Finally, opinions backed with reasoning based on a point of view that is definitely under the influence of the Hive ecosystem.

Which is fantastic, because, guess what, I love Hive and hope that everyone out there starts utilizing what we have to offer.

So we are on the same side when it comes to that.

However, you did go through numerous points about your opinions and if I may, I would like to answer them in the same order, with ref. to the proposal and the relevant links/justification.

Wish me luck! Because in this day and age it seems to be harder to get people to agree on the positives of anything than to disagree over the differences! Or maybe that has been the case with humanity for a little longer than FB arrive on the scene! But I still prefer to blame FB for it all! :)

Your point:

I really like this idea, though I think it could be improved.

Answer. Fully agree. Hence the proposal. "Improving" also includes Expanding.
Expanding also includes a much larger outreach to people all over the internet.

That we can agree upon, in fact, I believe we probably do.

However, the point you made about "us assuming", well, let me quote:

So, as you can see, the sources are not "us" the creators of HiveTips, it is also:

Hackernoon
Will digital tipping become cryptocurrencies first real-world use case?

Coindesk
The Tipping Point of Bitcoin Micropayments

& the all too well known:

Statista.com

www.statista.com

Important enough to for these and many other relevant sites which are concentrated on economics and cryptocurrencies.

Just that last link kinda addresses your own admission to the possibility of:

It's an estimate, it could be wrong!!

Yet, to add to that, so as to ensure you see it from other sources and not just from the website that follows statistics and addresses them too.

Let's look at the fact that we have Patreon, yes, it can be called anything anyone wants to call it, but at the end of the day it is people giving from themselves to others.

Youtube, has options to donate to those on live streams, yet again, people giving to others.

Many of the games out there have similar options available, most of which are not crypto, but who says that crypto can't be used for giving in games all over the net!

and I could name at least a dozen more cases where giving/tipping is a normal daily practice and a gigantic market to tap into with a crypto currency.

But, let's get back to the links supplied in the proposal to back the idea of Tipping. The point made was, maybe there are some other people out there in this world who back the idea of tipping as a provable and practical use case for crypto currencies.

Why shouldn't that be HIVE?

Why let any of our competitors grab that market?

But OK, I do get your point and as I mentioned earlier, it is heavily influenced by the joys of the Hive ecosystem that we here are so aware of and so used to seeing, using and enjoying.

On your opinion about what you feel to be a step backwards or forwards, is somewhat tackled in the above answer, so it is clear that there are differentiating opinions on that and there is nothing wrong with that, in fact, I love the fact that you voiced your opinion so openly.

We don't have to agree on everything to work together to make Hive and HIVE everything they can be.

So, then we have:

What is a step forward??

To address this from an angle that may just compliment your point of view, but add a new light to the reality of things:

We quoted the fact that there are currently some 4.5 Billion, yep, Billion people on the net.

WOW.

The fact is, that number is expected to increase as time goes forwards.

We have tens of thousands of people on Hive.

Not all are bloggers, in fact, blogging is one of the lower ranking use cases of the internet. Big deal, the people who do blog, blog, just like gamers do their thing. It is all too good to be true, as diversity is BEAUTIFUL.

Without it, things would be "boring"!

This topic was addressed in the videos that are available here:

Comprehensive Video Series on HiveTips

& it is fully understandable if you didn't get around to watching/listening to them. This post was long enough all on its own. If you did, then "Well done". A post like this one, with all the follow up justification and proof provided would take me two to three days to go over in detail.

In these videos, we did go over the networking affect, which is so important to Hive.

But, rather than me go over it again, I'll let you watch/listen to them, when you need to fall asleep, as my voice does have a tendency to put people to sleep. So at least some good use of the videos! :)

What I wish to throw your way is the idea, the notion that diversification of use cases for our crpytocurrencies all over the internet will definitely help build a demand for them.
This may or may not, but most likely will have a positive effect on the market value, "more demand = higher price" (or so they keep telling us!).

More importantly, it introduces HIVE to people on other platforms. It also gives them a reason to utilize HIVE and hence the networking effect starts to take over. Humans have been humans since the first ones came to be. We are curious creatures!

Which then brings us to what you are saying and suggesting.

However, imagine how many great minds there are among the 4.5 billion people out there who currently do not own any HIVE, who have never heard of Hive, who don't have any use case for HIVE. Imagine if they find out about Hive and HIVE and HBD on sites that they want to hang out on doing what they like doing, instead of being pushed around or even bullied to do stuff that doesn't interest them.

PS. as for the creators sharing to and from Hive.

Check out:

AltYes

https://www.fullalt.com/ps/

Another little freebie for anyone and everyone out there on the internet.

That is being worked on and has no need for any cofunding, as it is just about to be completed as soon as HF24 is over and done with. Then we will work on finishing that baby off!

Which is exactly what you are talking about and making it all too easy to do and accomplish.

There is one more thing that I would like to mention though and I am sure we will agree on that:

Our crypto can be utilized in so many ways, it isn't limited to simply one use case. The more diverse use cases out there, the more it will be accepted by various people on the net.

The crypto markets are ruthless and if we don't do whatever it takes to compete then we can kiss any idea of going to the moon goodbye.

Tokenizing the internet, literally requires us to accommodate to the diversity of customer needs and wishes. Who are we to tell the billion or so people tipping hourly that they shouldn't do that.

We can however offer them a solution that is fast and feeless, unlike what they have to date!

Hive can do that.

Most of our competitor cryptocurrencies can't!

Man, I need to learn how to not type an essay when replying, but I'll blame you, you gave me a pretty good one pager to reply to, so well split the blame 50/50 on this long reply.

Hope that this helps give some different and positive perspectives on things, so that we can find common ground and build on them together.

Hive is Alive!

Cheers.