As an ecosystem, Hive is unlike any other blockchain platform out there. Hive has a unique set of dApps, communities and infrastructure that set it apart from the rest.
In my opinion, Hive has been at the top of the stack for all blockchains out there for years. We have better tech, better dApps, better communities and fast & fee-less transactions.
So why is Hive not more widely adopted? I think there is a lack of awareness in the marketplace about Hive but I also think there is a lack of usability to this blockchain as well.
Once you're a user of it, things become really clear. As people who've used Hive for months or even years (Hivers) we have a unique perspective on how the chain works and all feel like its so natural.
The learning curve to new users, however, is not quite so easy.
LeoFinance is a dApp on Hive. We have an internal ecosystem that cohabitates with Hive in many different ways. Our ecosystem thrives when Hive thrives. Our ecosystem evolves constantly and we are always looking for ways to increase both in width and depth.
The features we keep rolling out are only possible because of the base layer tech that Hive provides.
pssst have you seen 
Consider something like Threads which are on-chain text transactions. They allow us to have microblogging in a way that no other dApp in the entire Crypto industry has.
On LEO, you can make Threads in seconds and those Threads live on-chain as microblogged text. There is no other platform out there that lets you do what Threads lets you do on Hive.
You can store 1,000 or 10,000 or even 100,000 threads per day on the Hive blockchain through https://leofinance.io.
That simply is not possible anywhere else.
But the question remains: is storing data for the sake of storing data enough value for Hive?
At LeoFinance, we aim to drive as much value to Hive as we can. The LeoVerse Ecosystem is constantly expanding what we do and what we offer to our users.
By creating a smooth onboarding experience and coinciding it with a number of wide-ranging initiatives, we've managed to onboard a bunch of new users in 2023.
These new users are now storing data on Hive. They storing Threads, Long-Form Posts, Comments, Upvotes, Custom JSONs, Token Transactions, etc. all on the Hive blockchain.
But again - how does this add value to Hive? If LEO scales to our December 2023 target of achieving 5,000 MAUs on https://leofinance.io, then how does that benefit Hive, the HIVE token and the broader ecosystem?
Resource Credits are what is needed in order to store data on the Hive blockchain. Without them, you can't store data on Hive.
New users needn't be bothered with Resource Credits.
Our philosophy at LeoFinance is that Resource Credits are like tolls on the highway. The users are constantly using the highway to transfer data and them using the highway is beneficial to LeoFinance. We need them to use the highway in order to grow, generate ad (and other forms of) revenue.
Thus, it's up to us to pay the tolls for our users. We pay them by owning HIVE POWER and holding a pool of Resource Credits.
Those RCs are then delegated out far and wide to our userbase, allowing them to send stuff along that highway and pay the tolls without actually having to pay the tolls themselves.
There are a lot of ways to add value to Hive. Whether creating or providing key infrastructure, securing the chain by being a witness, creating content to populate UGC or building a dApp that utilizes resource credits, you are adding value to the Hive ecosystem.
That being said, we believe one major way that HIVE will achieve a larger market cap and userbase - which is what we all want, right? - is through Resource Credits.
The RCs debate seems two-sided. Some believe in the future and some don't.
As a dApp ecosystem on Hive, we firmly believe in it. The more we grow, the more we've needed RCs.
We need RCs to create new accounts for our users. We also need RCs to delegate them to our users so that they can transact on the Hive "highway".
Thus, we're bullish on Hive from the perspective that more dApps like us will build and be successful here. The more successful they are, the more HIVE POWER they will need.
They will continue to accumulate and lock up that HIVE POWER in order to continue storing data on this chain.
The more dApps that store data, the more expensive it becomes (in terms of RCs) to store data. It's a virtuous cycle for the HIVE token.
Every company has to pay a "tax" of some kind. Whether it's a brick-and-mortar, web2 or web3 business like us. There is always some kind of "tax".
We believe that we're paying this tax in a small way now by holding a 7-figure stack of HIVE. But that figure is going to keep increasing as we need to pay a bigger and bigger tax to not just maintain our userbase but actually see it grow and thrive.
Hive enables us to build an amazing application at https://leofinance.io, but it ain't free. There is no free lunch. RCs are so cheap right now because there are so few apps actually eating up a lot of RCs.
What happens when LEO grows to 5,000 MAUs and beyond?
What happens when other dApps grow their userbases on Hive?
We'll start to see RCs get a whole lot more expensive. So when asked "how do we add value to Hive?" this is one of my main answers: by growing our own dApp userbase. It forces not only us to buy more RCs (HIVE POWER holdings) but it also forces other dApps to pay a slightly pricier tax to the Hive blockchain to continue storing data.
This is a healthy ecosystem balance and one that I forsee to keep growing. Bullish on Hive but not for the fugazi altcoin-promise of it... for the fundamental reason that I believe LEO and other dApps will grow and create greater needs for RCs.
pssst have you seen
