Hive

What is Hive (HIVE)?

Hive is a fast, scalable, and powerful blockchain intending to shift social media from Web2 to Web3.

It’s an information-sharing network with an accompanying delegated proof-of-stake (DPoS) blockchain that supports many decentralized applications, APIs, and front-ends. Each of these contributes to the accessibility of data on the Hive blockchain.

The utility of Hive stretches to social media with monetized rewards for content producers, interactive games, identity management, polling systems, and micro-loans. Many of these are already firmly in place, and Hive has a legitimate claim to the throne of the biggest Web3 social media blockchain.

When was Hive Launched?

Hive came into being on Friday, March 20, 2020. The concepts of Web3 and decentralization were at the core of Hive right from its genesis point because Hive emerged from a hard fork of the Steem blockchain.

Steem launched in March 2016 under the de facto control of Steemit Incorporated, which held a majority stake in the blockchain through assets initially earmarked as a development fund.

There is much more to the tale of Steem, including its famous co-founder Dan Larimer and the involvement of prominent crypto personality Justin Sun. Most critical to the plot, however, is that members of the Steem community were disenchanted by the reliance on a central entity for code and infrastructure.

A large group of these Steem community members decided to hard fork the Steem blockchain, and block producers called Witnesses upgraded their software to run Hive. All Steem users have been airdropped their balances in the HIVE token at the time of the snapshot, but Steemit Inc accounts were not eligible.

The HIVE tokens that would have gone to Steemit Inc were instead airdropped to the trustless “Decentralized Hive Fund” or DHF. These funds would be community managed, and intended for the decentralized development of the protocol.

All of the existing user content from Steem was ported to Hive as historical data, but as with any hard fork, the two blockchains diverged at the point of Hive’s launch. The draw of decentralization and Web3 is clear because, 18 months after launch, Hive had already hit 2.3 million user accounts.

How Does Hive Work?

To get started with Hive, you need to create an account. There are several ways to do this, some of which are free but require verification via phone or email to prevent abuse.

To proceed without verification, you can expect to pay around $3 either in the app if using HiveWallet or with cryptocurrencies like BTC, DOGE, ETH, and XMR via BlockTrades. You can also use HIVE or the Hive stablecoin HBD on BlockTrades or inji. For fiat users, inji also accepts payments via PayPal.

Creating an account using one of the options on Hive’s signup page also means you’re creating an address for the Hive blockchain. This means there’s no way to reset your passwords or keys, so make sure to store them safely!

Once you’ve signed up and gotten your keys and Web3 username, you will be directed to choose a wallet. Your wallet choice will likely depend on which devices you want to access Hive with, although you can also opt for the cold storage option of a Ledger hardware wallet. With keys stored away safely and a wallet selected, you can easily access some of the applications and communities using Hive. There are various applications for you to use, including 3speak.tv, hive.blog, and peakd.com, that may be recognizable as Web3 alternatives to popular Web2 apps.

What Makes Hive Unique?

Hive is a blockchain designed for Web3 and social media, and to this end, it has systems in place to solve the challenges of bandwidth and storage space. The network can store vast amounts of data and retrieve it via time-based monetization.

All original content is stored permanently on the Hive blockchain, and users vote for content creators. Rewards are then shared between creators and curators, incentivizing both roles and ensuring content quality.

While Hive isn’t unique as a platform where content creators can earn an income, it adopts the Web3 approach of connecting consumers and advertisers directly with the creators. In this manner, predatory intermediaries can be eliminated entirely.

Furthermore, creators are not subject to the various risks of reliance on centralized social networks, such as demonetization or being de-platformed.

Creating a Hive account requires users to jump through a few hoops and requires either a small payment or identity verification. Users wanting to create a significant amount of content in a short time will also need to purchase and stake HIVE tokens.

However, Hive does allow the creation of small, human-readable user accounts. While a relatively small and seemingly cosmetic issue, this is a significant barrier to the mainstream adoption of other blockchains.

Hive is a step ahead of the pack in this regard, and it also solves the speed and scalability issues that make many blockchains difficult to use. For example, with a 3-second block time and fee-less transactions, Hive can post transactions very quickly. This also means no delay when posting content or interacting with Hive’s communities.

How is the Hive Network Secured?

The Hive blockchain is secured by a mechanism called delegated proof-of-stake. In this consensus mechanism, blocks are validated, and transactions are time-stamped by nodes referred to by Hive as “witnesses.” Additionally, ordinary HIVE holders can delegate their tokens to witnesses, granting them more votes and a higher ranking.

When a witness produces a block, they are rewarded for their service. If they do not produce a block, they don’t get paid. Instead, each round of block production begins with the shuffling of 21 witnesses. The top 20 elected witnesses plus one randomly selected standby are given a turn to produce a single block every 3 seconds.

Hive expects witnesses to manage a reliable block-producing node, implement a failover system, maintain a public seed node, tune blockchain operating parameters, and much more.

According to Hive’s block explorer, the current pay for the top 20 witnesses is approximately $2,800 per month.

What is the Use of HIVE?

HIVE is the native token of the Hive blockchain and is used primarily for staking. HIVE is also a liquid medium of exchange on the network and within the growing Hive ecosystem.

The HIVE token also backs the HBD (Hive-Backed Dollars) stablecoin in a sense. HBD retains its peg to the dollar because of the network’s ability to convert 1 HBD into $1 worth of HIVE.

However, various code-enforced safeguards are in place, such as the HBD market capitalization being limited to a maximum of 10% of HIVE’s market cap.

How Much HIVE is In Circulation?

HIVE is an inflationary cryptocurrency without a maximum supply. However, the issuance of HIVE tokens is carried out on a strict schedule and is largely given to content creators and curators. Beyond the 65% of HIVE inflation these parties receive, 15% goes to HIVE stakers, 10% to Witnesses, and the final 10% to the DHF.

How Do You Buy HIVE?

You can buy HIVE from a selection of cryptocurrency exchanges, including Binance, Gate.io, and Huobi Global. It is most commonly paired with stablecoins like USDT, but trading in other cryptocurrencies and fiat currencies is also available on various exchange platforms.

How Do You Store HIVE?

As mentioned, you can store HIVE tokens on one of Hive’s native wallets or a Ledger hardware device.

It’s important to remember that passwords and keys are not recoverable and can’t be reset. So, make sure to store them safely, just as with any other cryptocurrency wallet!

Hive Energy Consumption

Hive is a blockchain network with powerful performance characteristics enabled by a delegated proof-of-stake consensus mechanism. One of the advantages of DPoS is its reduced energy consumption since the system only requires a limited number of witnesses.

Granted, greater security is assured with more witnesses in play, but each additional witness only adds a small amount of hardware to the network.

Is HIVE a Good Investment?

Hive is, in many ways, a modern blockchain in that it offers serious performance at scale, but it’s also decentralized in a way that few other projects are.

A social blockchain project led, owned, and run by its community; Hive is one of the most exciting projects in the industry. It’s also one of the most frightening from the perspective of proponents of Web2 and centralization because its continued success is clear proof that users gravitate toward more decentralized alternatives when given a choice.

The HIVE token is crucial for the operation of the Hive ecosystem, so even though it represents no shareholding and remains inflationary, demand through mass adoption could make it a very attractive investment option.