Hello friends @LeoFinance, this is my first post here and still a newbie in the Hive environment.
I have been taught recently that a person should not look at Hive in comparison to jobs earning fiat currency– the two are completely different. The post title seems funny isn't it? Or maybe it's just me,a novice in these things. So please enjoy the education I got few days ago from an elderly American friend of mine.
It is common knowledge now how in recent times, the investment and technology worlds have become a bee-hive of cryptocurrencies, blockchain apps, and related ventures. In spite of the many out there, a certain digital currency has held the attention of the public more than any other: bitcoin (BTC). Of a truth many investors today consider bitcoin to be the original cryptocurrency. It may be recalled that it was founded in 2009 by a programmer (or, possibly, a group of programmers) under the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto. Bitcoin undoubtedly ushered in a new age of blockchain technology and decentralized digital currencies.
Even so they should never have started calling crypto's a currency,the term "cryptocurrency" is too misleading.
So what's the gist here? Let's delve in.
When you own a crypto,you own part of a network and that ownership gives you the right to use whatever applications are on that network. If the application of that network is to make purchases in a store for goods or services then you could say that it replaces currency, but it is not a currency itself, it is simply trading value for value, making it more like a barter item than a government issued currency. When we earn tokens on Hive we can barter them for some other crypto or for a currency. If we save our Hive rewards by converting them into voting power or something[ please I am quite new and don't know the terminologies here ], then we are investing them into the network and putting them to work supporting network security. They become our "Proof of Stake" which identifies us as network guarantors entitled to voting rights. We are also investing in the network believing that our network will grow and gain value in the future.
So for those who are converting their earningsto voting power or influence; they not only have a desire to earn more Hive rewards, they are saving their earnings in hope that the network will grow and that one day their earnings will be much more valuable than they are currently. It is a risk, because if the network fails to grow or if it becomes too small to self support itself it will die, but if it grows and becomes a huge project with widespread adoption then it will become much more valuable.
I can imagine we have content creators like myself on one side of things, developers on another and investors on yet another side.
Well as you may expect,it is my immediate desire, at least for newbies like me, to have investors around who have chosen to save a substantial part of their earnings within the network and work to help same grow. It becomes a win-win situation for all as the network expands with various tribes bubbling with activity. Have a blessed day.
cheerfully...