
Hell yes it has, we were all concerned about Brexit, but that really meant that shops were forced to have more local produce and the QUALITY is awesome now and tastier.
Don't forget to shop local and buy local produce where available people!
The Ukraine war is pushing prices up, energy costs are soaring, food costs are soaring, that 1.15 bread I showed you was 0.90 last year for example.
I budget but life throws curveballs, I think it takes about 2000 HBD to live and not worry about srimping all the time.
Having newly discovered Hive, I am using HBD as a savings plan, whenever I get a chance, I transfer HBD into savings, because at 20% why not!
I have also made my first foray into Leo and PolyCub
recently I published my first post on LeoFinance
pHBD-USDC my first LeoFinance post - it's a wrap! where I detailed how to wrap HBD and farm pHBD
So that is what HBD gets me in the Kingdom of Fife in Scotland in the UK, and yes I believe that HBD is the hottest stablecoin in the Block at the moment.
Long Live HBD ~ Long Live HIVE
The bottom line is that I am using HBD as a savings tool and an emergency budget lifeline!
I hope that you have enjoyed this #tengocrypto post on HBD and its uses for me and I look forward to reading your comments.
Have a great week everyone.