Mm. Yeah, I feel you. The climb, even in these early days, feels pretty impossible. Part of the problem is, the whole "spend your time now and have faith" paradigm only works if you assume people have the basics of life taken care of.

Most people want to make enough to have a roof over their heads, food in their bellies, and the occasional treat. Until Hive can offer the masses this, it's not going to be a catching proposition.

Expecting newcomers to have faith in something that may or may not pay off ten years from now isn't exactly reasonable. Basically, unless you have a ton of money or talents specifically relevant to the platform (development), yeah, it's harder to make a small amount to sustain off of, let alone to save up.

I think telling people who are interested in the platform but are just barely getting by (that's most people at this point) might be turned off by "hey, just save up".

This might be part of the reason why Hive seems to be doing very well in non-western countries. The power of Hive to actually sustain these individuals and allow them to save is much, much higher.

Anyway, those are just my two cents.