Hive was started to reward content creators through posting, commenting, and voting. It is a social media site that is based upon the idea of those who contribute to the success of the platform are the ones who profit.
Now, we see the Hive blockchain evolving into something completely different. Hive.blog is still a blogging site along with a few other interfaces. However, the application roster expanded to include 3Speak, Leofinance, Liketu and a variety of other applications that compliment the blogging platform.
With expansion has come a lot of changes to this blockchain. While the basic premise still holds, the delivery is much different than before.
To start, Hive Power is treated much differently.
Since the introduction of 
This is creating a scenario where these applications are amassing a great deal of HP (Orca size and bigger) from a number of different people. They are using the voting power on a daily basis to reward those who are utilizing their applications.
The incentive provided is actually healthy for the blockchain. Those individuals who choose to use the applications receive double benefit. To start, they will earn some of the new tokens that could have value in the future. Secondly, it is an opportunity for one to receive an upvote from an Orca, something that most smaller accounts never would be able to receive. As I wrote in a post the other day about
Another advantage to this approach is that one not only receives the application upvote but also the ones from the curation trail. While the monetary amount will not make anyone rich, it does all go to help the reputation. This is something that had little value up to this point. However, with the most recent change in
Another shift is the added benefit of curating for these applications. When upvoting posts using the application, not only does one get the typical payout in SP but also the SMT. Both
Obviously, earning $HIVE and powering up is still a very desirable goal. However, we are already starting to see it getting harder to amass. This will only continue as more HP finds itself in the hands of the applications. The benefit to the blockchain is they are using the VP to reward those who use the applications themselves. It also means that people are going to have to start doing things differently to fill the ole wallet.
One way, in my opinion, is to go after the SMTs. This is where a smaller account can start to garner more influence. It appears each application does put together some type of early adopter advantage. By engaging in these applications, one is able to build up an amount that I can only presume will be more difficult to achieve down the road.
It is important to note that SMTs are really a creation of a mini-$HIVE. Hence, what happens with Hive most likely will be following suit with the SMTs. In this regard, the early adopters face a huge advantage.
One final thought. Hive is rapidly becoming the token that is going to be the money on this blockchain. It will be what drives the blockchain. $HIVE not only will be used to pay for bandwidth, we are already seeing how it is the token that is used for funding of projects. This will continue to evolve.
For this reason, I think we can expect another token to be created to, once again, reward bloggers. 
Whatever the future holds, we can see the paradigm on the Hive blockchain shifting. Being an evolving organism, as the creativity on this blockchain grows, we will see more developments that further push things away from the original intent. This is what often happens with technology.
Either way, I still feel the future extremely bright. All that I wrote here leads me to reaffirm that HP will be in great demand down the road. It is going to be a very valuable commodity.
Remember, change is good.
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