Hive Engine

History

Launched by Jesse Reich (@aggroed), the project started in 2019 before the Hive Hard Fork, the engine in the previous blockchain was terminated in April 2023.|Reference: Steem Engine is Closing Down April 30th Posted by @aggroed on Hive in March, 1st, 2023 In the actual blockchain, Hive Engine uses the Hive Smart Contracts software created by @harpagon. The software scans all blocks added to the Hive blockchain for transfers, custom_json, or even comment operations that contain a certain sidechain ID. It then executes the smart contract function specified in the operation data and packages it into a block which is added to the sidechain. It also maintains the current state of the sidechain and all smart contracts running on it which can be queried using a familiar RPC API|Reference: Hive Engine FAQ Retrieved in June 16th, 2024.

As the founder explained at the beggining of the Hive blockchain, the layer 2 doesn't fork just because the layer one does. Because of the legal and physical restraints they had starting balances from scratch to make Hive-Engine work properly.|Reference: Hive-Engine and Steem-Engine Circumstances and Plans Posted by @aggroed on Hive in March 31st, 2020

Speaking in HiveFest 2020 conference, @aggroed revealed: "I'm trying to make it so Hive-Engine is one beautiful big back end that can power all of your front end businesses."|Reference: Aggroed Lighthacker (YouTube channel) - Aggroed HIVE Engine at HIVEFest December 18th, 2020

The Hive Hard Fork also inspired the creation of a general policy note, including the statement that in a hardfork where split (sister) chains are intentionally formed Engine will make a decision of whether to support the newly formed chain. In the event of a new chain being supported a new Engine will be created with balances starting from zero. No airdrop or benefit is guaranteed to holders in the event of supporting a new chain.|Reference: Hive-Engine Plans for April and May Posted by @aggroed on Hive in April 18th, 2020

Hive Engine Tokens

While deploying smart contracts on Hive blockchain was a good idea in the first place, the developer @harpagon shared in 2020 his impression that the only thing that Hive-Engine used it for was to allow tokens to be created and traded.|Reference: Do you really need smart contracts on Hive? Posted by @harpagon on Hive in June 8th, 2020 The tokens migration from the previous blockchain was made by an airdrop announced in May 1st, 2020.|Reference: Hive-Engine Airdrop starts today Posted by @aggroed on Hive in May 1st, 2020

In June 22nd, 2024, according the page https://hive-engine.com/tokens, there were 1.068 different tokens. The biggest supply and market capitalization was the Splinterlands game tokens Dark Energy Cristal (DEC). Splinterlands is the most popular Hive Gaming Dapps and also an @aggroed's successful project. The players are able to move the tokens to Hive Engine like another exchange listing, where they can be traded against HIVE (Cryptocurrency).|Reference: Splinterlands - DEC Markets - Hive Engine Retrieved in June 22nd, 2024 Every asset that can be owned by players within the Splinterlands game can be transferred to/from (and be traded on) HIVE-Engine. This means that not only Dark Energy Crystals are traded there, but tokenized game itens like Booster Packs, Plots of land, and even Raffle Tickets from the Praetorian Land Sale.|Reference: PlublishOx - Splinterlands and HIVE-Engine - A Guide Written by Chris Roberts (@splinterlore) in December 22nd, 2020 The transaction of buying or selling packs/DEC on the hive-engine market uses Hive Keychain, another decentralized application of the Hive ecosystem.|Reference: Splinterlands integrates Hive-Engine! Posted by @splinterlands on Hive in April 21st, 2020

Beyond playing games you could also earn hive-engine tokens from blogging, you just needed to add certain hashtags.|Reference: What are Hive Engine Tokens? Posted by Lebah Madu @lebah on Hive in April 4th, 2022 Some dapps tokens like LEO, issued by InLeo, former LeoFinance and now a microblogging platform, are used for content creation, curation, and staking, gathering a popular community for cryptocurrency and finance enthusiasts. LEO had seen significant growth in engagement and adoption in recent years.|Reference: Five popular tokens on Hive Engine based on their market capitalization and community engagement Posted by Monics (@jierene) on Hive in March 13th, 2023

As @vixmemon explained, when people create tokens they decide how they want to circulate those tokens for them to be traded on the hive engine. Sometimes, the circulation comes through air-drops and the distribution of tokens for free for many reasons. You would be surprised at how many tokens are in Hiveans (Hive users) wallets on Hive Engine.|Reference: Hive Engine - Swap & Trade Your Tokens on Hive Blockchain Posted by @vixmemon on Hive in November 29th, 2021

BEE Tokens

BEE is the native token of the Hive Engine platform, just like how ETH is the native token of the Ethereum platform. BEE is currently required to create a new token on the Hive Engine platform, and in the future it will be required to publish and execute custom smart contracts.|Reference: A Bit About WORKERBEE and BEE tokens .:. Why You Should Think About Investing in Them Posted by @ph1102 on Hive in February 16th, 2021

Tools

As soon an Hive Engine was launched after the Hive hard fork, developer Reazul Iqbal (@reazuliqbal) announced the HE Explorer, (https://he.dtools.dev) an open source Hive-Engine sidechain explorer that runs on your browser on top of Hive-Engine API. Its an exact copy of the former blockchain explorer that existed before the fork.|Reference: HE Explorer - Hive-Engine Explorer Posted by Reazul Iqbal (@reazuliqbal) on Hive in April 24th, 2020

Karaka (https://github.com/Stormrose/karaka), the automation (clerk) for Hive blockchain launched by @eturnerx, started to support Hive Engine tokens in May 2021. The tool offered a powerful set of commands to suit many situations like staking, transferring, buying and selling tokens.|Reference: Karaka Tutorial #2: Hive-Engine Tokens Posted by @eturnerx on Hive in May 9th, 2021

In September 2023 the Hive Engine Network Status API (https://netstat.hivelive.me) was launched by the developer Florent Kosmala (@bambukah). His tool checks all the Hive-Engine nodes and returns the list, sorted by ping, of every node (with some data). It's supposed to be useful to improve the experience of others Hive developers projects.|Reference: Hive Engine net work status API : Get the health of Hive-Engine nodes Posted by Florent Kosmala (@bambukah) on Hive in September 3rd, 2023

Hive Engine Witness

In the Hive Engine 2.0 upgrade, similar to the Hive Witness, it was introduced the layer 2 witness nodes also. Witness approval weights come from staked (and delegated) WORKERBEE (Hive Engine governance token), and an account can approve up to 30 witnesses.|Reference: Hive Engine P2P Launch Details Posted by @eonwarped on Hive in January 31st, 2021 At that time, IT professional Ervin Lemark (@ervin-lemark) had set up a Hive Engine witness node and shared the experience in his blog.|Reference: Becoming a Hive-Engine Witness Posted by Ervin Lemark (@ervin-lemark) on Hive in February 6th, 2021