Before one can create a product or service they need to answer the who, what and why questions. I think for every decision you would have to take as an individual or as part of a cooperate entity will necessitate the answering of such questions as it offers clarity.
Recently, I was discussing on discord with other leaders of the hive-Naija community. The discussion entailed creating a blueprint for our operations moving forward and how best we can engender confidence and support from the Nigerian community scattered across the hive blockchain. I spoke about incentives or incentivizing people to participate in the community. The whole point of having or building a community isn't for monetary gains. I am doing pretty well as an author on hive and honestly trying to build a community is an unnecessary burden I have taken upon myself. However, I believe it is important to have a strong community. We all can attest to the strength of the Korean community during the hostile takeover and how they also played an important role in spilt. We probably would still be all on steem right now if their interest aligned with the witnesses, developers and community member who migrated to hive. So in essence, having a strong community is imperative if you want to have proper representation on the hive and that in turn can open new doors of opportunities for the said community members.
Before the 2018 downturn which saw steem drop significantly in price, we had a very vibrant Nigerian community, or should I say communities. Although they weren't what I was looking for then, they were active and helped me during my onboarding process. I will attribute our inability as chain to retain many new users because most of these communities are nowhere to be found. I probably would have not gotten past my first month on hive if I didn't have people who teach me most of what I know now about cryptocurrency and networking. So scouting for newbies and provided a safe haven for them is one of the things the hive-Naija community will be looking into. This is probably the best time to get people involved in cryptocurrencies because there are many looking for alternative means of generating income and a haven to express their creativity or opinions. The beautiful thing about hive now is that there are multiple things you can do on the chain asides writing. I do understand that many are not accustomed to blogging which is the basis for social interaction here. Some people just need a safe place to express their thoughts and rub minds with people show share similar interests. That for me is a major goal for the hive community.
The major challenge as a community is attracting new members. First of all, there are tons of communities out there for users to join, so why pick hive-Naija. This brings into question the issue of incentives.
We all being incentivized to use the hive blockchain. A sizable number of us are here for the money--that's what brought me here. Some are stacking enough so they can have some form of passive income when they retire; some are doing this full-time, and some are doing it for the fun of making money they don't need or use (I know people who haven't spend a cent of what they've earned here). Crypto is the major reason we are here and stay here--thats our major incentive. Take that away and you probably will have a ghost town. I can bet with you that fewer people who care about an immutable blockchain or censorship resistance. Unfortunately, that's what we are selling to the world.
I really can't tell what the right incentive is. We have tried a lot of things in the past and i would say it more about timing. For me is more important to keep building and creating awareness for our blockchain and also retain those who have entered this space with the rest of us because they are hard to come by.
There are so many communities on hive that offer monetary benefit and to be quite frank it is not my vision as a community leader to compete with that. My focus is more on the social experience. I don't engage much because there are fewer things that interest me. I am sure I will spend more time here if I find things that resonate with me and people who share a similar reality. This is the whole point of hive Naija from my perspective. I know there are so many of you who want to make a buck or two and there is no one saying you can't have fun in the process. At hive Naija, we hope to provide Nigerian with a haven from which we will build not only our social capital but also our financial capacity and influence on the hive blockchain.
So if you want to be part of this movement please consider posting or cross-posting your content to Hive-Niaja. I and other community leaders are looking into creating more ways to improve our social experience on the blockchain. I am certain with your support we will be able to build a vibrant community. Cheers.
For more information about the hive-ninja community and what we are trying to achieve check the link below: