This is an important question I think many people do not really consider. We speak about hodling, powering up, e.t.c and it is my belief that many people here do not have a reason other than the fact that is is a culture to hold cryptocurrency--not just withing the hive community but the crypto community in general.
A while back, a follower of mine nominated my account for curation (I didn't ask). It was an initiative to support content creators on our sister chain. The facilitator nulled my nomination on the basis that I wasn't supporting the community/ecosystem by powering down which is quite ironic because major stakeholder power down regularly to cover one or two costs for projects they run and hardly does anyone question that, but somehow an individual who powers down less than 100 steem token is said not to be pro-steem. I really do wonder sometimes if content creators are actually valued or they are just a means to an end.
I like to identify as a content creator rather than a stakeholder, although I am both. In my view, this is how I bring value to the ecosystem--by sharing content. I do not have disposable income like some of the major stakeholders to invest on hive. In fact, creating content on hive is one of my major source of income currently. If I did have that much to invest I probably would ditch creating content to curate, it's more profitable. Creating content every day to meet my earning goal is quite a daunting task. Now I have to create 2-3 content a day for four different platforms just so I can earn enough and reduce my dependency on what I earn here.
Going back to my initial question: why do you hodl? I think for many people the idea is to sell at some point when the token is more valuable. I really don't know how well that has worked out for many of you. If you ask me, one of the leading causes of frustration on steem/hive is that the asset hasn't done well in terms of price over the last two years due to the high inflation rate. A lot of investors have lost significantly in terms of the value of the token they hold so they come on here occasionally how shitty they think this project is. Well everyone is entitled to their own opinion.
I'm not hodling to sell at a later date--I am currently selling (to cover my daily expenses since this is the only job I have now and that's basically my liquid hive). The whole idea of hodling for me is to have an asset I can leverage on when I need liquidity--something that can be collateralized if that makes sense. It's like investing in a property, not everyone buys to sell. The property can serve as a source of income or an asset that can be collateralized when in need of liquidity. That's how I see my investment here in the long run.
Now, some people hodl because they want to earn more or earn community support. Some people are afraid to powering down because it has a negative connotation.
*He is powering down?
Oh he is just here for the quick buck*
A lot of people do not want that stigma and it's understandable. I don't want to power down. Fortunately, I have not done that ever since hive was created and this is due to the fact that I have enough liquidity to cover my expenses. I do not know what everyone's situation is. Some people might just be here to earn a quick buck but my take is: if they are actually adding value to the chain then why not?
I came across a tweet a couple of days ago by a witness who spoke about having some metric to gauge powering up and down of individual accounts as a way of showing those who have contributed to the community more. He also spoke about rewarding those said accounts which sounds about right until you consider the fact this is a content bases platform and content, to a large extent, trumps every other thing. Hardly to you hear about plans to improve the experience of content creators. This goes beyond just receiving upvotes but that's a discussion for another day. Yes, investors and hodlers are important, but content gives this entire meaning. Without content, we are basically just another crypto project. Rarely does anyone talk about the business side of content
creation or how to monetize the attention and content here which is the only way to give this platform and our coin real value? As I said, it's an entirely different conversation for another day.
These are some of the reasons why I think people hodl. So what is your reason for hodling? Why not sell/keep all that you here?
