This post assumes a few things.
One, you don't know much about HIVE, but you've at least heard of cryptocurrencies, most likely Bitcoin, but maybe some others such as Ethereum and of all things, Dogecoin.
Two, you've done some kind of consuming of content on the Internet. YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, blogs, memes, etc.
No doubt, you're well aware of all the people who are somehow generating income through posting videos or articles. For every one of them, there are dozens if not hundreds more who can't seem to get their content off the ground. It's pretty much the same situation as any medium throughout history—eventually a saturation point is reached and breaking through all the noise becomes harder and harder.
Meanwhile, most of us consume much more than we create. We aid these creators via clicks, likes, or, in the case of Patreon and others, we even subscribe. In other words, someone else is benefiting from our consumption, which even if it is free, still requires our time and attention, commodities which are neither in abundance or things we wish to waste aimlessly.
Plenty of places offer some form of payment for creators, but just how many are you aware of that also offer any kind of earnings for consuming that content? You can like, dislike, comment, review, etc., but rarely is anyone rewarding you for your own efforts. Instead, you're just a number in the hundreds of thousands of views that some viral content received.
HIVE is a cryptocurrency, like Bitcoin, in that it runs on a blockchain. It is decentralized, meaning no one individual, entity, or organization controls it. Unlike Bitcoin, you can do quite a bit more on HIVE than just buy or sell the token.
HIVE also has a blogging platform, games that can be played, and other kinds of apps that connect to the blockchain and provide means of earning HIVE. There is quite a bit of app development currently taking place. It can be hard to keep up sometimes.
Along with ways to earn HIVE via blogging or even shorter form content is something called curation. Essentially, curation on HIVE is liking content, only it's done by something called upvoting, where you allocate an amount to a post based on how much HIVE you have locked up.
How that all works isn't really within the scope of this post, but suffice it to say that the more of this locked up HIVE, or HIVE Power (HP) you have, the more you are able to allocate to a post. And instead of actually taking your HIVE or HP and giving it to a content creator, you're actually dipping into a rewards pool that everyone with HP has access to. In other words, when you curate or upvote content, you don't lose HP in the process.
It's kind of complicated, and if you're really interested in knowing more about how that works, searching posts about it will undoubtedly give you all kinds of reading. The main point is: you can earn something while you read posts or watch videos that you actually want to read or view.
Good question. It depends on how much you curate, how much you allocate per post, and how much HP you have. The more HP you have, the more you can curate and allocate.
HIVE is not a get rich quick scheme. For the vast majority of us, it is a "sweat equity" endeavor. If you have the attitude of, It's not much, but hey, I'm getting paid to consume content! it will benefit you in the long run.
Because that's what HIVE is meant to be. A long haul proposition. Unless you have other crypto or fiat that you want to use to invest in HIVE (something I would recommend after you've done some more homework about HIVE and you're sure you won't need that crypto or money for something else), you will slowly but consistently build up your HP via curation.
It's not like you can't post if you like, too. Many of us do. The purpose of this post, though, is to introduce you to the concept of earning through content consumption.
In addition to curating, commenting on the posts you read is another way you could possibly earn HIVE/HP. Many people on HIVE don't reward comments, but there are a core group of us who do. Especially comments which pertain to the subject matter, are well thought out and provide some kind of value to the post. Plus, commenting on other people's posts is a great way for others to get to know you, so when you do decide to post, they'll know who you are.
HIVE has a general trending page where the highest earning posts at any given moment can be found. However, unless you're really interested in posts about crypto, HIVE itself, or one of the many projects associated with HIVE, you may or may not have to scroll a bit to find something else.
It would be much easier just to peruse the various communities that exist and join them so you can find content that way.
Also, if you decide you like the work of specific content creators, you can follow them so that they show up in a personalized friends feed.
My suggestion if you want to do that is to make sure you really like what they post, be selective, and don't follow to be followed. The latter can lead to disappointment on both ends, since no one on HIVE is compelled to follow you simply because you follow them.
You can drill down still further—some communities and authors can write about a lot of different subtopics within a community—by going through the hashtags. The easiest way to do that is to click the hashtag in a post and then bookmark it for future reference if you happen to like the content.
In addition to a general trending page, there is also a general new page, where the latest content appears. Again, you can get more specific with communities and hashtags. Each have their own new pages to peruse, as well.
Within the next couple of weeks, an update to the blockchain will take place that will change curation. It would be best to learn, if you want to know more about it, what those changes are rather than reading about how curation looks now.
These updates are called hardforks and they tend to happen as development of the blockchain continues and other needs or wanted changes get discussed and coded for implementation. All this code is available for viewing by anyone at anytime, since it's all open source.
Hopefully, I've provided you a taste of how your content consumption can lead to earning HIVE/HP. I haven't mentioned everything, but I believe I've covered quite a few of the basics. As in any worthwhile endeavor, you'll want to check things out, read other posts about the topic and of course, you'll need to set up your own account. While everyone can access content on HIVE, only members can curate/upvote, comment or post.
If you find any of this intriguing at all, I invite you to learn more. HIVE needs a variety of users, which includes content consumers. In that way, HIVE is like most other sites on the Internet. Unlike 99.9% of those, HIVE gives you a way to earn something for your time spent here.
