Never have we been more close to the people behind the blockchain like we are now. Steemit Inc, new and old, was a centralised company that’s hard to reach. Now we are all part of the discussion and decision-making. That’s why it matters that everyone does their part to improve Hive.

What I’m going to cover in this post:

• What does Hive mean to me?
• Why Hive whitepaper is more important than anything
• Hopes for a sustainable Economy
  • Ned & Dan business model
  • Alternative model that is time-tested
• Proposal to the inflation pool allocation

What does Hive mean to me?

Hive is where we can finally have a say on the blockchain’s future. Without a central authority, we open the door for growth in all aspects of Hive. Our voice is actually heard, our needs can be met, our full potential can be realised

What do I want to see HIVE evolve into?

Hive should strive to be a sustainable competing social media platform MINUS the middle man/central authority. This I think should be the focus of our new whitepaper

I really believe that we have to have a common vision first before talking about anything else, a new paradigm that was not created by Ned & Dan 4 years ago.

This is to define where we are going. We don’t want governance with poorly designed constitution. Let’s start with a unique Hive whitepaper. Have wise, smart and experienced people write it e.g, Blockchain designers, engineers, devs, and community members. Then we can go from there.

Old unsustainable business model

I registered in Steem in late 2017. The hype was strong for STEEM. The price was at all time high and it kept going downhill from there and I just … enjoyed the ride. I used to think that Steem was like magic, a money making machine for bloggers, a haven for social media users. it makes money from almost nothing. Now I understand that STEEM had a problem, and my mission is to ensure that Hive blockchain doesn’t run into the same problem.

The economy of Steem is built on a delusion or let’s just call it an overvalued idea. It’s built on deceiving new users that EVERYONE can make money.

“Just be part of the community. Post more, comment more, buy more, HODL and believe in decentralisation... ”

There is no source of value to the blockchain beside more users buying into that notion. People eventually discover that the only way to profit is to be friends with other stake holders, who milk the system while fooling new users into the same trap. Such an unsustainable economy!

Hive should be completely different. Inflation pool is the tax we take from all stake holders (through dilution), this tax should be spent in things that bring us more money in a sustainable way. Not through a pyramid-like scheme.

Alternative model proven & tested for decades

I’m sure most users who use social media don’t use it to make money but for ‘entertainment purposes’. If we want Hive to succeed we should first market it as a place to enjoy (not just earn from).

Regular users want to spend time and enjoy what they are ‘consuming’. Social media platforms cater for them, they honour content creators who can make users come back for more consumption. This way they can harness user traffic to make revenue, which is fair and economically sound.

All successful social media platforms depend largely on advertisement, then other methods like premium subscriptions (Youtube Plus), donations/tips, content promotion, selling digital products (like filters in Snapchat) ... etc

We don't want to remove a time-tested successful business model, we'd like to implement it in a decentralised fashion. Imagine the amount of Hive/HBD that will be bought everyday not for speculation.

What if we have an on-chain donation system, and reward posts based on how much donation they receive. Now look at Trending and tell me how many posts you would tip from your own pocket? Imagine if trending was filled with posts that people actually paid for because they enjoyed it.

How about paywall system (pay to unlock content). I tell you, there are content creators you’ll happily pay for just to read the rest of their post. But our current reward system doesn’t let them shine. We need to reward posts based on how well they bring in donations/content purchases/subscriptions.

We can also fund our smart developers to make a proof of value algorithm that is sybil proof instead of the failed HP-based manual curation. Check for example Lino proof of value algorithm

Let’s introduce a decentralised market for advertisement. Maybe even a market for reposting ads. The ideas are there & plenty. We just have to accept the fact that they are the only way to grow Hive economy.

Would this benefit everyone?

Through fair distribution yes, everyone will benefit except abusers who care only about the short term gains.

Example of how Hive can function:

I’m not an economist, not a mathematician, and not a developer so there is a lot that can be improved on the distribution below.

Donation/subscriptions/content purchases:
90% Authors
10% Staking Reward

Ad Revenue:
60% Authors
40% Staking Reward

Proposal/Polls/SMT creation/.. other fees:
100% Staking reward

Inflation Pool:
30% Authors
10% Apps
10% Witnesses
50% Hive Fund

Hive Fund budget:
50% On chain development
30% Infrastructure
10% Marketing
10% others

Explanation: Posts get rewarded based on purchases/report algorithm and not on stake weighted vote. Curation reward is removed. Stake holders gain instead from the ‘Staking reward’ pool which is directly dependant on content creators performance. This puts a large incentive to invite successful content creators.

Hive Power holders are not meant to be content creators, they are not curators either. They are supporters of the system. They invest in powering up Hive and participate in the governance of the Blockchain and in return they earn ‘staking reward’ based on their participation.

Apps get 10% allocated reward proportional to the 30% Authors reward for posts. Meaning if an author post through an app and his post receive $30. The App account will also receive 10$ not cut from users. This encourages developers to create interesting apps for content creators and their followers, which removes the need for app development crowdfunding.

Hive fund which is 50% should be allocated based on careful budget studying. Chain development will be a priority. Infrastructure & Marketing fund will put the last touch on a successful decentralised business.

Now this is just an example, but I would like to hear what you think about the future of Hive economy & what does Hive mean to you?