In my previous post, I shared how my inability to sleep caused me to get curious about the pages I saw on my hiveblocks.com account. In my curiosity, I checked the last page, which is page 51 at that time and traced the blocks from month of August to October. In this post, I just want to continue what I left off. Originally, I intended to cover the period from November 2021 to January 2022. However, after seeing the size of the material, I just decided to limit my scope from 28 October to 08 December, a total of forty days of blockchain activity.
Blockchain technology is really amazing. Imagine that you can recall the details that you overlooked. I find it exciting! As long as the nodes are actively working, you can trace back anytime your past transactions and activity.
That’s it for the recollection. As already mentioned, my concern now is to review my blockchain activity for forty days. After my first review, 6 more pages were added, and so I will be tracing from page 45 down to page 38, that’s it, from 28 October to December 8.
Reading this post, you will observe that it is like a selective recall of @taskmaster4450’s articles, which I consider significant in the formation of my understanding of blockchain technology, cryptocurrency, and Web 3.0. I intentionally excluded six articles that I interacted with covering the same period. Instead, I will only touch here five articles to limit the size of this post plus a brief overview of three articles related to my personal goals and Splinterlands.
Leaving the Month of October
Reading The Path of Hive published by taskmaster4450 is a good way to end the month of October. In that article, taskmaster4450 reminded us not to be concerned too much about the price drop of Hive in the market. (I think this is a timely reminder now that we are seeing again the price of Hive breaking its 200-day SMA). Instead, we need to shift our mind on two factors that might cause an upward pressure on the market price of Hive and two future projects that will add value to our treasured blockchain. The first factor he mentioned is about the decreasing quantity of Hive stored on exchanges. The second one is about the increase in the demand for Hive Power due to growing activity on the blockchain as demonstrated by the number of accounts created via Splinterlands. Restating his question, if a single NFT blockchain-based game can have such an impact on HP demand, what do you think will happen if more apps and NFT games will follow the same path?
As for the two projects, taskmaster4450 was referring to SPK Network and Project Blank. He firmly believes that SPK Network specially the introduction of Service Infrastructure Pool or SIP will be one of the most important projects that every Hiver must anticipate. Reading that post, I actually re-blogged the light paper for my future reference. Happy to read that with this project, three new tokens were introduced to me: LARYNX, BROCA and SPEAK.
The other project is #ProjectBlank. I am not sure about the role of microblogging in this project whether it is its primary utility or it is just one component in the entire project.
Encountering Hiveio's blog
One good thing about revisiting your past is that you can evaluate and discontinue unproductive activities. Though I ended the month of October with great insight, but I forgot exactly what happened to me after that, which made my first ten days of November like a waste of time. Good thing is that on 11th of November, I stumbled with hiveio’s blog. Though the posts are too technical for me, more whiter papers and four new names were added to my list: Telos, PeerPlays, Amasa, and Scorum.
Analyzing my blockchain activity, I also noticed that beginning 11th of November, my reading of taskmaster’s articles accelerated. From this point, excluding the concluding article, I will just share my personal reflection on three of his articles published between November 15 and 16:
Hunting for Solid Projects
15th of November, taskmaster4450 published an article about learning the lesson from the dotcom era. He clearly stated there the need for discernment among numerous projects that people expect to give them good returns. He classified projects of that time into four different categories. Everyone is searching for the crypto version of Google and Amazon. Reading his classification, my mind is wandering between his first and third category as they relate to Hive. Will Hive be the Google of the future, say 10 years from now? Or will it fall under the third category, which is genuine but deficient when it comes to time, specialization, and money? Of course, none would accept that Hive is overpromising and yet will fail to deliver in the end. We cannot also say that Hive is over inflated as of now.
As for the second category, this reminds me of the three names that I just recently stumbled after reading a post in one of the dapps built on Hive: TITANO, LIBERO, and FINO. The first one claims to be the “best auto-staking and auto-compounding protocol in crypto” promising a 102,483% APY. Libero on the other hand promotes itself as “the best auto-staking + Defi 3.0 multichain farming protocol” with an APY of 158,893%. The last is Fino boasting to be “the hyper deflationary and auto-compounding protocol in crypto” giving a 211,465% APY. Just simply checking their websites, you will wonder which one of them is original for they look like triplets to me.
To distinguish between fiction and fact, one has to focus on solid projects. This is the lesson we learn from the dotcom era where an entity that has kept adding value became the sure winner. And we see such kind of ethos here on Hive. For now, the majority isn’t aware of its existence, but you cannot maintain for long the secrecy of an entity that keeps growing.
Economics of Abundance and City Coins
In the article Hive Showing the Age of Abundance, sorry for my ignorance, but that’s the first time I encountered concepts like “economics based on abundance” and “metaverse”. As everybody knows, the first lesson of economics is scarcity. If Hive’s economics is operating on the basis of abundance, then from the very start, it rules out the first lesson of economics. If this is the case, then the economics of cryptocurrency and Hive in particular is really running against mainstream ideology and culture.
Metaverse too, though it sounds good, but the meaning of the word remains empty to me. Even until now I struggle to understand the term. Ending the above post, taskmaster4450 provided a list of seven articles to read for those who are still confused like me. Every time I encounter new content on Hive and on LeoFinance related to metaverse, my instinct is to either re-blogged it or bookmarked the link for future reading.
Besides private tokens and new crypto-related concepts that I have been learning, the introduction of city coins like Miamicoin and NYCCoin are very surprising for me. For so long, people have been used to the practice that when it comes to civil government, the standard operation is for bureaucrats and politicians to take money from the people. To me, this is something really revolutionary. For the first time, the idea that local governments will distribute a kind of dividends to token holders is something unheard of. Since then, I have been monitoring the number of States that are inclined to adopt the use of digital currency in their monetary policy. So far, I came up now with nine candidates: Miami, New York, Georgia, Tennessee, Wyoming, Arizona, Texas, Florida, and Missouri. That’s already a good number out of 50. Thanks taskmaster4450 for this increasing collection!
Decentralized Finance
Web 3.0 is another new concept that I recently learned. Unlike metaverse, this one is somehow clearer to me. At least, I can explain it in simple terms in case my friends will ask me to clarify what I mean by the term. In Decentralized Finance is Everything, taskmaster4450 reminded us that a better perspective to look at cryptocurrency is from the point of view of technology rather than the financial. Then he mentioned about Web 3.0, which key component is that via the Internet, we will see the value of everything captured and transferred. This will be done through the digitalization of assets that we know in the real world. The current construction of infrastructure by way of coding will lay the foundation for the expansion of the application of decentralized finance into everything. If my understanding is accurate, in his mind, this is essentially the basis for Web 3.0.
Corollary to the above idea of the application of DeFi into everything is the tokenization of everything. And then he added the concept of “attention economy,” which I first encountered while reading a white paper of another blockchain network. The paper describes it as one of our greatest untapped resources. It is compared to a treasure chest in front of social media users that due to people’s failure to see its existence, they also fail to open it and utilize it to their advantage. And the best way to reward people for their attention is through the process of tokenization.
Unlike our existing financial system, which is exclusionary, tokenization is the concrete technological implementation of politicians’ favorite rhetoric: financial inclusion and poverty reduction. That is why I don’t really believe that the parasitical class will fulfill their promises. The door of financial inclusion for everyone has already been opened by way of tokenization, but they call it unsafe and dangerous.
Publishing Two Articles
On the same day, 16th of November, I published my crypto goals for 2022 after reading @empoderat’s article. I shared there how I lost 49% of my capital in the stock market in 2015. That loss led me to study technical analysis. The bleeding of my portfolio stopped. The pandemic year was also profitable for me with a year end ROI of 61.89%. But the reaction of the market to the mutation of the virus into another variant July last year caught me unprepared.
The reason why I published my crypto goals for this year was to keep myself motivated. Only later that I realized that such discipline of writing your goals will also help you in your personal evaluation and growth. Both SPT and LEO at that time were not in my radar. That article received a total incentive of $14.27, the highest so far after three months and 15 days of Hiving.
Seven days after, on 23rd November, I published From Economics to Cryptocurrency. This article narrates my personal journey from my study of economics in 2009 to the shift of my interest to cryptocurrency middle of last year. I shared how my immersion in the basic literature of the Austrian school somehow closed my mind to see the opportunity in blockchain technology and cryptocurrency. Unfortunately, my reading of literature on cryptocurrency for the following two months did not help me to progress in my understanding of the field. I found that listening and reading the articles of content creators here on Hive is more helpful to achieve my goal.
Meeting @theycallmedan
27th of November was the day I stumbled with theycallmedan’s blog. I was surprised that my short comment received a $4.22 incentive. It would be hypocritical to say that I am not attracted or got curious about the man. That’s the highest upvote I received so far for a short comment. Imagine, I wrote something, which I spent considerable time and energy, and yet it ended up with zero incentive. And here is this one, just a comment about a simple tweet and share, and there you have your $4.22! Something isn’t right with how I do things here on Hive. Or perhaps, I really didn’t know the nature of this new technology and how Hive works.
The following day, I started listening to Community Token Talk – The Cutting Edge of Web 3.0 Episode 14. I re-blogged it for me to find it easily. After listening up to the first twelve minutes, I made the following comment:
Just listened to the first video up to 11:54 when you're discussing about the keys. I don't want to pretend that I understand everything you're talking about. As a newcomer to crypto space particularly on Hive, there are really ideas that are beyond me. I admire taskmaster4450's confidence that there is no need to rush and his points on new coins, NFT, and HBD. Did I get him correctly that he is looking forward to see Hive to be on the top 10 among cryptocurrencies? I also love to hear you talk about mass onboarding and Hive's uniqueness compared to other blockchains. Definitely, I will check the links you shared here and will complete the videos as my time allows. Thanks!
This time the upvote is even higher. It’s $8.26! Since then, I kept listening to the succeeding CTT videos. Yes, incentive works, but incentive isn’t everything. There is more to life than incentives. I really enjoy the new insights I glean and also the engagement. Incentive is just an added bonus!
Due to my recent schedule, I think I already missed three CTT, but at the back of my mind, they are part of my tasks in the coming days as my time allows. Regardless whether there is incentive or not, my curiosity to know the latest updates on Web 3.0 is far stronger.
My Splinterlands Story
Though the first ten days of November isn’t that productive, but I am satisfied with my Hive activity beginning the 11th until the end of the month. Two more stories before I end. This time it’s about Splinterlands.
Except from my eldest son who is pre-occupied with Axie Infinity, the four of us including my wife and my two sons have now our Splinterlands and Hive accounts. Still they don’t understand the Hive aspect of what I am doing, but when it comes to Splinterlands, though minimal, I think they’re happy with the performance of their accounts. Our goal now is for my second son to reach Bronze I as soon as possible. Hopefully, I can help him achieve that by the end of the current season. Once all of them reach Bronze I, I will start focusing to upgrade my account to Silver II. I need 20,000 plus collection power to achieve that.
28th of November, my wife commented on our group chat saying: “Oh! Playing Splinterlands requires focus!” I then made this long reply to educate my family:
Actually, NFT or ERC 721 is still on its early stage. Three to five years, we don’t know what will happen to this space? The future is unfolding before us right now via blockchain technology, but most people are unaware of it. Play to Earn blockchain based games is the kind of alternative we need to replace the dishonest monetary system that we currently have. This is the reason why I am focusing on this game. I am grateful to God for using our eldest son to help me see find the missing piece of the puzzle. I have been studying economics since 2009 and I have been integrating it in my financial literacy advocate, but most people are too afraid of something they don't understand. This is not simply a computer game. This is democratizing the monetary system. In our existing system, only the government has the power to create money out of nothing. In blockchain technology, anyone can create money provided there is a value or services behind the crypto coin.
Unlike Axie Infinity, Splinterlands has not gone viral yet. Axie is now an $8.4 B NFT play to earn blockchain based game and has opened the door to other NFT Play to Earn blockchain based games. The market capitalization of Splinterlands as of now is just $166 M. There is still a big space for growth. Imagine if Splinterlands will follow Axie Infinity 3 to 5 years from now and grow into a billion-dollar company, what could be the price of the NFT cards we're holding. A $1 NFT card could shoot up to $10 or more. Splinterlands is not a short-term game. There is a huge potential here if a player will take it seriously and will consider it as an investment. Many players still do not understand the economy of Splinterlands because they are too lazy to read.
First day of December, I published End of Season Card Rewards. In that post, I shared how I received three gold cards worth $18.00, $23.40, and $100.00 respectively. The last gold card added 2,500 to my collection power. That was the card that helped me reach Bronze I.
Not a few are worried at that time saying that NFT was already in a bubble. I agree with many here on Hive that NFT blockchain based games are still at its early stage for most people are still clueless how this thing works. Failing to understand the technology behind it, many would think that blockchain based game is a new form of Ponzi scheme. I actually watched a video of someone who argued that this is the case. He claimed to be a lawyer, an IT, and even a gamer himself, and yet he came up with such a baseless conclusion. As for me, if someone would ask me what do I think about Splinterlands, I would make the same reply I made in that post: Splinterlands is a convergence of five different domains (or perhaps more) – logic, mathematics, art, finance, and entertainment!
Conclusion
I started this post with taskmaster4450’s article. Let me end with another article that he published last 7th of December. It’s about 10 Ways to Be Successful on Hive.
He mentioned about the importance of community and engagement. Also, of long-term perspective, consistency, and dedication. But I think the most important means among them is focus. In fact, other means to success are somehow related to this kind of mind. Long-term perspective, consistency, dedication, and ignoring the market price, distraction, and the noise can all be achieved with a focused mind. I forgot who made this acronym, but I think it captures the meaning of the term – Follow One Course Until Successful! If you can do it until 2027, I think there is no reason for you not to be successful on Hive!
If reading this article got you curious about Hive, Splinterlands, and LeoFinance, check the following links: