I read through “ If it ain’t broke ” and the heart of the suggestion lowering HBD interest and increasing rewards for staked HIVE is one of those ideas that sounds elegant until you frame it against how Hive actually functions in practice. But let’s unpack it with some clarity rather than just emotion.
First, I understand the feeling that if we want more people to actually hold and stake HIVE, we should align economic incentives with that goal. On the surface, it makes intuitive sense: right now, HBD savings often pays a higher APR than staking HIVE, and HBD is liquid with a short withdrawal time. That tilts behavior toward converting HIVE into HBD and parking it for yield rather than locking HIVE up for long term stake.
But there’s a structural reason why HBD APR currently exists where it does, and it involves what HBD is a stablecoin pegged to USD that’s engineered to help stabilize the ecosystem. HBD isn’t just another liquid yield instrument; it functions as a capital anchor and a peg buffer in the Hive economy. Lowering its APR risks weakening that anchor, making HBD less attractive as a stable asset and possibly driving holders out of the ecosystem entirely into USDT/USDC or other stable alternatives.
Staking HIVE (turning HIVE into Hive Power) isn’t the same instrument as HBD. HIVE is volatile and illiquid when staked. The 3 month unstaking period exists precisely to strengthen long term commitment and governance participation it’s less suitable for short term yield seekers. Increasing APR on HIVE without adjusting the underlying economic model or demand fundamentals won’t magically change that reality. A higher APR on a stake that cannot be accessed quickly and is tied to a volatile price doesn’t automatically attract serious capital; it mainly attracts people chasing yield while still exposed to price risk.
And here’s the rub: if your only reason for buying and staking HIVE is the APR, that’s a market incentive, not necessarily an investment rationale. In traditional finance, assets with high yield are high risk; in crypto, that axiom doesn’t go away just because you’re on a DPoS chain. 10–15% APR on a volatile token does not equal low risk. A true investor looks at inflation, liquidity, lock up period, and macro context not just a percentage number.
That leads to another critical point that’s been raised by commenters: HBD acts as a reducer of sell pressure on HIVE, not a creator of it. People aren’t converting HIVE into HBD just because interest exists they’re doing it because HBD is a stable, predictable asset that can be saved or spent without exposure to sharp swings in HIVE price. If you weaken HBD’s attractiveness, you weaken that balancing act and potentially make the ecosystem less stable long term.
Now let’s marry that macro discussion with community incentives and real external capital. A lot of on chain flows today are internal: curation loops, recycled rewards, delegation games, and internal reward mechanics. That’s fine it’s part of how decentralized ecosystems bootstrap themselves. But external capital flows fresh USD coming in from outside the chain via real world earnings are rare and valuable. That’s exactly what I and a handful of others are doing when we buy HIVE with gig work income, power it up, and hold it long term. That’s real external demand entering the network, not just internal rotation.
If governance tweaks HBD and HIVE incentives in ways that discourage external capital flows (for example by weakening HBD’s role as a stable anchor or by diluting HIVE value through inflated APR without demand), that hurts the long term viability of the chain more than it helps short term staking behavior. The real problem isn’t that APR numbers aren’t sexy the real issue is liquidity, narrative, adoption, and utility. No amount of APR engineering will pull capital into Hive unless people see real economic activity, usage, and institutional infrastructure supporting the chain.
So if governance wants to revisit incentives, that’s fine. But it needs to be part of a bigger plan: strengthen HBD as a stable instrument, strengthen staking mechanisms without undermining economic anchors, and build a narrative that brings external capital not just internal shuffling onto Hive. That’s how real investment and sustainable growth happen.
In other words: APR tweaks might help behavior a bit, but they’re not a replacement for external value flow and actual use cases. And until that’s addressed, changing numbers alone won’t fix the ecosystem.
get the appeal of raising HIVE staking interest and cutting HBD, but let’s not pretend this fixes the real issue.
HBD isn’t just a yield toy. It’s the stability valve. If you make it less attractive, you don’t force people to power up, you encourage them to leave. Stable capital always has alternatives.
Also worth saying out loud. Most large balances aren’t coming from fresh money. They’re compounding internally. Curation loops. Vote income. Delegation games. That’s allowed. That’s the system. No hate.
What’s rare is external USD actually entering the chain. That’s what I’m doing. Gig work. Real dollars. Buying HIVE. Powering it up. Locking it. Probably exit liquidity today, maybe accumulation tomorrow.
Raising APR doesn’t create demand. It creates inflation and yield chasers. Lowering HBD doesn’t create conviction. It weakens the anchor.
If interest rates fixed ecosystems, crypto would have solved itself years ago.
