Hive offers many advantages over normal social media sites. Since I am sometimes asked by others why I think that Hive is so good, I thought I would summarize what I know about it and what my experiences are here. After all, I have been here for 2 years now. First I will write a list, then I will go into each of these points in more detail.
This post is made for People with no crypto-related knowledge and thus some things are simplified for easy understanding.
- Hive is decentralized - it works even if a few servers are down
- Hive is an optimized DPOS blockchain
- Hive is censorship-resistant
- Hive rewards its users for activity and interaction
- The Hive community rewards good content
- The Hive community has many (independent) developers
- Hive is 100% transparent
- The Hive community is more social than other communities
- Hive is a blockchain. Fraud or negative behavior cannot be hidden
- Hive is a special hybrid of democracy, technocracy, and plutocracy
You will find out below why this last point is on the positive side.
I'm not gonna sugarcoat this. Of course there are some disadvantages but if you compare the two lists, you will notice that the positive things outweigh the negative. Otherwise I wouldn't be here anymore of course. ;)
- Hive is a blockchain. Everything you publish is immortalized forever.
- The Hive community is still very small
- Buying Hive is relatively complicated
- Hive is a complex technology, so Hive is not very easy to understand
- To use a Hive Account you need Hive Power
There are words in these lists you may not understand. So I'm going to explain them later on. This should make everything understandable. If you have questions but don't have a Hive account yet, you can ask me on Twitter, join the Hive Telegram group or ask in the Discord. You can find the links at the end of this article.
Hive is decentralized
Decentralisation offers many advantages. If a server goes down, everything continues to run without you noticing. Even the frontends (web addresses) are more or less decentralized. For example, if https://peakd.com is down, you can use https://busy.org or https://hive.blog. All these sites load exactly the same content. No matter which site you publish to, everyone who uses Hive will see your contribution.
Decentralized means that the servers running the Blockchain are run by many different people in different places around the world. For example, if the power goes out in one country, Hive will continue to function.
Decentralization also means that no central authority runs the system, and changes to the system are only possible with the approval of the majority. In Hive, the server operators are called Witnesses and are elected by the users. The servers check each other when a transaction takes place so that no one can cheat.
To cheat, you would have to run a majority of the servers and have them voted into the top 20 Witnesses. This is only possible with considerable financial effort (several million to billions) and is quickly noticed by users and Witnesses. One speaks here of a 51% attack. This usually ends badly for the attacker, as he compromises the trustworthiness of the system with the attack and thus devalues his money.
If something like this happens, the Witnesses arrange a fork with the community, where all amounts (except those of the attacker) and also contents are mirrored on the new system. Hive has already proven that it can successfully fend off such an attack. In addition, Hive will take further measures to make an attack more difficult.
Hive is an optimized DPOS blockchain
DPOS stands for Delegated Proof of Stake. Other Blockchains use Proof of Work and this costs a lot of computing power and time. These blockchains are comparatively slow. To explain DPOS in detail here would be enough to fill a whole article, if not a whole book. Therefore I will only go into it shortly.
Hive uses a special DPOS because it is fast and efficient. Hive is one of the fastest blockchains available and one of the most ecological (if not the most ecological)! This allows us to write comments and see them online within seconds. Transactions also take place within seconds and are free. Additionally, you can attach a message to a transaction, which can also be encrypted so that only the recipient can read it.
Hive is censorship-free
What you write here is up to you. Here you will find normal content, but also the craziest contributions. Everyone is free to express his opinion and the Users here know that. In the last two years, I have noticed that the tolerance of the users here is greater than elsewhere. Nobody can report you to a central office which will ban you (arbitrarily).
But if you constantly screw up, lie or try to cheat, you can get downvotes (also called flags). You have a value of reputation here. By Upvotes this value goes up. But if you get many downvotes, the value can go down.
In the worst case, the contributions of such Users are then hidden. But they can still be opened and read. This function serves to make fraud visible also for the users who do not recognize the fraud.
No worry. If one behaves normally, one cashes much fewer Downvotes than Upvotes. Every account gets a few downvotes, but this is usually normal and not bad. The people on Hive are generally very social and tolerant. And if you have other experiences, don't give up and look for people who support you. If you are nice, you will always find someone here who will help you!
I have seen often enough on Twitter, YouTube, and co. that people were banned because of irrelevant or false reports. On Hive, this will not happen to you. This function is not available here!
So the best thing to do is to invite your community from other social media to Hive. Because if your Twitter/Facebook etc. Account gets banned (for whatever reason), you have a solution where this can't happen and still reach your community.
Hive rewards its users for activity and interaction
Hive is a social blockchain. So if you just come in to do your contributions and then leave, you won't have much success unless you have awesome and extraordinary good content. Exceptions prove the rule. ;)
The best chance to be found here is to interact with other users. Be it here on the Blockchain, where you follow interesting users, read other posts, and above all write appropriate comments on posts by other users. But also on other platforms like Twitter, you can find Hive Users under the Hive tag.
It is also highly recommended to join a Hive Discord community. There you can get to know the old hands and get quick answers to your questions. Despite this extensive post here, you will have these questions sooner or later. It is also worthwhile to go to the Voice Chat from time to time. There you can get to know each other and maybe even get some support, good tips or even insider knowledge.
The Hive community rewards good content
Good content is rewarded. If you really make an effort, people will notice it sooner or later and reward you with high upvotes. Since the community is still relatively small, some users will also upvote content they are not normally interested in, as long as they notice that you are making an effort.
So don't be surprised if you get only Likes and no comments. Especially if you have a specialized topic, it may be that comments come relatively rarely. Writing about your (specialized) topics is still worthwhile. Sooner or later you might be able to inspire one or the other user with your topic.
It may take a while until you are discovered by the big accounts here, or until you get enough comments. The early bird catches the biggest worm. Just imagine you were on YouTube from the beginning and have been active for years. How big and famous would your account be today? And now try to be successful with a new account on YouTube. Good luck! Your content would have to be extraordinarily good and you have to invest many years until the success is really there.
Here you have better chances because we are still in the very beginning with Hive. It is also important to me to tell you that you should not look so much at the coins. Get used to the fact that your contributions only make a few cents. But keep in mind that those cents could be worth several dollars. The more people using Hive, the more it will have a positive impact on the price of Hive. Be here for the promising technology and the cool community and not just for the coins!
The Hive community has many (independent) developers
This is also an important point. Many developers, especially when they are independent, mean innovation and open development. Hive is also open source, by the way. There are many different products you can use on Hive. There are games, video upload portals, browser addons and much more to discover! A few examples: https://3speak.online/, https://dsound.audio/, Splinterlands, Actifit, Hive Keychain Firefox Addon
Hive is one of the few blockchains that have a real benefit and I think only such blockchains will prevail in the long run. Hive already offers a lot and many developers build their products on Hive. Very good prerequisites.
And ask yourself why so many developers are here. Maybe because they understand the technology and find it better than other blockchains. So developers are a good indicator. 😉
Hive is 100% transparent
No matter what you or others publish here on the Blockchain, you can still read it (even if it is edited or deleted) if you want to. This is because Hive is a Blockchain and in Blockchains you cannot really delete anything. I see this as an advantage.
Compared to other social media, you will find very few trolls or hater here. That's because such people don't have it easy here. Once they have no reputation, they sink into insignificance. Their posts and comments are then automatically hidden and can only be opened by a specific click.
Also the credit balance of a user or his transactions can be traced here. This makes fraud particularly difficult here. You want to see my wallet? No problem, here is a link to my balance and all transactions I have ever made or received.
The Hive Community is more social than other communities
Because everything here is so transparent, everyone here tries to behave in a very social way. Of course, there can be one or the other slip-up. Everyone has a bad day. But here you simply have it less often if you know that. 😅
Hive is a blockchain. Fraud or negative behavior cannot be hidden
I've mentioned it in several sections of this article before, so I'll leave this point uncommented here. However, it is a clear advantage for Hive and since most people here know this, negative behavior is rare here.
Hive is a special hybrid of democracy, technocracy, and plutocracy
You can choose witnesses (server operators) to keep the blockchain running. They have to find a consensus and form a majority so that the code behind it can be updated. This is called a fork. Forks are necessary when errors are discovered or improvements are to be made.
To prevent the Witnesses from doing what they want, they are elected by us users. If we do not like what they do, we can withdraw our votes. This can if it happens in time and enough users participate, even undo the changes.
The more money someone has invested in Hive or the more Coins he has in the form of Hive-Power, the more weight his vote has. But don't worry, even the little ones here have something to say. The more people will join Hive, the healthier the balance between plutocracy and democracy will be.
A technocracy is a form of government where all decisions are made based on scientific and technical knowledge. The Witnesses will do what makes this place run. Illogical and non-functional demands of the users will therefore not stand a chance. This provides the stability of the system that is missing in many democracies.
I think this mixed form is a very special one and it has already proven to be safe against a takeover by the plutocracy or central authority. (See Google search: Steemit hostile takeover
Those were the positive points. Let's go to the negative ones:
Hive is a block chain Everything you publish is immortalized forever.
If you read this article up to here, you will have noticed that this point is also on the positive side of the list. Actually, it should only be there, and if you have a look at it, you might also know that the internet itself doesn't forget anything. There are sites like the waybackmachine where you can also visit deleted or no longer accessible websites.
However, it should be mentioned that you should think about what you publish here. Make sure that you don't post foreign content or copyright content here. If the content is from yourself, you don't have to worry about it. But you should be careful not to post too private information here.
So never publish your address or phone number. You should also consider carefully if you publish or use your real name. And if you post photos of others (friends, family etc.) here, please ask them for permission and explain that it can't be deleted. If you pay attention to this, there should be no problems.
The Hive community is still very small
By very small I mean that on 15.04.2020 about 4930 contributions were published. Many of these users are old hands who have learned to understand and love Hive. Hive is not a social media that was developed by a corporation. We also have no advertising or targeted marketing to attract new users. If you like Hive, you should make sure that your friends or community follow you. For example, you could link them to this post so they can understand the pros and cons of Hive.
The important thing is that Hive has been working for years despite the small community and is getting better and better. Once people understand that Hive is Web 3.0 (and if registration becomes easier), sooner or later they will come together. And as long as they don't, that's exactly what you can use for yourself. Sooner or later you will have made a name for yourself on Hive and almost everyone here knows you. The smaller Hive is, the better it can be for your personal branding on Hive.
The ratio of big investors and normal users is also crucial here because the big investors are the ones who can distribute very valuable upvotes. So if you write a good article in this small community, the chances are higher to be discovered and voted by one of these investors. However, you should not rely on this and still make an effort with your content.
(Pretty hard to find negative points here. But you can also see the positive in everything) 😅
Buying Hive is relatively complicated
This is also true for all other Cryptos if you are not familiar with it. If you want to buy Hive, you have to find a crypto exchange that has Hive listed. Then you have to switch from Fiat (e.g. Euro or Dollar) to other cryptos like Bitcoin or Litecoin because only a few exchanges allow depositing Fiat. Coinbase is one of them, but until you have verified your account there, it might take a few days to 2 weeks. After that you have to transfer to the Exchange that has Hive listed to buy your Hive there and then transfer it to your Hive account (that's your account name with the @ in front).
Only when Crypto really arrives in the masses this will become easier. Everyone who is already there now probably belongs to those who will benefit from it later. Simply put, the more people want and use Crypto-Coins, the higher the price. This is because they cannot be reprinted at will. Unlike fiat money, they are deflationary and therefore have a rare value.
Hive is a complex technology, so Hive is not very easy to understand
In order for Hive to function, be stable and safe, there is a lot of science behind it. It is not just any program running on any server. Blockchains are relatively easy to understand, but when it comes to social blockchains, there are many more aspects to consider.
You have to prevent somehow that people use the system for their own advantage. But at the same time, you want them to be rewarded for activity. That's why behind all these features there are relatively complicated formulas that make it difficult for a beginner to understand it all. So you have to believe and trust that everything works as it should and that it is fair.
Hive's source code is open source, but because everything is so scientific and hard to understand, even many programmers have trouble understanding the reward mechanisms and the reward pool. This is because the mechanisms of game theory must be mapped into the code, among other things, and that makes it complicated.
But if you study Hive long enough and just give it a try, you will find out how it works over time. The interface is just as easy to use as a normal website. You don't have to understand the code of Facebook. Just know that you are being spied on and sold. 😜
On Hive it's practically the other way around. **You sell your content there. That should be enough to get you started, right?
To use a Hive Account, you need Hive-Power
If you have bought your Account, you can start right away because you should already have a little bit of Hive-Power. It is not much, but it should be enough to write a post and introduce yourself. (Please correct me if im wrong!)
Your Hive Power regenerates Resource Credits and then you can do more and more actions depending on the Upvotes you got. You should think about buying some Hive and convert it to Hive-Power because this allows you to perform more actions and could even kickstart your account.
If you create a free account, it will not be able to act because it has no Hive-Power. Every action on a Blockchain costs computing power. Hive-Power is like a share of the network and allows you to distribute higher upvotes. The more hive power you have, the more actions you can perform on the Blockchain daily. By the way, hive power is very cheap compared to other Blockchains.
As already mentioned, there is no company behind this Blockchain (which sells your data or fills you with advertisements), so the costs for running the servers have to be covered in a different way but that's another matter. The important thing is that as a new user you need hive power to be able to write posts at all. Hive-Power can be bought, or you can earn money by writing articles.
If you now see a dilemma, because you don't have Hive-Power and therefore can't write posts, don't worry. There is a solution for that as well! It is called delegation. If you have an account that is not able to act, you can apply for a delegation for example in the Discord Community.
A delegation is borrowed Hive-Power. The one who lends it to you can take it back at any time. Don't worry. New users are usually equipped with hive power for months. Until then you have earned enough Coins to have enough Hive-Power yourself.
Another solution to get a free account with delegated Hive-power
On this page, people have already claimed accounts that they can safely pass on to you. The keys will be generated when you activate the account.
On Hiveinvite you have to confirm that you are a real person and give some information about what you want to do on the Hive Blockchain. The best way is if you can prove that you already have a social media account and that you really are that person.
I hope this post was beginner-friendly enough to answer all the questions and show that Hive is so well thought out that there is a solution to every problem. Of course, Hive is not perfect and still has a few problems, but they are not relevant for new users and are far too deep to be covered in this post. If you have any questions now, just write a comment. And if you don't have an account yet, I can recommend you to visit the community on Discord or Telegram:
Thank you for taking the time to read this extensive article! I hope it was not too much to start with. You can find me here on Twitter
You are free to translate this Post to other languages if you want to.