Whataboutism about crypto volatility should not inhibit us from being able to determine which of the assets is more or less risky, and thus which should be comparatively higher in risk adjusted returns.

I was just pointing out that if you keep your hive liquid that you have a 0 percent opportunity cost risk of it being locked up. Can't get lower risk than that (at least in that respect). HBD is less risky than Hive hence its attractiveness as an investment vehicle when coupled with a relatively high interest rate.

These are mercenary "users" who aside from bringing money (people who buy HP also bring money) don't do anything else, and are only here to get paid. People who buy Hive and then sell it for HBD is absolutely still buying into Hive, but the part which does not make sense is to reward people that much for comparatively (and by this I mean with respect to HP) - this absolutely makes a difference on the perception of incentives.

I'm willing to bet that some who come for the HBD will stay for other reasons. Regardless, HBD is rewarding those who invest in hive. If you want investment in the HIve ecosystem then incentivize investment in the Hive ecosystem. A high HBD interest rate is one way do do that. Stable coins are more attractive for investors, especially when providing relatively high returns. The only other incentive hive has are the apps that are built on the blockchain (which if Hive is to be a massive success are the absolute key). Otherwise, hive as an investment vehicle will never have the attraction that a stablecoin does. There is little incentive for a passive investor to invest in Hive (outside of pure speculation) as you are only getting 3%. My bank account does better. While you can argue that active investment is better, ANY investment is a positive. Other stable coins offer interest rates as high as 14-18%. For HBD to fall below that means it is far less likely to attract that much investment.

If we can raise it by the same margin in a matter of days, then we can also lower it. Nobody is suggesting that we remove interest on it altogether, if it went to 12%, it would at the very least appease people who invested in HP pre-HBD@20

We can do anything. However dropping the interest rate drastically instantaneously risks people dumping HBD. There wasn't much risk of that when raising the interest rate. Besides, what's the rush? Do you think there is a pending disaster immediately on the horizon caused by high interest HBD? If not, drop it one or two percent, let things settle and reevaluate. I don't think appeasement is necessarily the foundation on which such decisions should be based. Besides, nobody is stopping hive investors from trading for HBD or investing in HBD in addition to Hive.

Anyway, for arguments far better than mine for keeping HBD at 20% check out @taskmaster4450/the-apr-on-hbd-savings-should-not-be-lowered and @edicted/hive-has-officially-reached-the-desperation-phase