The Coinbase hack was deeply concerning and a good argument against KYC. It's usually worse than the "hackee" claims it is and I think that's probably the case here. I was listening to the JRE podcast (#2311 with Jeremie & Edouard Harris) and they were discussing how these types of "hacks" play out—often times they're state-sponsored. Adversaries are constantly testing to find weak points until they find something they can exploit. I think we're seeing an end to pure system hacks and a move to more sophisticated "hybrid" forms of hacks where employees/contractors are compromised instead of or in addition to a good old-fashioned system hack.

As someone who's been in this ecosystem almost nine years I think Hive is healthy, overall, in 2025. Us old-timers remember when post payouts could nearly pay mortgage payments. Hive is definitely not that lucrative anymore but compared to other platforms, like Medium for example, it's infinitely better. I monetized on Medium a few months ago and have made a whopping $.33 in revenue for about twenty original articles. Here, I consistently average between $8 to $12 for each post payout and if you utilize the HBD staking you're receiving 15% APR on what you make. Not a bad deal at all.

Some people who've been here for a while and are worried about how little they make here need only venture out and try other platforms to help put things into proper perspective. Hive, historically, hasn't been a place that helps sell books for me. During my recent book launch only one presale originated from this platform. It is what it is though, I sell my books through other channels. Hive has been a wonderful creative incubator for me, the best I've found, bar none. I develop my ideas and content for books here and get paid for it. Hive revenue helps pay for the publishing costs. During the first few years everyone was dreaming of "mass adoption" for this platform but sometimes the best prayers are the unanswered ones. I agree that slow, organic, growth makes the most sense. Our biggest hurdle is public education.