I don't know if many people have noticed, but there has been a little UI change at Peakd that is quite interesting. Can you see the difference in the first two pictures below of the same post?

Peakd:

LeoFinance:

For those paying attention, the second is showing the downvotes, but the first is not. For those who might have got votes from various larger accounts, they will have also noticed perhaps that they have also got downvoted by an "x" account soon after. The x account has very little HP and the downvote is worth dust, but there are many of them out there trailing larger curators. Doesn't have LEO staked either by the looks of that grab.

But, as you can see from the image below, Peakd hasn't got rid of showing downvotes entirely, as they still appear for example, when I downvoted this despicable person below.

There they are, still showing.

So, what Peakd has apparently done has created a blacklist of downvoting accounts that they do not want to have show on their interface. I italicized "their" because that is what it is - a private interface and as such, they can do as they please with the UI of it. However, while the downvotes from some accounts are hidden from view, this doesn't stop the downvote from happening at the blockchain level and if these "x" accounts had HIVE POWER behind them, they would still be removing value.

This is a good thing to remember and highlight, because what Hive enables is to have an open protocol that houses a tokenized governance economy upon it, as well as many capabilities for a single community at the core layer - while simultaneously having a "free to own" secondary layer that anyone can build upon. While the second layers still have to adhere to the current rules of the chain, they are free to act and develop as they see fit for their community above.

This is also why the complaints about downvotes being censorship doesn't hold up, because everything is committed to the blockchain, which is open for all to view. Every interface however is privately owned and operated, and each can present the blockchain as they see is suitable for their users. This is the same for hive.blog - it isn't public.

This means that anyone with a little gumption can build an interface that looks at the information stored on the blockchain and bring it to the second layer surface, showing it as they choose. As I have said many times, if someone wants to have an interface that only shows downvoted content and negative rep users, they can - they could have the "Bizarro Trending" for example, where the most downvoted posts of the day are at the top.

Of course, the people who complain about "censorship" are actually complaining about earnings. These are two very different things.

However, I quite like that more and more, there is differentiation between the interfaces and each are moving in ways that look to support their user community. This means that there can be independent business growth and direction, whilst still expanding the reach of the primary platform underneath. In time, this becomes a very valuable ecosystem with all kinds of models (including tokenization), with the core layer being the stability protocol that ties them together. The importance of this and the decentralization of the underlying governance structure is very important, because it gives "protection" to investor, developer and user alike.

It is easy to focus on the rewards alone, but there are all kinds of questions asked and conversations being had that I feel are going to start being increasingly picked up by the mainstream narrative. They already are of course, where for example Twitter has been looking into decentralization and tokenization for a few years, but can't find a way to get it to work - and maintain their centralized control. See the issue there?

Obviously, no business wants to give its power to its users unless there is profit in it and this is why Hive works as it does, because there isn't profit in it at the blockchain level, all the value is derived through the community itself. Yes, money can be made, but the Hive blockchain isn't a business, it is just a set of code that enables its users to create value for themselves. Not everyone sees the gravity in this, but I hope that in time people will realize the opportunity they have to be part of what will hopefully be a healthier economy and world in general.

The development of the blockchain capabilities to attract, house and enable varied
business models to quickly build, scale and be successful on the second layer is of paramount importance, because when that lightning strike of shifting consumer sentiment happens, the blockchain has to be aligned and ready to take that energy and turn it into value.

I like all these little changes happening all of the time throughout the various interfaces and communities I use - as small changes can make big differences to user experience. This place is compelling to say the least, but perhaps for me, a little addictive.

We all have our vices.

Taraz
[ Gen1: Hive ]