Thanks for your thoughts!

I get where you're coming from, and it's great that posting gives you that sense of accomplishment. That part is real and meaningful.

But about downvotes — here's the thing...

The downvote is basically someone saying “this is too expensive, I would not pay that much for this”.

It's not necessarily about grudges, jealousy, or personal dislike. It's a disagreement on value.

Let’s say your genuinely great post gets picked up by a vote-happy curation trail. Suddenly, you’ve got tens of dollars stacked on it. Feels great, right?
But now ask yourself:

Would I personally buy that post from a street dealer for $20?

The downvote exists exactly because sometimes posts — even decent ones — get over-rewarded relative to their content. And since Hive has a shared rewards pool, over-rewarding one post takes value away from others.

Without downvotes, Hive would just become a playground for vote rings, bots, and whales gaming the system. Early adopters would dominate, and minnows would have almost no chance.

As for blocking — no, you can’t block people from voting on you (thankfully).
The blockchain doesn’t discriminate, and upvotes and downvotes are treated the same — they’re both expressions of value judgment.

Hive isn’t perfect, but it's built around the idea that rewards should flow based on what the community values, not just what makes someone feel good.