First of all, let me go into full disclosure mode here and state that at one point in my life I was a *Full time Hive content creator" with no official additional income other than my SBD rewards. Yes, this was back when the Legacy chain was a thing. I used to post daily and get an average of 5-10 SBD daily.
I was traveling the world on a very low budget and my Steem Hive rewards allowed me to stay afloat on any country while I found a temporary gig or finished a short-term job to then start moving again. It was a good life, a simple one, where I built up my Hive Power while I sold all my liquid rewards. These were simpler times, we were a different blockchain.
This selling behavior and mindset of mine was not uncommon, in fact back in 2018 we had a lot of awesome content creators who became so successful that a lot of them quit their jobs to become full time hivers. The culture of the blockchain allowed it and encouraged it, mostly (I think) because back then when the community was small and still trying to prove itself, and having success stories of people who made it on Hive was a positive narrative to attract new users who would come and see what Hive offers, create some content, get some rewards and realize the potential it used to hold (and still holds, 4 years later) and later on decide to invest in the token.
In theory, this was a great idea. Let's bring in as many users as we can, if 1% of these users decide to invest a significant amount of money, then we will be looking at the next level where Hive is a top50 chain in terms of market cap and the price is on the double digits (heads up, the legacy chain used to be a top10 token).
The problem that Hive faced back then was simple: The amount of content creators grew exponentially while the number of actual investors didn't.
Back in 2018 it wasn't frowned upon to be a "Full Time Hiver" even if that meant you were actively extracting value from the community by selling your tokens every single day, because you were bringing amazing content to the table, content that was used as a flagship concept and a proof of success to bring in more users. The added value a user who cashed out everything was that their content and success story could be used to bring in more users.
We used to have surfers, yogis, homesteaders and travelers who made 3k word posts with 50+ images and they (we?) were making $50 per post. It was the norm, it was something we actively supported as a community. The slogan "create amazing content and get paid for it" was trendy and the community didn't mind supporting the livelihood of a few people in the form of post rewards if the upside was to have a trending page full of incredible content that would appeal to the masses. Or at least this was my perception back then and I believe I am correct.
A Full Time Hiver?
That culture changed. We all changed after 7 years of ups and downs, hostile takeovers, rebirths, flag wars, many content creators getting pushed away, all-time-highs, more all-time-lows, and hundreds of content creators that extracted millions from the chain to ultimately leave and forget their $0.17 hive account.
We are not that same blockchain that used to encourage and actively support users who publicly state (and maybe even brag) they are full time content creators for hive.
Dude, saying you're a full time hiver during this time and age is a slap on the face to everyone buying the token.
That phrase above is not the norm though, in most cases being a full time hiver is a slap on the face to every investor, but there are also amazing content creators and community leaders who are full time hivers that are actually bringing more value to the table than what they extract by selling the token to make a living.
I mean, I get it, our economics are strong enough to withstand hundreds of people actively selling all their Hive tokens the second their power down hits or their posts rewards reach their wallet. There's no shame on selling your tokens, anyone can do it and this is a free blockchain. I am probably one of the least equipped to criticize this behavior because even though as I already stated the culture (and my mindset) back in 2018 was different, I got very involved in this crazy selling attitude. That is something I regret because I would have around 200k Hive right now instead of 60k. Wrong decisions and bad calls added to different priorities.
But man, I can't tell you how much I get angered and how much my blood boils when I see posts telling other people "Come to hive for the short term rewards and the free gibs! It works, I am a full time hiver and you can be one too".
I don't understand how a curation account like appreciator - who by the way has me banned from getting votes just because I stood up against @bluemist vote selling back in the bidbot wars, to the point where I even got a vote from one of the curators a few months ago and he removed the vote - can constantly vote for mediocre content creators who milk hive every single day.
Anyway, I don't understand how many users vote on content from people who are continuously powering down and selling all their rewards. One could say there are some users are actively trying to undermine the efforts from other projects that are focused on long-term users, future value and trying to negate all the short-term narrative that has been poisoning hive for so long.
Hive is not your main income
Sorry, this is not the mindset to get involved in Hive. Not today. Perhaps back in 2016 Steem this was a great behavior to have because it provided a great use case and success stories, but that is not the case right now.
Says who? Says me, and several other long time Hivers I've been speaking with - who are in positions of top20 witness or community leaders - but don't want to speak up about this issue because well, nobody wants to be seen as the Hive Hitler who wants people to starve because they shouldn't be getting rewards because all they will do is sell them.
Yeah, that's the only concept some people will get out of this post instead of looking deeper. I might have some valid concerns and ideas on this post but if someone wants to misinterpret it, there are many ways to take my words out of context and paint me as the bad guy, the guy who doesn't like people living off hive rewards.
I'm not even ranting, I'm actually trying to depict this scenario the best way I can.
This is what happens when you have a proof of brain reward allocation system, where people without stake can get rewarded in exchange for their awesome content - something I haven't seen in a while except for a few accounts who, you guessed it, are in constant power up mode.
The ideal mindset a person who is getting rewards on Hive can have, would be to have a long term goal of stacking X Hive preparing for the eventual moon while supporting the blockchain with amazing content and getting involved with the community, and never sell while we are in build up mode.
The worst mindset (and one that I see a lot around lately) a person can have when getting involved on hive, is to milk as much rewards as possible doing as little work as able, while selling everything at a market price, adding sell pressure and bringing nothing to the table but mediocre content and inviting their friends to join this blockchain so that they can milk it (us) as well.
Get enough people with the wrong mindset on hive, give them enough rewards, and it will start making a dent and adding to the sell pressure. It already does.
Again, there would be nothing wrong with this behavior if we were back in 2018, or if these users were bringing value back to hive in other forms but right now, why would anyone want to invest in a token that actively supports the livelihood of hundreds of people in exchange of half assed content that brings nothing to the table?
I can't tell you how many people I've seen with this mindset of milking hive and seeing hive rewards as a first income source while bringing nothing to hive other than half-assed content that gets seen only by their friends (who are also milking hive).
Apart from the dozens of influential people I've spoken with, am I the only one who's noticed this or is it just that I am the only one that dares openly speaking about it?
This is not 2016-18, we as a Hive community are now competing with tons of other similar projects and if we want our token to become more attractive to investors, perhaps we should stop rewarding so many people who are full time hivers and selling all their rewards.
There is room for charity and supporting AMAZING content creators, I don't see hive as an echo-chamber that should strive to only reward users who never sell, selling is a big part of the equation to have an active market. What I am saying here is, do we really want to have such big room for full time hivers who bring no value to our blockchain?
I don't think we are. And I definitely don't think Leo Finance is a place for people with this mindset.
Now before you take my words out of context, there's nothing wrong with selling every now and then, and anyone can do anything they want with their rewards, all I'm saying is, if someone is actively stating - or their wallet is stating - that they will absolutely sell everything they get from hive as content rewards, perhaps we should stop voting these people who are only extracting value from the token.
Hive is not a main income source. Hive is an enabler for people without investment money, to stack crypto with a long term mindset. I used to be one of them, I had no investment money and I was able to build my stack by creating content.
Hive can be a helping hand for hard times or looked as a side income that you want to grow. If people want to look at it and take advantage of how the system works for Hive to become their main income source, then the content and the value they bring to the blockchain should be the highest of qualities and bring more eyes from the outside.
I have nothing against someone cashing out 100% of their rewards if they bring something of equal value to the Hive ecosystem. I would have no issue having 15,789 people being full time hivers cashing out every single day, if they also had a youtube channel or an instagram account bringing hundreds of thousands of potential users and potential investors to hive. The problem is, most of our Full time hivers bring absolutely nothing to the hive ecosystem other than mediocre content and circle-jerk views/traffic.
If you want to take my words out of context, take this phrase for that:
If you want to be a full time hiver and constantly extract value from the token, bring something of equal value back to the ecosystem. Bring users, bring investors, get involved in community initiatives, actively help hive grow. Because if you are a full time hiver who only brings mediocre content and get rewarded for it, then you are not being a net positive for this blockchain. And damn me if we don't have tons of those here.
