Reach

Well, there is no point talking about actual numbers of active hive users. But if we really want to, there is matrix of publications by Hive account@dalz and Hive account@penguinpablo. As per pablo's latest post there are about 10,000 accounts daily transacting on hive on average. We all know many of them are alts, quite a few are gaming only, some are bots and holding accounts. If we take all that out, my wild guess of unique active human users will be perhaps 5000 to 6000, give or take.

Like I said, the actual number does not matter. If we are within the same order of magnitude, we are okay. Meaning, I think we can agree, that current active users on Hive is perhaps within 1,000 to 10,000 unique individuals (perhaps more closer to 10,000). We can also agree, that as a social media platform, these are dismal numbers. My daughter's school PTO (parent - teacher organization) has more members! Houston's Pokemon Go meet-up has more members (yes, present day, when the game is considered dead or dying).

Source

So here is the fact. We don't have reach. And no, it doesn't take 4 years to build. Many social media companies have come, thived and gone in 4 years time. No we don't get extra credit just because we are decentralized or crypto. Mind you, I am not self-destructive, just self-critical. I have not sold a single hive I bought, and majority of my hive will remained powered up. But at the same time, we have to talk about the facts. Burying our head in the sand won't solve the problem of reach.

On-boarding

This is a true-story. Recently a friend expressed some interests in opening an account on hive. Yeah! Imagine the odds!! I explained that I write content regularly these days, and been active on this blockchain since early 2018. So I said naively to my friend, yeah, come on in, I will hook you up!!

Then he asks ... okay.. I am ready, how do I open an account? And immediately my limb went COLD! I froze for a few seconds, then typed hive.io ! And landed into this join link!

https://signup.hive.io/

And again I froze!! Damn! There are 11 ways to sign up!!!

I still texted the link to my friend. He opened the link on a web browser, and closed the page in 2 seconds. That was the end of the conversation.

This is a FACT. I am not making up this story.

2nd Layer Tokens

There is a discussion that several dapps and second layer hive engine tokens are doing much better than hive. dapps like 3speak, Ecency etc; tokens and platforms like Leo and https://leofinance.io/ ; games like Hive account@splinterlands and game tokens like DEC comes to mind. They are all successful within the ecosystem. But what is their reach outside the ecosystem?

I understand several projects are starting, in-flight, or have reached certain level of maturity. But reach outside the hive ecosystem remains low.

I was discussing this with another friend and I quote without mentioning the name... this person is a prolific writer and blogger and been in hive for 5 months...this is what he says when I asked for his impressions of hive after 5 months..

I think it's a mixed bag like everything else. I like the clean, not distracting look of user profile and how neatly the posts appear. Reminds me of old community blogs. I like that unlike other social media, Hive is not addictive by itself. And of course, I like the rewards and hive being a gateway to crypto to me. I don't like the low reach of posts. I also don't like that despite its attempts, hive isn't doing a great job as a social platform. It's mostly reward farming. Which may sound ugly and I could be wrong. But that's my impression.

Remember, these are not my words, but I couldn't put it in a better way. Especially, the farming part. We all like the rewards, but what are we doing really? We like each others post, yeah sure! We comment to each other, we created a sense of community and we reward each other for it (from thin air!.... no from reward pool). But then, what? Except a few, majority sell the rewards in the open market. Guess what happens to the price, when we do that? Nah!... please don't answer that :)

Solutions

1. We must market, professionally. The one best thing we have, feeless fast transaction. In the world of slow and expensive BTC and gas powered ETH; we are light-weight and free

2. A simple sign up. Just one option..... please! Dapps can have their own (which they do)

3. More apps, and games on the platform

4. Curation. Yes, long curation window please!

Source: @theycallmedan 's poll result for curation window

There can be more. Please mention them in the comments and hopefully we will be able to discuss this during the hive fest. Maybe there is some breakout sessions planned by Hive account@roelandp?

Disclaimer: This is NOT professional advice, this is all just my own opinion and experience. I am NOT a Certified Financial Adviser. Consult professionals for any financial, accounting or legal related questions you have.

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