1. It's a great idea, and I'm glad you're giving it some potential "air time" here!

2. I'm glad you're exploring this from the perspective of someone who has been part of the community for a long time.

As I recall, there was an initiative some years ago to have some kind of crowdfunding/artist support system here but it never went very far because the execution of the idea was too complicated and awkward.

Hive is amazing, but it's biggest challenge is — and always has been — a level of complexity and a learning curve that makes it difficult to persuade Web 2.0 users to give us a shot.

Way back when, I advocated "light" Hive accounts that would allow people to pretty much get a "log in with Google" account — with the account creator holding on to the keys and the Light account only having posting keys — that they could test drive and get to know Hive with. When/if they like it, they could "Upgrade" to a full account and get full access to their keys... and if NOT, and the account goes dormant... any HivePower in the account is powered down and burned, and keys shredded.

As a Patreon replacement?

That's a tough nut to crack. One of the problems being that your current setup has a sort of "first mover advantage," meaning that you will lose a good number of people... unless you're prepared to run BOTH in tandem for 2-3 years, maybe more. Maybe if you put enough Hive "teasers" in your Patreon content, people will gradually drift over.

My thought (and I have a Patreon account, for my art) is that it would be something that requires a lot of attention to carefully mapping strategies and then having a lot of patience because it might be three years down the road before Hive equals your current Patreon.

But definitely worth a try!