Understandings on Investment In 'Proof of Brain' Networks Such as Steem & Hive. Greatness In, Greatness Out.

Is Hive, the new fork of the STEEM blockchain, a 'good investment'? Here are a few reasons to rethink some of the prevailing perceptions about both STEEM and thus also HIVE.

Since the beginning of STEEM, some have commented that investing in a system with STEEM's design is unwise since, for one, the constant inflation means tokens will devalue unless the network continues to expand. Since the network cannot expand infinitely, there may come a time where the system is forced into decline and people lose money. A counter position to this, in my mind, has been that if such a network expands to the point where it can't grow any more, then it has also become the biggest social network on the planet. As a result it will be abundantly able to evolve and grow in other ways at that point - meaning that investments should benefit as a result, not lose out.

Proof of Brain requires a brain!

A more pressing point of contention, though, has been how the post rewards on these blockchains get handed out and the fact that the reward pool relies on inflation that causes tokens to devalue. It is key to grasp that there is a fundamental aspect to 'proof of brain' that gets missed.

'Proof of brain' was originally sold as being a way for a crowd of people to reach consensus on the subjective value of shared content such as blogs or multimedia. The collective voting on posts is part of the process of reaching that consensus. Unfortunately, the invasion of bidbots completely destroyed any meaningful value to this idea and so the network started to fail as soon as the short term greed of bidbot operators took over (note: some of the people responsible for this are currently top 20 witnesses today). Regardless, this only served to further obscure the nature of 'proof of brain' and what investors need to consider before valuing a system such as STEEM or HIVE.

In reality, the basic proof or brain mechanism is a kind of contest where people can bet on their own creativity. You buy tokens, make content and try to get upvoted so that you earn more than you put in. If your content isn't great or if you aren't upvoting great content, then you aren't manifesting 'proof of brain' and you will find it difficult to gain new tokens. Without gaining new tokens, there is a chance that your investment will go down. In short, these networks depend on great content being added, drawing eyeballs and expanding as a result. Any user who doesn't add to this process in a valued way will likely hinder the process of the network's valuation. You can't get something for nothing in a system like this and actually, that's a great thing.

Beyond the issue of creating great content, people need to get creative to make a profit.

If the idea of uncensored social networking gains appreciation, then it can compete with Facebook and become huge. This possibility is also what investors are betting on. So by promoting the nature of freedom and free will, through education and by living from example, we can further increase the value of Hive. STEEM seems to very much be going in the opposite direction at the moment, as witnessed by Justin Sun's continued direct censorship of decent.

We also still need to go through the ongoing class action lawsuit (Hive account@jpbliberty) to try to resolve the mega networks' underhanded (illegal) tactics that precipitated the crypto crash that began our current extended bear market.

The bigger picture regarding Hive's future is complicated, but the more we learn about it, the more power the community has to improve it.

Garbage in, Garbage out needs to become Greatness in, Greatness out ;)

Wishing you well,
Ura Soul

I am founder of a Digital Marketing Agency called Hive account@crucialweb. We aim to help our clients to grow and innovate online and are passionate about decentralised technology. Get in touch if you'd like to work with us.