Same reason I learned how to code for blockchain stuff. I do have money in the bank and a well-paying day job but since my wife had to quit her job due to it wrecking her with RSI then the pandemic hitting, we don't have spare cash around to invest. Everything I earn basically gets spent, including money from my side gigs.

My challenge now is finding something to apply those programming skills to, because as far as I can tell, there isn't anything yet that I could code that would generate hive or that people would be willing to pay hive for.