Hive Is Not Democracy, But... .:. Late Night Blogging

I'm sorry if you thought that the governance part of the HIVE blockchain is a democracy, but that's not that bad to acknowledge... Especially if we know how "so-called" democratic countries are doing at the moment... Anyways, it's not that important if it is or it's not, it is important to know what you can do and how you can participate in the governance...

In the beginning, let us try to compare things from real life and our beloved HIVE... In a democratic society we pick the people (politicians) who will rule over us (I like to use these hardcore terms... 🙂 Others avoid using them as maybe they aren't "politically correct", but this is blockchain... 🙂 They are ruling over us!)... We can debate that we are doing the same on HIVE by voting for specific witnesses, which is true, but on the other side, we have another thing to acknowledge...

Hive is a decentralized blockchain which should mean that there is no centralized figure that can control the chain, how it develops, how it is configured, etc. That is true and nobody has 51% of all HIVE tokens, but... We do have whales that have a lot of Hive Power which makes their vote "more valuable" than someone else's vote... 1 whale vote who has 1 million HP is more worth than 10000 votes from people who have 90 HivePower... But...

While what I said is true, it doesn't mean that you, with 90 HP (or more, or less) have LESS RIGHTS than the whale with 1M HP! Recently, I have seen a comment from a person who was pointing out exactly that, as a DIFFERENCE in RIGHTS, which is completely unacceptable to do! HIVE is pretty much transparent and everyone can check so many transactions, follow the money, follow written texts, edits, etc. Even if you have 10 HP, you have FULL RIGHTS as anyone else on the chain, from minnows to whales...

You can ask questions, you can debate about things, you can suggest ideas, you can rant, you can call out bad behavior by malicious people, etc. This is YOUR network as much as anyone else... HIVE doesn't have a "ruler", but sometimes, I have to admit that some people think that they are RULERS of HIVE...

I suppose when money is involved, those "bad tangerines" come out on the surface sometimes... Speaking of money, I would like to touch on another important thing regarding our DHF (Decentralized Hive Fund)... As the name says, it is a "decentralized" fund which means that there is no OWNER of it... But, as in real life, you know the politician's drill... I have built this bridge!, or I will send humanitarian help to that county!, or something similar... While the bridge was built and money went to X country, all those things aren't done by 1 person, and especially not by that 1 politician...

The bridge and the help are paid with taxpayers' money! In the same way, funds inside the DHF aren't money from Jim, Joe, or Tim... It is money of ALL Hivians and everyone should participate in voting for proposals and distribution of those funds... I saw many times people saying, the X guy bought us Hive T-shirts or paid us entrances to an event... No, it wasn't that person, it was all Hivians who did that! It's nice that X person took RESPONSIBILITY to re-distribute funds, but not all the credits go to 1 person...

Of course, when we get to the situation that people VIEW things in that way, the obvious question arises... Are we still talking about the DECENTRALIZED fund? In decentralized systems, transparency is the MUST... Without it, it's impossible to maintain it for a long time as we people aren't too responsible when money is involved... Transparency keeps us ACCOUNTABLE!

So, what we can do in this "non-democratic" Hive? I would always encourage you to ask questions... There is no stupid question, only stupid answers... If you want to participate more actively in governance, raise your stake, power up more HIVE, make a difference... The DPOS system isn't perfect, but neither are others... Now that we know the rules of the game, we can play by the rules...

But you should never forget that YOU and the richest guy on HIVE have the SAME RIGHTS! You can talk, debate, ask questions...

Thank you for your time,

_ph