This is obviously a play on words and for those who were around Hive since the early days, this will make sense. For the rest, grab a cup of coffee and read on. It will become clear as we go along.
There is little doubt the last 5 years were interesting for those involved with Hive. A lot took place that resulted in a bunch of starts and stops. Nevertheless, we seem to be hitting our stride.
To me, there was always tremendous potential in the Hive technology. There were certain things that made it stand out. For this reason, I felt that Hive could be one of the leading blockchains with some adaptation and expansion. This was a viewed echoed by Dan in a post from the earliest days of this blockchain.
He wrote Steemit's Evil Plan For Cryptocurrency World Domination. It was one of those documents that was a standard for all to follow. Give the guy credit: he might not be much for sticking with a project but he is a very insightful.
In many ways, the view Dan had mirrored mine. There is a lot here that cannot be done elsewhere. One case is point is micropayments. Nothing out there at the time could even offer this due to transaction fees. Obviously, little happened to this point yet Hive is now starting offering micro-earning. Imagine the potentiality of micropayments when it comes to infrastructure. Automation can be a huge part of this.
Over the years, we had the incompetence of Steemit Inc under the leadership of Ned. Then there was the war with Justin Sun resulting in a fork. This stemmed from the pre-mine stake that was never addressed despite years of discussions and agreements. Finally, on March 20, 2020, the code via a hard fork was in control of the community.
That is an important fact. This stage of our evolution is not even three years old. The base layer code base was a mess and a few years were spent cleaning that up. We also did a great deal to ensure scaling is not a problem.
So now let us focus upon "cryptocurrency world domination".
Hive Backed Dollar Coming To Life
We spent a lot of time discussing the Hive Backed Dollar (HBD). This only started to receive attention with the introduction of the HBD Stabilizer. However, in reading the linked post, it is easy to see that Dan believed the stablecoin was the power center.
In fact, the entire essence of that article is that social media activities are nothing more than a Trojan Horse. It is a way to get people involved yet that is not the real value.
The real money isn’t in blogging, content generation, or voting. The real money is found in bootstrapping a digital currency. A currency owned and operated in a decentralized way by ordinary people.
This seems to be to be the merging of social media and finance.
Ultimately, there was a 3 step process involved:
- Phase 1 - Bootstrap a Stable Currency
- Phase 2 - Bootstrap a Marketplace
- Phase 3 - Sidechains, Smart Contracts and SmartCoins, Oh My!
Keep in mind this post was written Jul 6, 2016. That said, it is easy to see how this path is unfolding before us on Hive.
It is also something that is not being pursued, even to this day, by any other blockchain.
To read Dan's full article, click Here.
Hive Is Starting To Hit Its Stride
Over the last couple years, we saw a huge step forward in the Hive Backed Dollar. The HBD Stabilizer has worked well, helping to provide stability to the coin on the Internal Exchange.
To bootstrap this currency we need people to have a way to earn it. This is what posting rewards are for.
We also added to this idea by offering interest on savings. This started at 3% and now stands at 20%. This is delivering more currency into the market on a daily basis. One of the keys to be a strong currency is distribution. If people do not have it, they cannot use it.
There were also derivatives of HBD created by the Leofinance team on a couple other blockchains. Dan did not elaborate on the expansion of financial offerings tied to the stable currency which can also provides massive strength (and growth).
The second phase has not really been addressed up to this point but we see Phase 3 starting to emerge.
We know that with Hive Application Framework (HAF), Honeycomb, Hive-Engine, and SpkNetwork, we see a lot of infrastructure going into place. Hopefully, by the end of 2023, we will have a couple robust smart contract platforms in operation. This will go a long way to setting Hive even further apart.
Once you have a highly functional currency, a robust community and market place, and lots of content to bring in new users, you are ready to start building robust smart contracts and side chains around these assets.
Seems like a good plan.
Nothing Has Changed
It is ironic that we can proceed forward in an enormous way, taking great strides, yet thing still remain the same.
Some of the initial conversations are still being espoused today. Fortunately, we are much closer to some of this coming to fruition.
Think of a side-chain as a Facebook app. It will allow developers to build new games. It will allow people to issue their own currencies. All kinds of robust financial instruments can be built on the back of the Steem Dollar and the Steem network.
Unlike other smart contract platforms, Steem will have no fees! This means app developers can build things that just aren’t viable elsewhere.
Does any of this sound familiar? Many of us keep harping upon different sections of it on a regular basis. We also see many projects teams starting to bring aspects of this into the light.
The difference now is that parts of this plan are starting to come together. It took a lot of years and some clearing out of roadblocks but we can see where we stand.
My optimism about Hive has not wavered. In fact, it has been consistent for more than 5 years because of the technological capabilities and some features that make Hive unique. It was also the premise for the idea of The Hive Financial Network.
For years, many of us knew the potential for Hive was enormous. Now, it is finally starting to evolve.
And like the view from 2016, there is the opportunity to do things no other cryptocurrency network can do.
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