The only reason I can think of for someone with money, to be asking a question as to why they should invest their money in a thing, when they could easily be investing it in another thing, is because they are intrigued by the thing first, and growth second.

Under the current vote-up model, there is no real immediate incentive for investors. You would be correct. The current model seems to be designed to entreat more organic, interactive, and creative growth for the purpose of attracting more of a "mainstream" user.

If I were Hive, this would be my primary goal--to expand and mainstream the userbase. What good is an engine that drives itself into the ground on inflated-auto-self-upvotes?

I agree with @mykos in the pyramid aspect. It's either going to be pillaged quickly by a few, or slowly by many. But pillaged it will be. Unless....it is mainstreamed productively.

And as we know, what this platform offers that ordinary social media platforms do not, is the introduction of the DAPP, the introduction of an intrinsic and independent economy, and the potential for smart media contracts. Decentralization could be another potentiality as well, but it's not completely unique.

If I were Hive, I would be asking you for money to invest in marketing, onboarding, CENTRALIZING of utility of the DAPPS, and simplifying the interfaces and exchanges for a more common hooman to use. I would be creating a central hub, or "fiverr", as it were, where devs and business owners alike could mingle.

Meahwhile, attracting more mainstream users via the "blogging" DAPP as a great way to bring more people together in a field for business owners to harvest from, through their advertising.

Incentivizing bloggers (non-investors) through upvotes and a supportive community isn't going to do squat without a long term growth plan on how we bloggers will be farmed for some kind of value in return. Sell our information like Zuckerberg and go to jail. I don't care. But we bloggers have value that is not intrinsic. It must be harvested. We must be lured into your games, your programs, your support groups, your gimmicks, and your products.

There is the value. We are the consumer. We buy things. We use things. We watch things. We eat things. WE are the ones contributing to this economy. WE are the real value. And WE are the real reason you want to invest.

But blogging and voting this place to the ground will not do any good long term, as the HP will be powered down every time -- unless there is a game plan to add value by bringing in users who buy stuff from business owners, and business owners who buy stuff from devs. The value of HBD will increase as people invest in this idea of centralizing the DAPPS hub, strengthing and growing the blogging community, and decentralizing the distribution of the coin.

As far as I understand it, both LEO and KOINOS have a plan to do all or most of the above. I don't know about Hive.