Rosarito eh?
If you were to ask me about any other city in which HiveFest was hosted over the years... I wouldn't be able to tell you. In fact I may have even engaged in actively ignoring the event. Could be interesting to go back in time and look at the posts I was writing during previous HiveFests. I guarantee I've never written a post about HiveFest, which I'm now realizing is super odd behavior considering the entire point is extroverted in nature: creating communities and even entire economies.
The reason for this is probably some kind of combination between extreme introversion fused with the inability to actually attend the event. Maybe if it was hosted on the East Coast we'd be having a different conversation. I not 100% sure but I seem to remember that it was hosted here at one point. Then again I was living in California at that time so there is that.
I actually went to college at SDSU (San Diego State University). It's weird to think if I still lived there it would only be a 45 minute trip across the border to get there. Pretty wild. Of course back in those days you didn't even need a passport to cross the border as an American citizen, so you might say it's been a while.
Pointless side-story:
I remember this one time we took a friend to Tijuana and really hyped up how insane the taxi drivers are down there. During that specific trip our particular taxi was quite tame, and our buddy was quite disappointed and thought we were bullshitting him. So on the way back to the border we tipped our taxi $20 to drive "extra crazy"... and this guy did not disappoint. It was like a car chase from a movie scene. Oh yeah also the taxis don't have seatbelts, lol. Luckily they were built like tanks back in those days. Of course now I just feel like an old man telling some off-topic story from a time long past. Punk college kids performing punk college kid shenanigans.
What was I talking about again?
I see a lot of naysayers on Hive calling it a dead platform. So I'll see someone create a post and then the comment on that post will be "Hive is dead" and then a conversation ensues about how Hive is dead or not. I feel like I shouldn't have to explain why that's kind of funny and ironic.
These types of voices seem to get a lot more attention during bear markets where the price is near all time lows (along with the active userbase). After all we are down 90%+ from the last peak, and only a 17% dip away from local bear-market lows.
Certainly it is true that Hive is a very small niche community that is largely disconnected from the world of Bitcoin & EVM technology. Hopefully this is a temporary embarrassment, and coincidentally enough this is exactly what's being talked about on the YouTube livestream of HiveFest. Creating a bridge to other networks (even just liquidity bridges and permissionless exchange) is a pretty important development.
Then there are those that claim that Hive is a plutocracy unilaterally controlled by the biggest stakeholders. These elites in turn flex their power and use their influence to further aggrandize themselves, essentially exploiting the poor for their own benefit just like the legacy system we are trying to replace.
This is a particularly hard viewpoint to engage with because it runs completely contrary to my own personal experience on the platform. Anyone can click on the trending tab and see the posts with the biggest payouts. I tend to make the cut quite often. You know who I don't see on trending? The biggest stakeholders and witnesses.
Sure, every once and a while a dev will post about all the work they did over the last two months, and posts like that can get massive payouts. They're also few and far between and often well-deserved. Point being is that I often don't see much evidence backing up what a lot of users are worried about, so it's difficult to take seriously even when these issues are obviously possible and shouldn't be casually dismissed.
What exactly do you say to someone who assures you that Hive is failing when your own personal experience is a modest amount of success? Tough dialog, that. It's also hard to take seriously when these same people claim that Hive is on the verge of complete systemic failure and collapse. As someone who lived through the 2019 bear market rampage it's pretty obvious that we aren't even close to that level of desperation.
Point being that seeing pictures and watching the conferences from the ongoing HiveFest make it even more difficult to be bearish on the network. Yeah... we're a very small band of rebels and certainly things could have worked out better up to this point, but we have what we have, and what we've got is a pretty dedicated and zealous community willing to make sacrifices to keep this thing we got going. Of course such dedication can also be spun into a story of "blind delusion". All just a matter of perspective I suppose.
Conclusion
Now is not a very timely moment to have a defeatist attitude. It is very difficult to guess where this is all going, both on the Hive side and just crypto in general. Surely we have to expect there will be many more hardships and hurdles to overcome over the next decade, but is there really another option other than to carry on and keep grinding forward? In a weird way I see HiveFest as an expression of this inevitable fate. Keep grinding forward, fam.
I have read many opinions about Hive, some good and some bad, so I decided to dedicate more time to the platform and have my own opinion and something that is very real is that it is the only one, at least for Venezuela, that has lasted so long even with the unsubscribes, many others have disappeared, Hive continues to grow and with more options, now I am delighted with LIKETU, in terms of preferences, just see that the publications that receive rewards are very varied from new people, different countries, topics and experience in community.
In addition to the internal work HIVE is a community that moves into the real world and creates experiences to share, some not as adventurous as the Tijuana taxi ride ha ha ha, but it is still rewarding to belong to a growing system.
THANK YOU
It’s cool to see a bunch of people at the festivities. I don’t know if I would even go to an event an hour away to doxx myself to a bunch of people lol. Then again I could just put a bullshit tag on my thing. I guess I’ll need to create an alter ego now for the next hive fest in case it pops up nearby lol.
I think we are certainly at a pivotal time in the platform and one where we can crab walk for a while longer or jump off and do some good shit. At any rate though, I have faith in the way forward. Or I’m just delusional, but let’s ride this shit out!
Hm yes I've thought about that as well I'm not sure if I would go as myself.
Although they'd probably figure it out.
I doubt that it will ever be in the US. Too many Hivelandians would not be able to get visas.
Ah damn. Yeah I guess Mexico is about as close as it gets, eh?
From what I've been seeing to be brutally honest would be the start of something great. Hive right now feels like the startup companies I've worked with over the years. They are that small group of very hard working people looking to expand and grow. Filled with mistakes, learning opportunities and often a hard time figuring out what is going right and sticking to those things that are working right.
We are seeing right now just the start of real development and building which should hopefully expand with more developers and also value and by value I'm going to say it on the business front and that's $ dollars. Dollars matter in all of this. You can work you butt off as much as you want and develop some rather cool things or things you think people should want but at the end of the day if it doesn't drive dollar value and new users then it's a failed project as simple as that.
My hopes are this is the turning point of all of that and we start to build a more supportive ecosystem that is not so hell bent on saying NO ADS, NO REVENUE. Content creators create content on all of these other web2 platforms and bring their audience and that audience then sticks around because of that content because it's generating them revenue. A content creators job is producing content for others to interact with it's their job. So if you can't bring the dollar value into that fold you're going to have one hell of a hard time with any real massive growth. What's awesome about hive and layer 2 on hive is the fact that all of that money goes back to content creators AND users. So here's to hoping we start to see that shift and solid growth on all fronts of hive. I think 3speak is doing a great job in terms of decentralizing things which is no easy task and that does have value in itself but there's also other sides to all of that from other front ends that bring their own value.
I'll be making a post on this sooner or later.
The only way to scale something is if it can pay to scale itself.
Altruism is powerful but it can't grow past a passion project.
Even billionaires can't force networks/companies to scale like that.
Thank you for sharing this post. It was a good read. I see it like you. Consistency is the key to success. So let's hive on to the next web3 hype! 😎🦉
I was a big fan of the virtual experience we had during the plannedemic. Because not all of us can travel like that. I think we should have more local events to try and help drive participation in the network. I don’t know, just a thought.
All good points, Hive is not dead, some people just have a defeatist mentality. I call them the Karen’s of Hive, 😂
Hive should not be seen as a dead platform and the truth is that a lot of us have invested money in here so calling it a dead platform will not be a good idea.
We all should work hand in hand to make things better and also make the platform grow bigger.
That's the goal
I loved the last Hivefest (first one that I've attended), and will definitely try to join a future one. I can live with this amount of "deadliness". ;)
honestly, I haven't heard this doom talk about Hive. What I see is a 10k+ community, one of the best tech and weekly dev updates. Does that look like a failed/dead chain? It's probably in the top 10 of crypto projects
It may be a testament to the power of downvotes and their ability to make certain players extremely jaded while projecting their personal experience onto the entire chain.
There is always this category of people who consider everything being dead when crypto market is down, including trading websites, coins, blockchains, and so on. But it's just a category of people who don't matter too much anyway in this field, lol
Hive has a lot to do with your content and not your personality most times. For instance, I have won the #BeerSaturday by @detlev a couple of times and I am not a whale in the Hive blockchain. So, those who believed only stakeholders have higher payout needs to have a rethink because they are wrong
Cheers
Well, I'm sure we all are on the right track 'cause we are making history. Whether at Hive or the cryptocurrency market, this is all part of the revolution.
I was pained I miss this year edition
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Desperation usually ends up well for those who can weather the storm. I think now is the best time to invest and engage. Building relationships with those who are willing to weather the storm with you will be the strongest connections.
Very encouraging report.
I appreciate you taking the time to share your perspective on HiveFest and the current state of the Hive community. It's always interesting to hear thoughts from an active community member. However, I couldn't help but feel your post had a few issues in terms of balance and tone.
For starters, the beginning focuses mostly on your own lack of engagement with past HiveFests, which comes across as a bit self-centered. I'm sure others have found value in the events even if you personally ignored them. And the tangent about your college days in San Diego, while colorful, didn't seem especially relevant.
When you move on to addressing Hive's critics, the passive aggressive jabs stood out. For example saying it's "funny and ironic" that people would claim Hive is dead in Hive posts. Just because you disagree doesn't make their view absurd. And implying those concerned about plutocracy must be ignorant of the trending page seems dismissive. Reasonable people can look at the same platform and draw different conclusions.
Your own success on Hive doesn't negate others' critiques. And arguing the network is fine simply because it hasn't fully collapsed yet sets the bar awfully low. "Hey, we're still limping along!" is hardly a rousing call to action.
I appreciate your message of persistence, but the overall post came across as a bit too self-referential and petty. You admit Hive is a small niche community, but one wouldn't know it from the sweeping proclamations about potential and inevitability. For a more balanced take, acknowledging shortcomings as well as strengths is key. No platform is perfect, and even supporters can be realists rather than just cheerleaders.
Perhaps in the future, consider focusing more on substantive issues and solutions, not just deflecting or mocking criticism. There may be valid concerns beneath the surface. And passive aggressive jabs, however cleverly worded, rarely change minds or illuminate. There's room for optimism about Hive's future without whitewashing its flaws or belittling dissenters. A bit more magnanimity could go a long way.
Just some constructive feedback from an outsider's perspective. I appreciate you sharing your inside view, but hope to see an increased focus on nuance and coalition-building going forward. Thriving communities find ways to honestly engage critiques rather than simply swatting them down.