My purpose in creating today’s post is not to criticize any other platform at all, and I hope you are all doing well. Today, I was doing some research, and a question came to my mind. Just as Hive Blockchain was created, was there any attempt to create other blockchains, or did other people have similar thoughts? If we talk about a society, every person has a different way of thinking. Sometimes people agree with each other’s thoughts, but sometimes they have their own new opinions. I had the same question in my mind: was there any attempt to create another platform, or did any platform come that was successful like Hive Blockchain? If it did come, why did it come, and why did it fail or succeed? This was the question. So, I researched this topic, and I felt that I should post about it. That is why I wanted to write this post.
I LOVE #PAKISTAN..
Well, it is also important to clearly state that I am not giving my own opinion in this post. I am writing it based on the current research available online. If any of my seniors are already on this platform or were on Steem before, and then joined Hive Blockchain, that is their experience. When Hive was created, I was neither associated with this platform nor with its team. I joined about a year and a half ago, so I do not know all of these events firsthand. If someone else does, they probably know better than I do what actually happened. If anyone notices any mistakes in this post, they are welcome to point them out in the comments. My sole aim is to understand this topic, and this post is being written based on available sources, not my personal opinion.
Well, if we think about whether there have been attempts to create such a blockchain, the straightforward answer is yes. Then the second question arises whether it failed or Succes.
Well, when I researched this, I came to know that out of more than nine (09+) such attempts to create a blockchain, only a few were successful and most of them were completely dead and some remained within a small circle. Now I will discuss all of the nine one by one and we will see why they failed and what was the reason for their creation.
✅ 1️⃣ Hive (SUCCESSFUL)
Forked from: Steem
Launch: March 2020
Website: https://hive.io
Block Explorer: https://hiveblocks.com
Status: ✅ Active & Growing
Hive Blockchain was launched in March 2020 and is essentially a fork of Steem. Its primary goal was to create a free and decentralized, community-driven platform, especially after Justin Sun attempted to take over Steem. The main reason behind Hive’s success was that the majority of the Steem community migrated to Hive, and top developers and witnesses also supported it, ensuring strong governance and smooth development. Its clear vision, focus on community empowerment, and decentralized approach helped it grow rapidly. Today, Hive is an active and successful blockchain ecosystem where both users and developers can participate equally.
⚠️ 2️⃣ Blurt
Forked from: Steem
Launch: 2020
Website: https://blurt.blog
Block Explorer: https://blocks.blurt.blog
Status: ⚠️ Active but very small
Blurt Blockchain was launched in 2020 and, like Hive, is also a fork of Steem. Its goal was to provide a fast and censorship-resistant blogging platform, but it did not gain strong community support like Hive. Blurt’s growth remained limited because the majority of the Steem community did not migrate, and the platform did not have a clearly defined unique use case. Additionally, the momentum in development was low, which is why Blurt is still active today, but with a very small and limited community.
⚠️ 3️⃣ Golos
Forked from: Steem
Launch: 2016
Focus: Russian-language community
Website: https://golos.io
Block Explorer: https://golosblocks.com
Status: ⚠️ Mostly inactive
Golos Blockchain was launched in 2016 and was essentially a fork of Steem, but its focus was on the Russian-language community. In the beginning, it seemed promising for the local audience, but regional limitations, as well as internal governance and funding issues, prevented it from sustaining growth. The platform’s long-term sustainability was weak, which is why today Golos is mostly inactive and was unable to achieve global adoption.
❌ 4️⃣ Smoke Network
Forked from: Steem
Focus: General blogging platform
Website: https://smoke.io
Status: ❌ Dead
Smoke Network was a fork of Steem and was intended to function as a general blogging platform. However, it failed to offer anything new or distinctive, and over time users moved toward Hive and other alternatives. As a result, Smoke Network gradually lost its relevance and is now inactive. If you visit its website today, you will find that the domain has expired and is listed for resale, which clearly reflects the platform’s decline and past inactivity.
❌ 5️⃣ WhaleShares
Forked from: Steem
Focus: Influencers and whales
Website: https://whaleshares.io
Status: ❌ Dead
WhaleShares was also a fork of Steem, with its focus on influencers and whales. It was initially designed to attract high rewards. However, the platform’s reward system favored only the whales, which made it difficult for new users to participate and left them feeling that their role was limited. Due to this centralization and the exclusion of the broader community, WhaleShares eventually failed and is now inactive.
❌ 6️⃣ DTube Independent Chain (Planned – Cancelled)
Originally built on: Steem → Hive
Website: https://d.tube
Status: ❌ Independent blockchain cancelled
DTube was originally built on Steem and later migrated to Hive. There were plans to create an independent blockchain for DTube, but the project was eventually canceled. The technical complexity was very high, managing funding and infrastructure was challenging, and the developers were concerned about potentially losing existing Hive users. As a result, the independent blockchain project for DTube failed, and today it continues to operate on Hive.
Note
I want to make it clear that I have been using Hive Blockchain for over a year. I have seen posts about ThreeSpeak, but I have not come across any posts about DTube on Hive. I do not have confirmation whether it is still on HiveBlog, Steem, or an independent chain. However, according to the current information available online, it appears to be on the Hive Blockchain. I cannot confirm this personally, as I have not seen any posts about it and have not investigated it in depth. If you are interested, you are welcome to research it yourself.
⚠️ 7️⃣ LeoFinance Independent Chain (Idea Only)
Built on: Hive
Website: https://leofinance.io
Status: ⚠️ Still Hive-based (no fork)
LeoFinance was originally built on Hive, and there was an idea to create an independent blockchain. However, it was never forked. Hive’s strong governance and established network made an independent chain unnecessary. The risks of forking outweighed the potential benefits, and Hive’s network effects and community support were sufficient for LeoFinance. As a result, it has remained Hive-based and continues to operate successfully.
❌ 8️⃣ ChainBB (Forum-Based Chain)
Based on: Steem codebase
Website: https://chainbb.com
Status: ❌ Inactive / Dead
ChainBB was a forum-based blockchain built on the Steem codebase. Its focus was on discussion forums and community interactions, but it failed to achieve strong community adoption. Faced with the dominance of the Hive ecosystem and its better governance, ChainBB could not compete and is now inactive.
❌ 9️⃣ Dozens of Small Steem Clones
Type: Copy-paste Steem blogging chains
Status: ❌ Almost all dead
The final category includes dozens of small Steem clones that were essentially created by copying the Steem code to make new blogging chains. The common problem with these chains was that only the code was copied communities did not migrate, and they lacked a unique vision or strong leadership. Without funding and active developers, these chains could not survive in the long term, and today, almost all of them are inactive.
📊 Quick Summary Table
| Project | Forked From | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Hive | Steem | ✅ Successful |
| Blurt | Steem | ⚠️ Small |
| Golos | Steem | ⚠️ Inactive |
| Smoke | Steem | ❌ Dead |
| WhaleShares | Steem | ❌ Dead |
| Others | Steem | ❌ Dead |
What I learned from my research today and I hope you take the same lesson is that everyone thinks differently. There were a few projects that we noticed or had publicly available data about. But there are likely ideas that people were working on privately, or projects for which there isn’t enough public information, which is why we don’t know about them. Those who succeeded like LeoFinance, DTube, and one or two others made the right decisions at the right time. They either adapted, went back, or made small changes that helped them succeed to some extent. On the other hand, those who rigidly stuck to their original plan or rules without adapting mostly failed. In fact, looking at the broader picture, about 90 percent of these projects did not succeed.
