Hello again HiveBloPoMo

So I failed HiveBlogPostingMonth yesterday on the 3rd day. I’ll need to post twice in one day to catch up. Today I want to talk about this wonderful platform and where I think it’s going.

Hive Then And Now

Before Hive there was Steem. And Steem’s main app was Steemit, a blogging site. Thousands of people came there to try blogging, and some of the bloggers stuck around for a long time. In 2018 a new app called Steemmonsters showed up. Steemians shifted a bit away from social blogging to apps.

Most of the core community forked to Hive in 2020. Steemmonsters rebranded to Splinterlands. SteemLeo rebranded to LeoFinance. A ton of other apps moved over with the community. And the app list continues to grow.

I think the app trend will continue. Developers see the success of Splinterlands and try to replicate the model. There will be more games and apps built on Hive.

People wanting to use apps and games on the Hive network need bandwidth. The unit of account for bandwidth on Hive is Resource Credit’s (RCs). To get RCs you either need some stake in the network (Hive Power) or you need someone to loan their credits to you (delegation).

So if a new app pops up and wants to sign up a ton of new users and help them out with bandwidth, the app needs Hive Power. As the app development trend continues, more apps operating and more users transacting, the cost of bandwidth goes up.

Apps will need more Hive as they grow, and as the network grows, too. It creates a sort of buyer-of-last resort situation where as long as there are apps using the network there is demand for Hive coins.

It would be wonderful to see a renaissance in blockchain blogging. I think that early era of the community benefitted from powerful network effects. And those effects strengthened the Steem brand. So much so that other apps wanted to attach themselves to the brand name.

But we are here. There are something like 1,000-2,000 regular and active Hive bloggers. And the non-blogging apps account for most of the network traffic. Maybe games do a much better job at holding attention, as they offer lucrative rewards for playing. Or maybe most of the players are bots 🤖!

There are some good incentives to write blogs and to write comments on blogs. Those activities can earn rewards. I think there will continue to be a core group of people doing this. I’m not sure if it will grow significantly.

It’s more likely new folks will enjoy simply posting photos via LikeTu or micro-blogging via DBuzz/LeoThreads. Let’s face it, attention spans are shortened and fractured. Not many people jump out of bed in the morning excited to bang out 500+ words.

I hope to find 100 more people who do!

About a year ago the Hive coin market price reached an all-time-high of $3.41. How soon will the price return to that number? Who knows!

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See you tomorrow,
Cleanthes