Ads are a pretty bad idea on Hive at this point, in my opinion, given the reduced number of users and their concentration in countries where advertisers pay very low prices for ads.

Maybe we should learn a bit from Web 2 too, since they are experts in advertising revenue online. They are learning from Web 3 in other aspects. FB for example, had no ads on their platform until they passed 1m users or so. And they were all from the US, where advertisers pay very well for such potential customers.

I am thinking that something at L2 makes sense. Maybe not on Hive-Engine. Here's my rough idea at the moment. It probably needs smart contracts to work. I haven't thought enough about it, so it may not be feasible or maybe could be improved. But here it is:

Based on the HP a curator has and a multiplication factor (likely between 0 and 1, so, practically a divider of the HP amount), they receive a regular airdrop of an L2 token used for rewarding older posts. Maybe instead of the HP amount, the curation rewards from the last 30 days should be considered, or something like that.

The multiplication factor starts high and lowers over time if the curator doesn't gift some of the received tokens to old content. Increases again if they become active in curating old content.

The L2 tokens airdropped can be sold, transferred, or gifted as an additional reward for old content. By gifting it, one ensures a higher multiplier for a higher airdrop of the same token. If they sell or transfer it, the multiplier drops because they don't gift it.

The receiver of the gift can at their turn gift it to others and increase their own multiplier, or sell it and cash out.

I hope I haven't missed anything important. Let me know what you think. I know it's complicated, but it is an idea.