I recently posted about how I find it overwhelming whenever I come back to Hive because I feel this need to "catch up" on everything I've missed to understand the current state of this forever evolving ecosystem. Discovering what you don't know you don't know involves research and I've yet to find a search tool that's really effective at matching my search while filtering out comments and articles that are outdated or not relevant. But then I remebered where I recently learned what a murmuration is...
What do starlings do in September?
In September, starlings are typically preparing for migration and beginning to form large communal roosts. During this month starlings begin to gather in large flocks, a behavior known as murmuration. These massive groups perform impressive aerial displays, twisting and turning in synchrony before settling in their communal roosts at dusk.
I realised there already exists a tool that retrieves information from vast amounts of data online. So although ChatGPT can be inaccurate, I figured it was a quick way to get direct answers fast and at the very least point me in the right directions. I'm curious to know how the Hive community feels about content written with AI. Personally, I think while transparency should be encouraged, there is usually a human element to AI content, which creates value, such as the questions asked or directions given.
So I thought I would share what I've been reading about Hive according to Chat GPT.
I'll include the full text in an expandable section, since the answers given can be quite long-winded, and then my own commentary and follow up questions, since there is a lot that I found may be inaccurate or misleading.
I started with questions I knew I could easily validate in my own head. If you'd rather skim through my commentary than read the whole ChatGPT response, then just don't bother expanding the boxes below, which I title the questions asked. Text like this means it was abstracted from the ChatGPT response.
Q1a: Do you know what STEEM is?
Yes, STEEM is the native cryptocurrency of the Steem blockchain, which is a decentralized social media and content platform. The Steem blockchain allows users to create, share, and curate content, much like traditional social media platforms, but with the added incentive of earning cryptocurrency for their contributions.
Here are key aspects of STEEM and the Steem blockchain:
Decentralized Content Platform:
Steem is designed to reward content creators and curators. Users can write blog posts, share media, comment, and vote on content, with rewards distributed based on community engagement.
STEEM Cryptocurrency:
STEEM is the primary token used on the platform for rewards. Users can earn STEEM by creating or curating content, and they can also use STEEM for transactions within the ecosystem.
Reward System:
The reward system is based on the level of engagement a post or comment receives. Upvotes from other users, especially those with high "Steem Power" (a form of vested stake in the network), increase the rewards for creators.
Steem Power (SP):
This is a vested form of STEEM, which acts as influence on the platform. The more SP a user holds, the more weight their upvotes carry. SP also plays a role in governance and curation.
Steem Dollars (SBD):
Another token in the Steem ecosystem, Steem Dollars are a stablecoin designed to be pegged to the U.S. dollar, though their value can fluctuate. Users can earn SBD as part of their rewards, and SBD can be converted to STEEM.
Steemit:
Steemit.com is one of the main applications built on the Steem blockchain. It functions as a decentralized social media platform where users can post, upvote, and comment while earning cryptocurrency rewards.
The Steem blockchain stands out by combining social media dynamics with cryptocurrency incentives, allowing users to directly benefit from their engagement and contributions.
Q1b: Do you know what HIVE is?
Yes, Hive is a decentralized blockchain platform that was created as a hard fork of the Steem blockchain in March 2020. It shares many similarities with Steem, but there are key differences between the two, especially in terms of governance and the community's vision.
Here’s a breakdown of Hive and how it relates to Steem:
1. Origin and Fork from Steem
Hard Fork:
Hive was created after a dispute within the Steem community, primarily related to concerns over governance after the acquisition of Steemit, Inc. (the company that developed the Steemit platform) by Justin Sun, the founder of the TRON blockchain.
Many community members felt that the centralization of power under Sun’s control undermined Steem’s decentralized ethos. As a result, they initiated a hard fork to create Hive as a more community-driven and decentralized alternative.
2. Decentralized Content Platform
Like Steem, Hive is also a decentralized content creation platform where users can post, comment, and curate content. It offers a social media-like experience where participants can earn cryptocurrency rewards for their contributions.
The content and social interactions occur primarily on platforms like Hive.blog and other applications built on the Hive blockchain.
3. Hive Blockchain
The Hive blockchain powers decentralized applications (dApps), social media platforms, games, and more. It focuses on high scalability and fast transaction speeds.
Hive is designed to reward users for creating and curating content, similar to how the Steem blockchain operates.
4. Hive Cryptocurrency
Hive (HIVE):
The native token of the Hive blockchain, used for transactions and rewards on the platform. HIVE can be earned, traded, or used to power the network.
Hive Power (HP):
A staked version of HIVE, similar to Steem Power on the Steem blockchain. Users can increase their influence in the Hive network by holding HP. The more Hive Power a user has, the more their vote on content matters, and the more rewards they can earn.
Hive Dollars (HBD):
Hive also has a stablecoin known as Hive-backed Dollars (HBD), which is intended to maintain a value close to 1 USD, though its value may fluctuate.
5. Decentralized Governance
One of Hive’s key differentiators from Steem is its governance model. Hive places a stronger emphasis on decentralized governance, with no centralized entity or individual holding control over the network.
Community-driven:
Governance decisions, updates, and protocol changes are determined by the consensus of Hive stakeholders, making it more resistant to centralized control than Steem became after the acquisition by Justin Sun.
6. Applications and Ecosystem
The Hive ecosystem includes various decentralized applications (dApps), from social media platforms like PeakD and Hive.blog to gaming applications and decentralized finance (DeFi) projects.
The Hive blockchain is also used by developers looking to build decentralized applications (dApps) and services that benefit from fast, fee-free transactions.
7. Key Differences from Steem
Governance and Decentralization:
Hive is more decentralized, with a strong community focus and no centralized ownership or control. This is in contrast to the concerns many users had with Steem after the involvement of Justin Sun and TRON.
Development and Forks:
Hive has seen active development and has introduced new features and updates independently of Steem. Many developers who left Steem due to the governance issues have contributed to Hive’s growth.
In summary:
Hive was born from the desire for greater decentralization and community control following the Steem community's split. It functions similarly to Steem but with a more decentralized approach to governance and a strong commitment to avoiding centralized control. The platform focuses on rewarding content creation and curation while supporting a wide range of decentralized applications.
To summarise:
STEEM is the native cryptocurrency of the Steem blockchain, which is a decentralized social media and content platform. The Steem blockchain allows users to create, share, and curate content, much like traditional social media platforms, but with the added incentive of earning cryptocurrency for their contributions. [...] The Steem blockchain stands out by combining social media dynamics with cryptocurrency incentives, allowing users to directly benefit from their engagement and contributions.
It goes on to elaborate on the key aspects of Steem as a decentralized content platform and cryptocurrency, explaining the reward system of vested Steem Power (SP) & Steem Dollars (SBD). Steemit.com is also mentioned as the main application. It then repeated all the same explanations, replacing Steem with Hive and Steemit.com with Hive.blog. It also mentions other platforms like PeakD, and best of all, distinguishes it from STEEM through it's origins and story.
Hive is a decentralized blockchain platform that was created as a hard fork of the Steem blockchain in March 2020. [...] Hive was created after a dispute within the Steem community, primarily related to concerns over governance after the acquisition of Steemit, Inc. (the company that developed the Steemit platform) by Justin Sun, the founder of the TRON blockchain. Many community members felt that the centralization of power under Sun’s control undermined Steem’s decentralized ethos. [...] One of Hive’s key differentiators from Steem is its governance model. Hive places a stronger emphasis on decentralized governance, with no centralized entity or individual holding control over the network.
My first impressions were good since, all-in-all it accurately reflects what I already know Hive to be.
Hive was born from the desire for greater decentralization and community control following the Steem community's split. It functions similarly to Steem but with a more decentralized approach to governance and a strong commitment to avoiding centralized control. [...] Hive is more decentralized, with a strong community focus and no centralized ownership or control. This is in contrast to the concerns many users had with Steem after the involvement of Justin Sun and TRON.
The next couple questions were to get some examples of what's new. If you are expanding the questions below, you'll find the follow-on questions within.
Q2a: How many hardforks have there been since the Steem to Hive hardfork?
Since the hardfork from Steem to Hive in March 2020, there have been four hardforks on the Hive blockchain, as of the most recent updates:
Hardfork 24 (March 2020)
This was the initial hardfork that created Hive as a separate blockchain from Steem. It implemented various improvements over Steem, such as removing the influence of certain centralized accounts and transitioning to a fully decentralized governance model.
Hardfork 25 (June 2021)
This hardfork introduced several important changes:
- Decentralized Hive Fund (DHF) improvements, making it more efficient and transparent.
- Adjustments to the downvote pool, making it more effective in combating abuse.
- Increased HBD stability and better mechanisms for handling HBD conversions.
1. Introduction of the Free Downvote Pool (HF22)
Free Downvote Allocation: One of the most impactful changes made to downvotes came in Hardfork 22 with the introduction of a separate "free downvote pool". This change allocated downvote mana independently from the regular upvote mana.Purpose: The aim was to allow users to downvote without sacrificing their upvote power. Before this, downvoting used the same mana as upvotes, discouraging users from using downvotes, as it would reduce their ability to reward content they liked.
How It Works: Every user on Hive now has a specific percentage of their voting mana reserved for downvotes, which regenerates separately. This encourages users to curate the platform more actively by removing low-quality content, spam, or abuse, without feeling like they’re losing the ability to support good content.
Benefits: This change helped improve content quality by making it easier for users to flag or penalize posts that were gaming the system or were considered low-quality, ensuring that rewards from the pool are distributed more fairly.
2. Downvote Mana Regeneration (HF22)
Along with the free downvote pool, Hardfork 22 also introduced changes to the regeneration rate of downvote mana.How It Works: Downvote mana regenerates at the same rate as upvote mana, which is approximately 20% per day. This means that users are continuously replenished with downvote power, encouraging ongoing curation efforts.
Impact: By creating a system where users don’t have to be as conservative with downvotes, the network encouraged better moderation and empowered users to be more active in keeping the reward pool fair and reducing abuse.
3. Downvotes and Self-Voting Penalties
Another adjustment that came with Hardfork 22 was making the downvote penalty on self-voting more effective. Prior to HF22, users could game the system by upvoting their own posts or comments to a significant extent.How It Works: Users who engage in self-voting or vote-buying schemes are now more likely to be downvoted by the community, with those downvotes having a greater impact due to the increased availability of free downvotes.
Impact: This adjustment disincentivized self-voting abuse and vote trading, as the risk of being downvoted became more prominent.
4. Encouraging Responsible Downvoting
The changes introduced in HF22 and later updates were designed to encourage responsible downvoting. By separating downvote and upvote mana, the system incentivized users to focus on reward pool protection and content curation, rather than using downvotes as a tool for personal disputes or retaliation.Curation Incentives: This system also indirectly encouraged curation communities to form, where users actively monitor and downvote abusive or spammy content. The idea was to promote a healthier ecosystem by making it easier to correct reward distribution without negatively impacting users who engage positively.
5. Downvote Reward Pool Protection
The downvote system now plays a crucial role in reward pool protection, which ensures that rewards are distributed to deserving content creators rather than those who engage in spam, plagiarism, or abuse.How It Works: Since the free downvote pool was introduced, more users have been able to actively flag content they believe is undeserving of rewards, helping to reduce the manipulation of the reward pool. This makes it harder for bad actors to abuse the system, as there are now more active curators using their downvote power.
6. Impact on Content Discovery and Quality
By making downvotes easier to use and separate from upvotes, Hive improved the overall quality of content discovery on the platform. Users who post low-effort or plagiarized content are more likely to be downvoted, reducing their chances of earning rewards and being seen on trending pages.Content Discovery: The system encourages higher-quality content to rise to the top since users can now downvote low-quality content without worrying about losing their upvote power. This change has helped improve the curation process and made the reward system more equitable.
7. Downvotes and Voting Power
Changes made via hardforks also clarified how voting power for downvotes works. Just like upvotes, larger stakeholders (those with more Hive Power) have stronger downvotes, meaning they can have a significant impact on the rewards earned by a post or comment.Weight of Downvotes: This system ensures that stakeholders with more investment in the platform have more influence over the reward pool, incentivizing responsible voting and downvoting. However, this also comes with the responsibility of using that power wisely, as large stakeholders can have a bigger impact on the ecosystem.
8. Community Empowerment Through Downvotes
These changes to the downvote system have also contributed to the broader goal of making Hive a more community-governed platform. Users now have more tools at their disposal to regulate content, remove spam, and ensure that the rewards pool is distributed fairly.Curation and Governance: By giving users more downvote power and separating it from upvotes, the hardforks reinforced the idea that the Hive community is responsible for content curation and reward distribution, encouraging a more decentralized approach to governance.
Summary of Downvote Changes in Hive Hardforks:
- Free Downvote Pool (HF22): A separate pool of downvote mana was introduced, allowing users to downvote without affecting their upvote power.
- Downvote Mana Regeneration: Downvote mana regenerates at the same rate as upvote mana (20% per day), ensuring a continuous supply of downvote power.
- Improved Penalties for Self-Voting: The hardforks made self-voting less attractive by empowering users to downvote abusive behavior without sacrificing their upvotes.
- Encouraging Responsible Downvoting: By separating downvote and upvote power, the system incentivized users to use downvotes responsibly and focus on content curation.
- Reward Pool Protection: Downvotes now play a critical role in protecting the reward pool from abuse, ensuring more fair distribution of rewards.
- Impact on Content Discovery: The changes helped improve content discovery by reducing the visibility and rewards for low-quality or abusive content.
- Stakeholder Influence on Downvotes: Users with more Hive Power can wield stronger downvotes, giving larger stakeholders more say in content curation.
- Community Empowerment: These changes have made Hive a more community-driven platform, giving users more tools to regulate content and ensure fair reward distribution.
Key Changes to Increase HBD Stability in Hardfork 25:
HBD Conversion Mechanism Enhancements:
Improved HBD-to-HIVE Conversions:Hardfork 25 introduced a more efficient conversion mechanism between HBD and HIVE, allowing users to convert HBD into HIVE and vice versa. This enhanced conversion process helps maintain the HBD peg by ensuring better liquidity and smoother adjustments when there are fluctuations in demand.
3.5-Day Conversion Window:
When users convert HBD to HIVE or HIVE to HBD, the conversion process takes 3.5 days. This time window helps the blockchain accurately assess the value of HIVE in relation to the U.S. dollar over a short period, reducing the impact of volatility in HIVE prices and ensuring a more stable conversion rate.
HBD Interest Rate and Savings Adjustments:
HBD Savings Interest Rate:To incentivize users to hold and save HBD, the interest rates for holding HBD in savings accounts were refined. Witnesses (blockchain validators) can vote to adjust the HBD interest rate, which helps stabilize the currency by encouraging long-term holding and reducing sell pressure.
This interest rate acts as a reward for those who help reduce HBD volatility by holding rather than trading it. It also helps balance HBD supply and demand more effectively.
Introduction of the HBD Stabilizer:
The HBD Stabilizer was a critical feature introduced to actively help maintain the HBD peg. It operates as an automated system that:- Buys or sells HBD depending on whether the price is above or below the $1 USD peg.
- Uses the Decentralized Hive Fund (DHF) to carry out these transactions, ensuring that the blockchain has sufficient liquidity to maintain the peg and counteract any price fluctuations.
Improved Witness Price Feeds:
Witnesses provide price feed data to the Hive blockchain, which helps determine the real-time value of HBD relative to the U.S. dollar. Hardfork 25 improved the system by which these price feeds are aggregated and calculated.These more accurate and timely price feeds ensure that the blockchain has a clear understanding of the USD value of HBD and HIVE, which is crucial for accurate conversions and maintaining the peg.
Summary:
Hardfork 25 introduced several features to increase HBD's stability, including:- Refined HBD-to-HIVE conversion mechanics for more stable conversions.
- Adjustments to HBD interest rates to incentivize holding HBD.
- The introduction of the HBD Stabilizer, which uses the DHF to help maintain the $1 peg.
- Improvements to the witness price feed system for more accurate price data.
Hardfork 26 (October 2022)
Key features introduced:
- HBD Interest Rate and Stability: Further improvements to stabilize the Hive Backed Dollar (HBD), and enhancements in interest rates for HBD savings.
- Resource Credits (RC) adjustments: Tweaks to improve the user experience, particularly for onboarding new users.
- Performance improvements: Optimizations to reduce the load on the blockchain and improve overall speed.
Key changes and improvements related to HBD interest include:
1. Dynamic Interest Rates
Hive introduced the ability to adjust HBD interest rates dynamically through witness consensus. Witnesses (the network's validators) can propose and vote on the interest rate for holding HBD in a savings account.The interest rate is set collectively by Hive witnesses based on factors like market conditions, HBD liquidity, and the need to encourage or discourage HBD holding. This flexibility allows the rate to be adjusted in response to changes in demand for HBD or overall market stability.
2. Higher Savings Interest Rates
One major improvement was the introduction of higher interest rates for HBD held in savings accounts. Holding HBD in a savings account locks the funds for a minimum of 3 days but offers significantly higher interest than simply holding HBD in a wallet.As of recent updates, HBD savings interest rates have been seen as high as 20% annually, depending on the current rate set by witnesses. This provides a strong incentive for users to hold HBD in savings, contributing to the stability of the token’s peg to 1 USD.
3. Increased Stability of HBD Peg
Improvements to HBD interest are also tied to efforts to maintain the peg to USD more effectively. By offering competitive interest rates, Hive encourages more users to hold HBD rather than trade it, reducing volatility and helping to maintain its 1:1 peg to the US dollar.This stability makes HBD a more reliable asset for users who want to hold a stablecoin within the Hive ecosystem.
4. Encouraging HBD Demand and Liquidity
The interest offered on HBD holdings has increased demand for HBD, which in turn improves the liquidity of HBD on the market. Higher liquidity helps to maintain the peg and makes it easier for users to trade HBD for Hive or other cryptocurrencies when needed.5. Competitive DeFi Alternative
With attractive interest rates, HBD serves as a competitive alternative to DeFi (Decentralized Finance) savings or staking opportunities offered on other platforms. Users can earn passive income on their HBD without exposing themselves to the same level of risk associated with other crypto-assets.Summary of Improvements:
- Dynamic interest rates set by witnesses provide flexibility.
- Higher savings interest rates, often reaching up to 20%, incentivize holding HBD in savings.
- The improvements contribute to HBD stability and the maintenance of the 1:1 USD peg.
- Hive offers a competitive interest rate that appeals to users seeking low-risk, stable returns.
Key Points about the Return Proposal:
Prevents Fund Drain:-
The DHF is designed to fund community-driven projects, initiatives, and development efforts on Hive. However, when there aren’t enough valuable proposals, the Return Proposal ensures that funds aren’t automatically paid out to all proposals.
The Return Proposal gives voters an option to say, “return the funds to the DHF” rather than allocating them to proposals that may not provide enough value.
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The Return Proposal is always present on the list of DHF proposals.
Community members can vote for the Return Proposal just like they would vote for any other proposal.
If the Return Proposal receives more votes than a specific project proposal, then the funds that would have gone to that project instead remain in the DHF.
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By voting for the Return Proposal, Hive stakeholders (those with Hive Power) can effectively decline funding for proposals they believe do not warrant the expenditure.
This ensures that the DHF is used efficiently and that funds are only distributed to projects that have the strong backing of the community.
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After the daily or periodic distribution of funds to accepted proposals, any remaining funds are "returned" to the DHF if the Return Proposal has enough votes to beat out other project proposals that didn’t meet the required support.
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The Return Proposal encourages accountability by ensuring that proposals are not simply funded because there’s money available. Proposals must still gain sufficient community approval to receive funding, ensuring a more transparent and effective use of the DHF.
Example of Usage:
Suppose the DHF has 100,000 HBD available for funding proposals, and there are two proposals: one asking for 40,000 HBD and another asking for 20,000 HBD.If neither proposal gains enough votes to surpass the Return Proposal, a portion of that 100,000 HBD will remain in the DHF instead of being allocated to those proposals.
Why It’s Important:
- Prevents Waste: It ensures that the DHF isn’t drained by proposals that the community doesn’t strongly support.
- Empowers Voters: The Return Proposal gives stakeholders more control over how the DHF funds are spent, or not spent, maintaining the long-term sustainability of the fund.
- Supports Good Governance: It encourages quality proposals and ensures that only those with significant backing receive funding.
Hardfork 27 (July 2023)
This hardfork focused on further technical enhancements and governance:
- HBD Stabilizer improvements: Further refining mechanisms that help maintain the peg of HBD to USD.
- Governance updates: Enhancing witness and proposal systems for more efficient community management.
- Bug fixes and optimizations: Continuing to optimize the blockchain for performance and security.
What mechanisms were introduced in hardfork 27 to help maintain the HBD peg? In Hardfork 27, several important mechanisms were introduced to help maintain the peg of Hive Backed Dollar (HBD) to its intended value of $1 USD. These changes were designed to strengthen the stability of HBD, ensuring it remains a reliable stablecoin within the Hive ecosystem.
Key Mechanisms Introduced in Hardfork 27 to Maintain the HBD Peg:
HBD Stabilizer Enhancements:
The HBD Stabilizer was further improved in Hardfork 27. This mechanism automatically interacts with the market using funds from the Decentralized Hive Fund (DHF) to help maintain the HBD peg.The Stabilizer buys or sells HBD depending on market conditions:
- If HBD trades above $1, the Stabilizer sells HBD on the market, increasing its supply and driving the price down.
- If HBD trades below $1, the Stabilizer buys HBD from the market, reducing its supply and pushing the price up.
Automated Market Maker (AMM) for Conversions:
Hardfork 27 introduced improvements to the HBD conversion process that function similarly to an automated market maker (AMM). This allows users to convert HBD to Hive (and vice versa) more efficiently and with less price slippage.By enhancing this conversion process, users can convert between HBD and Hive in a more predictable manner, which helps stabilize HBD’s value by providing a reliable method for adjusting the supply of HBD in relation to Hive’s market value.
This feature also helps reduce volatility in the HBD price, ensuring it stays closer to the $1 peg.
Improved Witness Price Feeds:
Witnesses provide price feeds that reflect the real-time value of HBD relative to USD. In Hardfork 27, improvements were made to the accuracy and reliability of these price feeds.These more frequent and accurate price updates help the network better understand the true value of HBD at any given time, improving the blockchain’s ability to execute conversions at fair prices and helping maintain the peg.
HBD Haircut Rule Adjustments:
The HBD haircut rule was updated to better handle situations where the total HBD supply exceeds a certain threshold of the Hive market cap. The haircut rule ensures that if too much HBD exists relative to Hive’s market cap, the blockchain can prevent excessive inflation by limiting new HBD creation.This mechanism was refined in Hardfork 27 to ensure that the system remains stable and that HBD supply growth does not threaten the peg, particularly in volatile market conditions where Hive’s value might fluctuate significantly.
Enhanced Conversion Mechanics (3.5-day Window):
The 3.5-day conversion period for HBD-to-Hive and Hive-to-HBD conversions was further optimized. This delay helps the blockchain assess market conditions and make conversions at a more stable rate, preventing users from taking advantage of short-term price volatility.By ensuring conversions happen over a 3.5-day period, this mechanism adds stability to HBD pricing and helps the peg remain intact over longer periods.
Summary of Mechanisms Introduced in Hardfork 27:
- HBD Stabilizer improvements for more efficient market interventions to maintain the $1 peg.
- Automated market maker-like improvements to the conversion process between HBD and Hive, reducing price slippage.
- More accurate and frequent witness price feeds to reflect real-time HBD prices.
- Adjustments to the HBD haircut rule to manage HBD supply relative to Hive’s market cap and prevent inflation.
- Optimized 3.5-day conversion mechanics, smoothing out price volatility during conversions.
Governance Updates for the Witness System:
Improved Witness Voting Dynamics:
Witness voting power adjustments were implemented to make the voting system more representative of the broader Hive community. The changes aimed to reduce the centralization of witness voting power and ensure that smaller stakeholders had a more proportional say in the governance process.This also helps prevent the dominance of a few large stakeholders, ensuring a more decentralized governance structure and fostering a more competitive witness ecosystem.
Witness Ranking Mechanism Enhancements:
Hardfork 27 introduced improvements to the witness ranking system, ensuring that the top 20 witnesses (who produce the majority of blocks and have significant governance power) are more fairly selected based on community support.By refining the witness selection process, the system ensures that more active and competent witnesses rise to the top, rather than witnesses who rely solely on large votes from a few powerful accounts.
Stake-based Voting Adjustments:
Stake-based voting received adjustments to reduce voting weight imbalance. These changes ensure that votes from large stakeholders are balanced in a way that limits their ability to dominate witness elections or push through decisions without broader consensus.The updates improve governance fairness, allowing more stakeholders (especially smaller ones) to participate meaningfully in decision-making.
Governance Updates for the Proposal System:
Improved Proposal Voting Mechanics:
Updates were made to the proposal voting system to make it more transparent and efficient. This includes streamlining the process for creating, reviewing, and voting on proposals submitted to the Decentralized Hive Fund (DHF).Voters now have a clearer overview of proposal statuses, helping them better allocate their support to projects that align with the long-term goals of the community.
Vote Decay Mechanism:
A vote decay mechanism was introduced to prevent users from casting votes and forgetting about them, which could lead to outdated or stagnant votes skewing results over time.This mechanism gradually reduces the weight of a vote over time unless users actively re-cast their votes. It ensures that ongoing community engagement is required to maintain support for proposals, preventing inactive stakeholders from holding disproportionate influence over long periods.
Increased Transparency in Proposal Funding:
Changes were made to increase the transparency of proposal funding through the DHF. Users can now more easily track how funds are allocated, the status of proposals, and whether they are meeting their milestones or delivering value.This transparency encourages accountability and ensures that funded projects are held to higher standards, reducing waste and mismanagement of community funds.
Return Proposal and Voting for Budget Efficiency:
The Return Proposal mechanism (introduced in earlier hardforks) was further optimized. The Return Proposal allows voters to signal that unused funds in the DHF should not be allocated to low-value projects and should instead be returned to the fund.Hardfork 27 made this process more efficient by allowing for finer control over budget allocation, ensuring that the DHF is only used for projects that provide real value to the community.
Proposal Voting Power Adjustments:
The voting system for proposals was further balanced, ensuring that stakeholders of all sizes can meaningfully influence which projects receive funding. This prevents a few large stakeholders from having disproportionate control over the allocation of DHF resources, encouraging a more decentralized and democratic approach to project funding.Summary of Governance Updates in Hardfork 27:
- Witness voting improvements: Reducing centralization of witness voting and improving the fairness of the witness selection process.
- Stake-based voting adjustments: Ensuring more balanced representation for smaller stakeholders in witness elections.
- Proposal voting enhancements: Streamlined the process, introduced vote decay, and improved transparency and accountability for DHF proposals.
- Return Proposal refinements: Ensuring more efficient use of DHF resources by preventing unnecessary fund allocation to low-value projects.
- Increased transparency and accountability: Improved tracking of funded proposals to ensure they meet their goals and milestones.
Q2b: What new features and updates were introduced since Hive hardforked from the STEEM blockchain?
Since Hive hard-forked from the Steem blockchain in March 2020, it has undergone several updates and introduced new features to enhance decentralization, performance, and usability. The Hive community has been proactive in improving the blockchain’s infrastructure and expanding its ecosystem. Below are some key features and updates introduced since the fork:
1. Decentralized Governance Enhancements
Removal of Ninja-Mined Stake Influence:
One of the most important post-fork changes was addressing the centralized power from Steemit Inc.'s "ninja-mined" stake, which was a large amount of pre-mined tokens that gave disproportionate control to a single entity. Hive neutralized this stake, ensuring that no one entity could exert excessive influence over governance.
Improved Witness Voting:
Hive made adjustments to witness voting to make the process more decentralized and reduce the potential for centralized control over block production. This change empowers the community to more effectively elect witnesses, who are responsible for block validation and governance.
What adjustments were made to witness voting?
Several adjustments were made to the witness voting system on the Hive blockchain after the hard fork from Steem to ensure greater decentralization and fairness. These changes addressed concerns over the potential for centralization and governance manipulation, which were key issues that led to the creation of Hive in the first place. Here are the main adjustments:
- Neutralization of Ninja-Mined Stake
- Ninja-mined stake refers to a large pre-mined portion of Steem tokens controlled by Steemit, Inc., which was inherited by Justin Sun after his acquisition of Steemit. This large stake gave Sun disproportionate power over witness voting, allowing him to essentially control block production.
- In response, Hive decided to neutralize this stake when the hard fork occurred. This means that the ninja-mined stake could not be used to influence witness votes, ensuring a more level playing field for the Hive community.
- The Hive community worked to reduce the influence of large stakeholders over the governance process by ensuring that voting power is distributed more equitably across all users. The goal was to prevent any single user or entity from controlling the majority of the witnesses, which are critical to the operation and security of the network.
- Stakeholders on Hive are encouraged to participate in witness voting, and the system is designed to make it harder for large stakeholders to dominate the witness selection process.
- The Hive community has actively promoted the participation of smaller users in the governance process, encouraging more diverse voting to prevent a few high-stake users from consolidating control over witness voting.
- Efforts to encourage more voting education and engagement have been a focus in Hive’s governance structure to ensure that witnesses are chosen based on their merit and contributions to the community, rather than the size of their financial stake.
- The number of top elected witnesses remains at 20, but Hive ensures that there is more competition and opportunity for backup witnesses to participate in block production.
- This helps maintain a healthy balance between well-established witnesses and new ones, further decentralizing the control over block production.
- Hive Power (HP), which is the staked version of the HIVE token, determines voting influence on the platform. However, Hive introduced mechanisms to allow delegation of HP for witness voting.
- This enables users to lend their voting power to others whom they trust to vote on their behalf. This delegation helps decentralize decision-making, as it allows users who may not be actively voting to still contribute to governance indirectly by supporting other voters.
- One of the proposed improvements to witness voting is the concept of voting decay, which would gradually reduce the voting power of inactive users over time.
- The goal of this proposal is to ensure that only active participants in the Hive ecosystem maintain full voting power, preventing users who have left or become inactive from maintaining disproportionate influence over witness elections.
- Hive witnesses are now subject to higher levels of community accountability and transparency. Witnesses are expected to actively communicate their intentions, plans, and updates to the community.
- Witnesses who are inactive or fail to meet community standards can be easily voted out, making the system more dynamic and responsive to community needs.
- Hive witnesses now work closely with the Decentralized Hive Fund (DHF), where users can submit funding proposals and witness-related decisions are often debated and discussed. This transparent governance structure ensures that witnesses are not only elected based on vote weight but also on their ongoing contributions and alignment with community interests.
- Neutralization of centralized stakes (like Steemit’s ninja-mined tokens) to prevent any single entity from dominating witness votes.
- Decentralization of voting power by encouraging more participation from smaller users and reducing the disproportionate influence of large stakeholders.
- Hive Power delegation allows users to lend their voting power, further spreading influence. Voting education and community engagement initiatives help foster a more fair and decentralized witness voting process.
- Witness voting decay (proposed) ensures active users have greater influence over witness elections.
- Greater accountability and transparency of elected witnesses, with the ability to vote them out if they do not meet expectations.
- These adjustments aimed to create a more decentralized and community-driven governance structure on Hive, directly addressing the governance issues that arose on Steem.
2. Resource Credit (RC) System Improvements
Enhanced Resource Management:Hive improved the Resource Credit (RC) system, which is used to manage bandwidth and computational resources on the network. By optimizing the RC system, Hive ensures that users can perform transactions and interact with the blockchain without paying transaction fees, making the network more user-friendly and scalable.
RC Delegation:
Hive introduced RC delegation, allowing users to delegate their excess RC to others. This encourages new users to engage with the platform without needing to immediately acquire significant amounts of Hive Power. What adjustments were made to resource credits in hardfork 26? In Hardfork 26, several key adjustments were made to the Resource Credits (RC) system on the Hive blockchain to improve the user experience, especially for onboarding new users and enhancing overall network efficiency. These changes were designed to make the system more intuitive and accessible while ensuring a smoother interaction with the Hive blockchain.
Key Adjustments to Resource Credits (RC) in Hardfork 26:
Increased Free Resource Credits for New Users:
More generous initial RC allocation:One of the key adjustments was the increase in free Resource Credits available to new users. This change was implemented to improve the onboarding process by allowing new users to perform more actions (such as posting, commenting, and voting) without immediately needing to acquire Hive Power (HP).
This makes it easier for new users to engage with the platform from the start and reduces friction in their first experiences on Hive.
More Efficient RC Management:
Optimized RC usage:Hardfork 26 introduced optimizations in how Resource Credits are consumed for various operations. This means that certain actions (e.g., posting, voting, transferring tokens) are now more efficient in their RC consumption, allowing users to perform more actions with the same amount of RC.
This adjustment benefits all users, but especially those with lower amounts of Hive Power, as they can now participate more actively without running out of credits quickly.
RC Delegation Enhancements:
Improved RC Delegation:The ability to delegate Resource Credits was enhanced in Hardfork 26. Hive Power holders can delegate their Resource Credits to other users, which is especially useful for supporting new users or dApps (decentralized applications) that require more RC for operations.
This change allows for a more flexible and scalable ecosystem, where larger stakeholders can help onboard or assist smaller accounts without having to transfer Hive Power directly.
RC Market Evolution:
Encouraging an RC Market:The hardfork set the stage for further development of an RC market, where users could potentially trade or lease Resource Credits in a more structured way. This aims to address any temporary RC shortages that users or applications may experience, allowing for more dynamic usage of network resources.
Although the RC market was not fully developed in this hardfork, the improvements lay the groundwork for future growth in this area.
Improved RC Visibility and User Feedback:
Better User Interface for RC:Hardfork 26 also introduced improvements to how users can see and understand their Resource Credits usage. Front-end interfaces such as Hive.blog or PeakD were enhanced to provide more detailed feedback on how much RC each action consumes, helping users better manage their resources and avoid running out unexpectedly.
This improvement in visibility makes it easier for users to plan their actions and better understand the relationship between their Hive Power and available RC.
Summary of Adjustments to Resource Credits in Hardfork 26:
- Increased free Resource Credits for new users to improve onboarding and engagement.
- More efficient RC consumption across various actions, allowing users to do more with fewer resources.
- Enhanced RC delegation to allow Hive Power holders to support new users and dApps more easily.
- Foundation for an RC market, which could allow users to lease or trade RC in the future.
- Improved user interface for better visibility into RC usage and management.
3. Scalability and Performance Upgrades
Hive Hardfork 25: One of the most significant updates, released in June 2021, introduced several performance improvements and new features:- Account Recurrent Payments: Users can now set up recurring payments, making it easier for subscriptions and automatic transfers within the ecosystem.
- Claim Account Operation Improvements: Hive improved its account creation system by simplifying how new accounts can be created and funded through resource credits. This makes it more accessible for new users.
- Block Capacity Expansion: Hive increased its block size capacity, allowing for more transactions per second (TPS) and better scalability to handle large amounts of traffic.
4. Hive Backed Dollar (HBD) Updates
HBD Interest: Hive reintroduced interest on Hive Backed Dollars (HBD), encouraging users to hold the stablecoin within the Hive ecosystem. The interest rate is adjustable through community governance.HBD Savings Feature: Users can now store HBD in a "savings" account, which locks the funds for a certain period but provides them with interest. This incentivizes saving and holding value in the Hive ecosystem.
HBD Stabilization Mechanism: Hive introduced mechanisms to better stabilize HBD’s value relative to the U.S. dollar, making it a more reliable stablecoin option.
5. Second-Layer Solutions and Hive-Engine
Hive-Engine:Hive has developed a second-layer ecosystem through Hive-Engine, which allows users to create, trade, and manage custom tokens on the Hive blockchain. This includes decentralized finance (DeFi) projects, non-fungible tokens (NFTs), and other dApps.
Layer 2 Tokens and Smart Contracts:
The Hive community has expanded on Hive-Engine by offering token creation and the potential for basic smart contract functionality, opening up the blockchain to more decentralized applications and economic models.
6. Development of Ecosystem Applications
Decentralized Social Media Apps:Platforms like PeakD, Hive.blog, and Ecency have continued to evolve, providing user-friendly interfaces and improved content discovery features.
Splinterlands:
A successful blockchain-based card game that operates on the Hive blockchain. Its popularity has contributed to Hive's active user base.
NFTs and Games:
Hive has seen an expansion of NFT projects, gaming applications, and other dApps, enriching the Hive ecosystem.
7. Community and Governance Tools
DAO (Decentralized Autonomous Organization):Hive uses a Decentralized Hive Fund (DHF), which functions as a DAO. The DHF is funded through inflation and community-driven proposals. Users can submit funding proposals, and stakeholders vote to approve or reject them. This ensures that the community directly influences the direction of development and the use of resources.
Proposal System Updates:
Hive has streamlined its proposal system, making it easier for developers and community members to propose changes, seek funding, and contribute to the growth of the network.
8. Security and Resilience
Community-Driven Forks:Hive’s development process is entirely community-driven, with no central authority controlling codebase updates. This makes it more resilient to centralized takeovers or governance disputes.
Security Upgrades:
Ongoing improvements to the security infrastructure of the Hive blockchain, including better handling of vulnerabilities and potential attack vectors, have helped maintain the integrity of the network.
9. Fast and Feeless Transactions
Zero-Fee Model:Hive continues to offer feeless transactions, which remains a competitive advantage over other blockchain platforms. Users do not need to pay gas fees to post, comment, vote, or transact, which enhances the user experience.
High Throughput:
Hive is designed to support high throughput, with faster block times and greater transaction processing capacity, making it a highly scalable platform.
10. Continued Focus on Decentralization
Improved Governance Model:Hive continues to evolve its governance structure to avoid centralization risks. By distributing decision-making power more evenly among stakeholders, Hive ensures that the blockchain remains decentralized.
Community-First Philosophy:
Hive places a strong emphasis on community input and direction, fostering a more open and collaborative atmosphere for development and innovation.
In summary:
Since the Hive blockchain forked from Steem, it has implemented several major upgrades and new features, particularly focusing on improving decentralization, governance, performance, scalability, and community-driven development. The addition of second-layer token ecosystems, HBD updates, scalability improvements, and enhanced security measures has positioned Hive as a vibrant and resilient blockchain network.Hardfork 24 [...] was the initial hardfork that created Hive as a separate blockchain from Steem. It implemented various improvements over Steem, such as removing the influence of certain centralized accounts and transitioning to a fully decentralized governance model.
My understanding of the initial hardfork from Steem was that it was intended to update the bare minimum in order to decentralise the chain and re-establish the community's control before making further changes. The wording above about various improvements makes it sound like there was more to it than that, but I'm interpreting those additional examples as all referring to the same change.
Hardfork 25 [made] adjustments to the downvote pool, making it more effective in combating abuse.
I thought ChatGPT was forgetting crucial updates when I asked Question 2B (above). I didn't hang around for the 3rd or 4th year of Steem after I first heard about the intentions to sell the @steemit account, so I had thought that the downvote power was unique to Hive. I learned through a follow-up question that it was introduced before the Hive fork occurred.
That question is answered quite literally, so it doesn't only take into account the hardfork specific updates, but also any community initiatives too. Here's the list of key features and updates introduced since the fork according to ChatGPT when asked the above prompt:
- Removal of Ninja-Mined Stake Influence
- Improved Witness Voting
- Enhanced Resource Management
- RC Delegation
- Account Recurrent Payments
- Claim Account Operation Improvements
- Block Capacity Expansion
- HBD Interest
- HBD Savings Feature
- HBD Stabilization Mechanism
- Hive-Engine
- Layer 2 Tokens and Smart Contracts
- Decentralized Social Media Apps Platforms like PeakD, Hive.blog, and Ecency
- Splinterlands
- NFTs and Games
- DAO (Decentralized Autonomous Organization): Hive uses a Decentralized Hive Fund (DHF)
- Proposal System Updates
- Community-Driven Forks
- Security Upgrades
- Zero-Fee Model
- High Throughput
- Improved Governance Model
- Community-First Philosophy
So for example, I believe HBD interest was always part of the Steem code, but since the witness consensus was set to 0%, we weren't previously getting any. When I asked the follow up question:
How has HBD interest been improved?
I got this answer that doesn't refer specifically to Hive specific updates:
Hive introduced the ability to adjust HBD interest rates dynamically through witness consensus.
Probably because my question wasn't precise enough and I assumed it would get the context because of my previous questions.
Updating the availability of this interest to Savings only was a smart move of HF26 (2022). I was curious to know if Steem made the same update and so I asked ChatGPT, and this is where the silly robot got confused:
Who implemented this change first? Steem or Hive?
ChatGPT said: Hive implemented the change to pay interest on its stablecoin HBD (Hive Backed Dollar) for savings only first, as part of its ongoing updates and hardforks after the fork from Steem in March 2020. Hive made the adjustment to apply HBD interest only to savings accounts in Hardfork 24, [...] Steem, after the fork, adopted a similar approach later. However, Hive was the first.
I responded with what ChatGPT had previously answered and it replied:
You're right to point out the inconsistency! I previously mentioned that the update to pay HBD interest on savings only occurred in Hardfork 26, but this was incorrect. The change to limit HBD interest to savings accounts only was actually introduced in Hardfork 24 on the Hive blockchain, which took place in December 2020. I apologize for the confusion earlier, and thank you for catching that mistake!
While seeking to understand the HBD Stabilizer proposals in the DHF (which is referred to by ChatGPT as the HBD Stabilization Mechanism), I read through Smooth's blog where I'd already read about an upcoming hardfork which would switch this interest to occur with savings only. With that post being from 2021, I can be sure it wasn't introduced in 2020, even though ChatGPT is insisting that it did...
I found a lot of the examples given to be vague, even when there was the appearance of a detailed answer, so that led to a lot of follow up questions like:
What was introduced in Hardfork 25 to increase HBD stability?
This is where I think I should have expected to read about the dust threshold and sadly that wasn't covered in the answer, which instead included a lot of things that weren't inherently part of the hardfork, such as the stabilizer and (I believe) the interest rates.
The HBD Stabilizer was a critical feature introduced to actively help maintain the HBD peg. It operates as an automated system that:
Buys or sells HBD depending on whether the price is above or below the $1 USD peg.Uses the Decentralized Hive Fund (DHF) to carry out these transactions, ensuring that the blockchain has sufficient liquidity to maintain the peg and counteract any price fluctuations.
This stabilizer mechanism works similarly to central bank interventions in traditional finance, where it buys or sells HBD to manage the supply and demand dynamically and keep HBD as close to $1 as possible.
While it's a good explanation, it's easily misinterpreted as a blockchain update, when in fact it is a community initiative, managed mainly by one witness/stakeholder. Similarly, the Return Proposal also wasn't mentioned until I asked about it in a follow up question. So, sadly & expectedly, I found that although there's a lot I can learn from a few quick searches, ChatGPT does misinform when using it to extract information for education or research purposes. I did find it useful though for setting me on a path with keywords to search for and details to verify.
I'm curious to know your thoughts. Are downvotes being used more practically than before as ChatGPT says? If you find anything within this post to be inaccurate, including what's within the expandable answers to my questions, please add your comments so that I avoid misinformation for myself and anybody coming across this post.
Thanks for reading!
I couldn't fit all I learned or am still verifying into one post, so there may be another!
❤ The following HTML tags were used to make these expandable/collapsible boxes!
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