Technology illustrations by Storyset
Yesterday, I was going through my timeline when I stumbled upon a tweet that talked about how Hive isn't losing users and that historically activities on the chain are low when the price of Hive is down. I find this frustrating because it is not only a half-truth but a general sentiment that most of the core Hivers have about the chain.
The beautiful and tragic thing about the Hive blockchain is that its core stakeholders are stuck in their ways. I was as well for the better part of my time in the ecosystem, which is more than 5 years. During that time, I have seen, read, and experienced things that have informed my knowledge about the Hive ecosystem.
Now, I say that statement is a half-truth because historically, Hive has had its worst activity rate when the price of the token is down. This is because, during this time, it is not worth being on the chain, and we need to understand that people have lives outside of Hive that are far more important than anything we do on-chain. This has led me to conclude that we've been paddling a very delusional narrative.
For instance, I could afford to be on-chain for 5-6 hours daily when my earnings were decent, but it would be suicidal to do so now. In fact, the only reason I can show up a couple of times a week is because I genuinely love to create content. There is nothing about the Hive price that informs my decision to be on-chain because regardless, I have been able to earn decent upvotes. I know the type of content to create and the people/group to pander to.
The only demographic that can afford to be here for more than 2 hours daily are mostly from third-world countries where the living wage is significantly lower. Unfortunately, this category of people is tagged as 'Takers,' which leaves a sore taste in their mouth. Everyone I know from my discography has their exit plan from Hive because they know they are not respected by the 1%. This is a discussion for another day.
Now, going back to the issue of traffic being down during the bear market, it is also important to state that there aren't significant changes during the bull market. The return rate and onboarding rate are significantly low, especially with the drought of Dapps on-chain. Hive hasn't grown above a certain threshold in years, and I believe on-chain data can prove my assertions. Compare the number of Dapps/development on-chain from 2020 to the last 4 years; compare the activity charts of 2020 to the last four years.
95% of the people I met on Hive are no longer active. The same can be said about those who started at the same time as well. From a social standpoint, that's awful. I cannot find my mutuals on-chain anymore. However, when I go on Crypto Twitter, I find them doing extremely well for themselves. These are the issues.
In addition, given the fact that Hive is an old blockchain, we have a lot of old heads who are still stuck in the crypto golden era. The problem with that is that the space has drastically changed, and unfortunately, Hive is not accounting for those changes. There have been 4-5 web3 trends (even a SOCIALFI trend) in the last 6 months, and Hive has not been able to capitalize on one. But how can it when there are very few Dapps and active users?
The solution to Hive's problem is simple: go back to the drawing board, reintroduce Hive to the crypto community, repair and build new bridges. These are the only ways to rebuild the ecosystem. Hive doesn't need to continue the way it is because it is clearly not working. The chain cannot afford to build in isolation, and I cannot overemphasize this enough.
In conclusion, I know there are more recognized voices that are amplified on Hive that do not agree with my viewpoint. Nevertheless, I believe it is important to counter them. The idea that people are solely here for the money is problematic, and it disregards the important issues that need to be fixed, especially for a chain that prides itself as a social network. We trivialize very complex social issues. It goes to show how out of touch we all are with the system and the people that make up this ecosystem.