It is easy to fall victim to negativity and doom, especially at this time.
There is no doubt 2020 was a difficult year for many. To be truthful, 2021 is not going to be any better. We are facing disease, famine, war, and certainly a lot more deaths. It is not a pretty situation.
At the same time the global economy is collapsing. The "Great Reset" is underway. Their two part plan of destroying the economy so they can rebuild it is on track. Well, at least the first part is taking shape; we will see how much of the second really happens.
Some are projecting, in the West, that we are in for a period that is even worse than the Great Depression. During that time period, there were some countries that held up better than others, meaning they could turn somewhere for help. Now, this is not the case. All of Europe is suffering and only going to see things start to freefall. The United States is barely hanging on. Put it all together to conclude where all this is going.
Now that we got that part of the gloom out of the way, it is time to shift our focus. Certainly, we cannot ignore the problems of the world as they are unfolding. To do so would be insane. Instead, we acknowledge what is there yet cannot let it consume us. It is time to turn to what is going to prosper in the coming year.
It is vital to remember the gloomers, over the long term, tend to be wrong. In the end, they only are miserable. Does anyone recall that hole in the Ozone about 40 years ago which was going to kill us? How about how Bush, Obama, Trump, or fill in any President was going to end America? For more than 30 years we heard how the fiat based system was going to collapse.
We often hear the same things. Sure, over time, things do happen. Life is full of cycles, something that is well understood in the East. In the West, where linear thinking tends to dominate, permanence in mindset appears to be the norm.
Within all situations, there are opportunities. During the Great Depression, some household names were started. Not exactly the time most would choose to start a company that would generate trillions in revenue over the decades but that is what happened.
Even with a collapsing global economy, we are going to see tens of trillions in global commerce taking place. This means that much of society will keep operating. The question is how many people actually share in it.
When times are going well, human tendency is not to change things. We opt for the status quo. After all, who wants to rock the boat? This is true for companies as well as individuals. As soon as things turn bad, it is a different story. Companies immediate start to lay people off while individuals are forced to be open to more options.
Thus far, at least in the West, most were able to wrap themselves in the comfort of society. Things were okay is what claimed. This no longer applies.
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The past year saw a great push forward in cryptocurrency. Personally I feel that it is not going to stop there. The upcoming year is going to see even more progress than last year.
Bitcoin certainly captured the eyes of Wall Street. At the same time, DeFi really took off, moving towards a legitimate financial alternative. Throughout the next year, we will likely see this grow to even greater heights.
Which brings us to Hive. Anyone who is watching knows that it was a very interesting year on that blockchain.
To start, it didn't even technically exist at the beginning of 2020. In fact, a year ago, the conflict with Justin Sun had not even gotten started. Thus, we have about 9 month of track record to go on.
Being so new, the progress made was amazing. Of course, it did help that a lot was already in place. As more applications moved over, the ecosystem grew in its offerings.
Throughout the year, we saw updates which has caused a lot of expansion. Some of the games look completely different than they did to start the year. The same is true for a number of other DApps.
This is the starting point for 2021. However, development is only one piece of the puzzle.
What has lagged is adoption. This is true for most of the crypto world. The average person is not involved. That is a fact that cannot be denied. Overall, the entire industry did a poor job pulling newer people in.
It is something that changes in 2021 in my opinion. The biggest shift is the fact that people are going to be more open to things as we move forward. The events described earlier will push people into seeking other alternatives. Cryptocurrency, and Hive, offer that alternative.
Bitcoin is doing a tremendous job garnering attention. However, the average person, who is without a job and many options, is not going to be profiting off Bitcoin. The same is essentially true for Ethereum since many of the applications on there require money up front.
The next wave of users are going to be those who can simply get started and are rewarded for the activities they undertake. This will be for gaming, art, content creation, and a host of other things we haven't even thought about. Ultimately, the idea of incentivizing people for their activity is something that is going to bring the masses.
It is simply up to us to create them. Some are already forming before our eyes.
At this point, in my view, the 3 projects that carry the greatest impact for the first half of 2020 are 3Speak, Leofinance, and DLUX. All are looking to put together platforms that can be truly game changing.
We know what was announced by @3speak and their plans for decentralized video storage as well as the SIP. This is going to provide another sink for the HIVE token while opening up the blockchain to a lot more activity.
Leofinance got a lot of attention in the last year. However, the road map for 2021 is even more aggressive. Like most things, this project is starting from a much higher baseline as compared to where it was a year ago. The latest "tease" is an airdrop on an application that will have widespread appeal. While the details are scarce at this time, the track record of this team is there is something outstanding being developed.
Finally there is DLUX. This one is flying under the radar but I feel it important to mention. It is the brainchild of 
This, too, is looking to provide another large sink for the HIVE token.
One thing that got my attention about this project is the ability to operate similar to Uniswap without having to actually develop an application for that. At the same time, Uniswap gets caught up in the Ethereum fees, which can be rather costly. Printing to the Hive blockchain is still fee-less. Thus, it could be possible to run the entire operation off Resource Credits alone.
Certainly, there are many more projects that are outside my vision. We are seeing a lot taking place. I could go into the development of some games such as 
The next 12 months will be a time when the second layer on Hive really advances. In the mean time, we are also seeing the base layer receiving the attention is sorely needed for year. Much of the last 9 months was spent on optimization, a fact we see in the nodes going wonky. The time to optimize a network is when that efficiency is not needed.
For many, the start of a new year is a time for optimism. Unfortunately, there will always be those like Nouriel Roubini who approach each day like his dog just ran away. Those people tend to not provide any value other than entertainment. It is best to ignore them.
Hive is coming into its own. There are some major holes in the foundation that are about to be filled. This is something that was overlooked for a lot of years.
In my view, the success of the last 9 months show how much potential there is for the next 12.
We will have to check back in a year from now to see where things are. My guess is we are a long way from what we see today.
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