Honest conversations are usually the hardest to have, especially in an ecosystem where 99.9% of its users have to pander to whales for upvotes. It is no surprise because more than half of the active users on Hive are from second and third-world countries. However, I will speak my mind despite the threats of being cancelled/downvoted for sharing unpopular opinions about Hive, but before I go into that, I have a few genuine questions to ask the community.
How do you feel about the current state of the blockchain?
I have been here since 2018. There are a handful of users who have been here this long. Most of them are going about hive passively--posting (because they are guaranteed upvote). No one cares about the blockchain. Those who do have been forced out through various means, but that's all in the past. The problem now is: What are we doing to grow the hive ecosystem?
I dare anyone to mention 3 dapps on Hive with a thousand active users. Signups are still shitty; there are very few active developers/witnesses who engage the community; content discovery is still shitty, however, we think these issues will resolve themselves. Well, I can bet that they won't, and chances are things would get a lot worse. Remember we were on this trajectory before the hostile takeover that rejuvenated our passion for Hive but that flame has long burned out.
As much as we would like to talk poorly about Steemit (and their antics), Hive/steem blockchain had direction back in the day when they were in charge. We had infrastructural plans; dapps and developers had support to build. Now, we have the DHF which is a joke to me because it is underutilized. I doubt there are a thousand people outside this ecosystem that are aware of its existence. Even active users on Hive don't know as well. With the current structure in place, there is zero chance of small projects getting funded which mitigates innovation and development. This is where we are now as a community.
In addition, and this is something most people won’t say, Hive has one of the worst PR in the crypto space. Getting institutional money into the system is near zero due to the debacle between Justin Sun and Steemit vs The community. The community itself isn't working in unison. We've had several breakaway communities from Hive. Should I also mention that the blockchain has a bad rep amongst the most popular crypto influencers? So explain to me how we plan on getting new people (users, developers, investors, etc) into the ecosystem.
The truth is almost no one knows (or even cares) about how Hive will reach the masses. There are few efforts to get the word out there. Dan is doing his best to promote 3spk and Hive; leofinance is doing the same. Recently I have seen Crimson hosting spaces and AMA for Hive and that is it. Even their effort isn’t supported by the said community because we’ve all become too tribal. We are just creating fractions and badmouthing each other. Has that gotten Hive anywhere? No. It has made Hive harder to grow because projects won't even collaborate. This is the only blockchain where such things happen. Ethereum supports its EVM blockchains. Those EVM blockchains support and build projects on their chain. Projects on those chains collaborate and are compatible with other EVM chains. The case is different on Hive.
When we are not hating on other projects on Hive, we turn to the poor people here who keep our chain active like they are the reason why Hive isn’t doing well. It seems we’ve settled for drama than actually doing the work needed to move this chain forward; it seems many people are comfortable with the way things are and don’t want to change. Well, I am not fine with the state of things on HIve. I see the effort other blockchains and projects are making to get people into their ecosystems. So if we do not have any concrete plan for moving this blockchain forward then I am sorry to say but we are on our way to the bottom.
But we've funded so many projects in the past that amounted to nothing. Why should we take more chances?
This is the most common and ridiculous excuse most people make whenever a new initiative comes on board. My answer to the question is simple: It is simple the prize we have to pay for growth. There isn’t much we have to leverage. I even dare say that the infightings are the major reasons why most communities and projects have failed or left. Dtube? Musing? Steemit? Blurt? Proofofbrain? If splinterlands leaves today it is over! This used to be a blockchain with high-ranking dapps in the crypto sphere, but where are they today?
Sorry to say but this space has become anti-innovative. We’ve scared projects away; we’ve scared communities away; we have scared people away, and for some reason, we think everything is fine. We think the next bull market will come and people will come back (so we can shit on them again).
There are barely two people I know who join Hive in 2018 that are still active on the blockchain. Everyone has moved on or is moving on and I am still holding on to this dream I was sold half a decade ago.
Just four things are keeping me on Hive. The first is hivenaija because I strongly believe in empowering people from my country and giving them a safe space (so they don’t wander around the hive blockchain seeking upvotes from people who see them as sub-human). Secondly, I enjoy writing and this pays the bills. Thirdly, leofinance, because it is the only active space on hive right now, where real development is taking place. Lastly, Dan and 3speak (I am a Dan fanboy. That man has inspired me ever since i heard him speak and as long as he is here I am willing to ride to the end with him).
There are a lot of people who don’t have any reasons to be here asides from their upvote and their stake. There isn’t much of a hive culture to imbibe and when people try to change this they face resistance. At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter how much stake we have if Hive doesn’t grow. Innovation and growths are the product of trial and error, and we need to create a space where new ideas can flourish.
Hive needs to be a safe space for developers and founders; Hive needs to be a safe space for creators; Hive also needs serious marketing. Any effort geared towards promoting Hive or any app isn't a waste. We give people thousands of dollars for posting and upvoting shitty posts no one reads. We can do better things with that money.
Vote for the leofinance DHF proposal for the following reasons:
It is the most active community in the hive ecosystem. The Team is active and engages with the community regularly.
They are building on the Hive.
10,000 new users are going to be added to the hive ecosystem if they succeed.
Marketing is important. There is no successful brand, company, organisation, etc in the world that doesn't have a marketing project.
The DHF is set aside to support projects on Hive and Leofinance is an active project on Hive with a good reputation.
Also, use the leofinance frontend to create your content. They also have an amazing microblogging platform which fosters on-chain interaction.