As someone who has been active and invested in Hive for 8 Years now, very much enjoying the platform for what it brings, it also feels like still many fundamental things are broken, which directly reflects the price of the token and the general adoption. Today, I bring some data on Curation and KE Ratios
Disclaimer: The main aim of this post is to raise some awareness and make a point. I'm not trying to point fingers, complain, or stir drama. None of this is black or white, and I'm totally neglecting actual content and the work put in, or how many new people it brings to Hive. I also think that curation groups are great for Hive and it's a good thing that people are able to earn something here to a certain extent.
Why Hive Isn't Pumping...
In the end when it comes down to price action, i's always the same thing. If more people press the Buy button, the price tend to go up and if more people press the sell button the price tends to go down or stay low. For people to buy a coin, there must be either a belief that the price will go up in the future or a use case that is big enough to justify the purchase.
In theory, the use case in Hive is to get more influence in the network as your upvotes, which represent part of the inflation, grow bigger and you earn more curation rewards. However, is this for most people really woth the risk? Especially knowing that you don't really require HP to earn and most of the 50% your upvote that goes to the content creators likely just gets dumped on the market.
Chart used from 
Basically, the price of Hive stays suppressed because many people are trying to create content on Hive with an eye to earn and just cash out everything they are getting from it without much consequence to it or a requirement to invest. This puts in sell pressure while there isn't really that much reason why people would actually invest in Hive, knowing they only really get part of the inflation.
KE Ratio
This metric compares the Rewards Someone earned on hive compared to the Hive Power they own and can generally be seen as the best indication if someone is a net positive or a net negative for the Ecosystem (Off course, there are exceptions to this rule as Staked HP isn't the only metric). I also think Delegated Hive Power should count toward this metric by the way
If you want to check your own KE Ratio, you can do so on beebalanced.streamlit.app
Curation Groups & KE Ratios
The idea behind curations groups is that those who are invested in Hive Power and want to earn curation rewards without manually curating can do so by trusting their Hive Power in the hands of curation groups. Most of the time, a part of the curation rewards go to the curation group, while the ones delegating get the most. It is supposed to be a win-win deal as it should help the network forward, seeing the post rewards going to users and content that are good for the network.
However, I have noticed for a long time by randomly clicking posts that get curated, checking the wallet activity, seeing the majority are just cashing out all the time without real intentions to be invested financially in the platform. The same counts for many of the curators who feel like they have a list of accounts they curate just over and over again as a quick way to make some money.
Curangel KE Ratio Data
So I manually went to all the curated posts on yesterday's Curangel Suration Compilation (Link) to give a better view on things. I could have also done this with compilations from other curation projects and I don't aim to target Curangel in any way
Curated Accounts <3 KE Ratio = 54
Curated Accounts 3-10 KE Ratio = 25
Curated Accounts >10 KE Ratio = 22
Around half of the votes on that particular report went to accounts with a rather poor KE Ratio and 20%+ even went to extreme value extractors with a 10+ KE Ratio.
The Curators
| Account | KE Ratio | Median KE Curation |
|---|---|---|
 @phage93 | 0.47 | 3.90 |
 @ewkaw | 0.62 | 2.55 |
 @minismallholding | 0.66 | 3.45 |
 @galenkp | 0.67 | 1.24 |
 @nikv | 2.97 | 1.94 |
 @equipodelta | 5.94 | 2.17 |
 @brumest | 9.54 | 1.91 |
 @jotakrevs | 11.05 | 5.57 |
 @the01crow | 14.88 | 1.98 |
 @anggreklestari | 16.97 | 6.29 |
 @crazy-andy | 20.89 | 4.41 |
 @edwardstobia | 32.28 | 2.25 |
 @fmbs25 | 61.37 | 2.36 |
The Curation
From
| Account | KE Ratio |
|---|---|
 @ruffatotmeee | 1.80 |
 @mnssatrio | 1.99 |
 @jenny27 | 2.00 |
 @yale95reyra | 3.80 |
 @tht | 8.78 |
 @hive.samadi | 11.53 |
 @princess-dara | 15.18 |
 @azwar.ipank | 18.37 |
From
| Account | KE Ratio |
|---|---|
 @lindoro | 1.10 |
 @ataraksja | 1.67 |
 @yeni82 | 1.83 |
 @theworldaroundme | 1.86 |
 @iscrak | 1.90 |
 @rg2-foto | 1.97 |
 @furkanmamplam | 2.23 |
 @asklanbudi | 5.44 |
 @akukamaruzzaman | 17.78 |
 @dimascastillo90 | 21.33 |
 @my451r | 61.17 |
From
| Account | KE Ratio |
|---|---|
 @new.things | 0.68 |
 @fermentedphil | 0.90 |
 @triplug | 1.83 |
 @alelin | 1.99 |
 @sofathana | 3.65 |
 @arieswilly | 5.18 |
| @equipodelta | 5.94 |
 @holoz0r | 6.13 |
 @parvkhuller | 8.07 |
 @cristiancaicedo | 16.53 |
From
| Account | KE Ratio |
|---|---|
 @belug | 1.66 |
 @eldiariodelys | 1.88 |
 @incublus | 1.94 |
 @carmen1659 | 1.95 |
 @ablaze | 2.25 |
 @cesaramos | 5.51 |
 @jlinaresp | 5.61 |
 @valeriavalentina | 8.03 |
 @jlphotographyart | 12.79 |
From
| Account | KE Ratio |
|---|---|
 @eduardo900613 | 1.18 |
 @sacra97 | 1.30 |
 @giezihrz | 1.32 |
 @mariiale1979 | 1.78 |
 @mairimmorales | 1.90 |
 @pabloartisan | 2.00 |
 @irvinc | 2.17 |
 @efootjoker-yt | 2.31 |
 @cajiro | 5.17 |
 @josehany | 7.39 |
 @hrichakar | 10.63 |
 @jorgelissanchez | 13.20 |
 @yonnathang | 22.33 |
From
| Account | KE Ratio |
|---|---|
 @lesiopm | 0.49 |
 @generikat | 0.78 |
 @barnabo73 | 0.91 |
 @willowink | 1.54 |
 @muhammadhalim | 2.34 |
 @calendulacraft | 2.76 |
 @abelfotografia | 3.58 |
 @isdarmady | 5.03 |
 @anzirpasai | 17.95 |
 @evildeathcore | 78.92 |
From
| Account | KE Ratio |
|---|---|
 @sirjoshua | 1.81 |
 @sundayayuba | 2.24 |
 @mayorkeys | 2.25 |
 @picazzy005 | 2.48 |
 @alexdepool27 | 3.11 |
 @ernesto6402 | 7.86 |
From
| Account | KE Ratio |
|---|---|
 @roswelborges | 1.24 |
From
| Account | KE Ratio |
|---|---|
 @jayna | 0.64 |
 @ibarra95 | 1.01 |
 @mipiano | 1.58 |
 @silher | 2.45 |
 @claudimar | 3.62 |
 @sunscape | 5.53 |
| @jlinaresp | 5.61 |
 @silviabeneforti | 7.57 |
 @lorentm | 19.23 |
 @masummim50 | 19.32 |
 @estefania3 | 37.02 |
 @yanes94 | 38.12 |
From @minismallholdings (Average KE 10.93 / Median KE 3.45)
| Account | KE Ratio |
|---|---|
 @aurora.jabon | 0.00 |
 @quijotezco | 1.13 |
 @taliakerch | 2.12 |
 @storygoddess | 3.45 |
 @esperanzalandia | 5.78 |
 @piensocrates | 29.81 |
 @mariperez316 | 34.25 |
From
| Account | KE Ratio |
|---|---|
 @qwerrie | 0.80 |
 @borjan | 0.85 |
 @gertu | 1.03 |
 @sweettais | 1.72 |
 @angelica79 | 1.94 |
 @ajchampz | 1.94 |
 @mrarturobravo | 1.97 |
 @bertrayo | 2.21 |
 @romanie | 9.73 |
 @wilfredocav | 15.47 |
 @alexa.art | 41.6 |
From
| Account | KE Ratio |
|---|---|
 @leeendah | 1.95 |
 @noemilunastorta | 3.90 |
 @chanych85 | 10.38 |
From
| Account | KE Ratio |
|---|---|
 @generp | 1.90 |
 @ronimarie82 | 1.98 |
 @natica83 | 7.15 |
The Point I'm Trying to Make
Right now, there is way too much Free Lunch on Hive. If you check accounts and wallets from people who get upvoted by curation groups, I would say very few of them actually went to the point of investing in Hive, while many are just cashing out all of their earnings. This is not a sustainable model, and it shows in the price chart of Hive. While I believe everyone does with their stake pretty much what they want, I also believe that it should be way harder for those who have been here for years not holding a fair share of their earnings as Hive Power to give back to earn anything.
In fact, KE (including Leased HP) should be a requirement and a standard as part of proper curation. It should also replace the current broken reputation system. This would give users an incentive to buy or hold Hive and it would highly reduce the amount that is just dumped on the market.
Curation Groups should have a maximum KE Ratio number that everyone who wants to curate or get curated needs to be under. The good thing about this is that it doesn't affect new users, and it also doesn't require anyone to actually invest. It mainly cuts out those who have been extracting value from the ecosystem for a long time.
Conclusion
I would say to do the test yourself, check a random curated post from one of the curation groups here on Hive, and see for yourself if the account is an actual net positive or net negative for the Hive Ecosystem. You will be shocked to see what's going on in many cases, and it would be nice to see this improve so the ecosystem can benefit.
