If you're wondering why Hive isn't catching on, you're not alone. Lack of marketing, a steep learning curve, difficulty creating an account, etc. are many apparent reasons that can emerge once you try to find the reasons.
To be honest, the account creation and key management system isn't the most ideal and has, in the past, prevented Hive as a cryptocurrency from being included in multi-chain wallets (such as Trust Wallet). However, thanks to the work of the @leofinance team, this has been changing somewhat; just look at the work they've done with Keystore integration and account creation under this system. Another important step toward solving the problem of account creation and management may come from @vsc.network, which I hope will bear fruit soon.
One of the problems I've detected is that almost all Hive marketing is based on "create content and make money." And this is a mistake, not only because it hasn't worked over the years, but also because the profits that can be obtained from creating content don't represent a significant amount for most users in most countries. This usually results in users abandoning the platform without even exploring the financial side of the blockchain.
A cryptocurrency grows when it attracts funds to it, not when it drains them. In other cryptocurrencies, users focus on the financial side, and once this is solidified, they begin to build on the blockchain. Hive has been the opposite; it has built on the blockchain by draining the financial side (DHF).
Hive's most powerful feature hasn't been exploited: fee-free transactions. For any online store that has to deal with microtransactions, Hive would be ideal, but ads rarely focus on that.
Focusing on attracting degens to the financial side of Hive would not only attract liquidity to the system but also increase user retention. Well, most likely they'll come for the money and stay for the interactive space, freedom of expression, and conspiracy niches that have a place on Hive.
Of course, Hive DApps need to move toward simplicity or a cleaner UI/UX. I'm not going to delve into the internal problems our community has, which may scare off many users. What I will do is analyze Hive's status as a social network.
To give a broader view, I'm going to compare Hive with Twitter (X) and Truth Social. Let's see:
Comparison Table
| Platform | Daily Users (DAU) | Monthly Users (MAU) | Geographic Reach | Dominant Segment |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Twitter (X) | 237 million | 550 million | Global | General, News |
| Truth Social | 300-600K | 1-2M | US (95%) | Conservatives, Politics |
| Hive | 10-20K* | ā150K* | Decentralized | Blockchain/blogging/NFT |
*Data from @arcange
We can see that even compared to Truth Social, a platform with no significant growth beyond 2022, Hive is extremely small. It's no wonder that monetization through ads is a pipe dream these days. This data is from Hive as a whole; if we break it down by DApp, the gap becomes much more noticeable. Even if the top DApps reached HIVE's total data, we'd still be below Trump's social network as a blockchain.
Hive needs to grow; the pull effect exists; users will go wherever they are and can interact with their circle or interest groups (gossip, classmates, news, etc.). Everyone loves a platform, but it shouldn't be empty. Even Nostr surpasses us in the number of active users.
The goal should be to multiply the user base by 10 in five years. To achieve this, it needs to integrate into Web 2 apps, attract users more interested in investments than content creation, and foster the emergence of one or more Web 2.5 platforms based on the Hive blockchain. This last aspect is vital.
A platform that uses Hive as a database, but has its own servers to store algorithms and manage all the actions and data on the website that don't need to be stored on the blockchain. That is the future if we want Hive to cease being a niche among niches.
Image generated by me with Janus-Pro-7B