Money Goes Where Treated Best!?

Should I set an objective to become a LEO dolphin? 🐬 Or continue "stacking" BRO tokens? 💰 Maybe some combination of both? Upon what should I base making the decision?

^{Source: Based on image created by geralt on Pixabay}

Anyone who follows my blog knows I am first and foremost an investor. Otherwise, we would have almost certainly never "met." As initially explained in my "First LeoDex Transaction" post, unaccustomed to having discretionary funds to think about, that has all changed in less than a month. As touched on briefly at the beginning of my "Got BRO?" post, a key focus for investing them has been "second layer" communities, built on the Hive blockchain.

So, with new funds to invest, what should I do? When it comes to investing money, we are all well advised to seek the input of others, before making final decisions.

One of the brightest financial minds I have ever come across is Dr. Steve Sjuggerud and I was recently glancing through some older material and came across this post on "Money Flows to Where It's Treated Best" on his DailyWealth website. An excerpt:

"If an investment offers a higher return than other alternatives, money flows there. Prices go up, and future returns go down. Eventually, the opportunity disappears, and money will flow somewhere else."

While this phrase and concept are not new to me, it had been awhile since I had both heard and, more importantly, taken some time to think about it. Refreshing my memory of this concept seemed to provide an excellent start on answering my question above?

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Or did it? First, let's take a closer look at these two communities, which are in focus for me at the moment.

LEO? 🐬 ... or ... BRO? 💰

With the link above provided, I will not be spending any more time on elaborating on this concept behind the title of this post. Why? Books, let alone posts, have been written about it. If the subject is of interest to you, I would encourage you to research it further. To help you in the future, making well-informed decisions.

What I will elaborate on is the choice before me between the LeoFinance and the Man Cave communities. Here are two bulleted lists of key impressions made on me, so far.

LeoFinance:

Creator / Leader: @khaleelkazi. An organization is only as good as its people. While I don't know this man, he made a very favorable (and lasting, as here I am ...) impression on me with both the speed and content of his response to my "First LeoDex Transaction" post. Key supporters, who do know him, say he is determined to make this community a success or die trying.

As both an investor and a "numbers guy," it is well within my "comfort zone" to see all that this community is doing. Love their "road maps." Even more impressive is their steady delivery on the "promise" of these roadmaps, i.e. not just talking about it, but "bringing them to life!" 👍

Much more could be written. I will sum it up by saying, from "the outside," the LeoFinance community appears to me to already be the most successful community on the Hive blockchain.

So @roleerob ... If this favorably impressed, why have I not been more involved up until now? Their current UI has been a "deal breaker" for me, up until recently. Even then, it is only the prospect of it soon (?) being entirely replaced that has inspired me to overcome this "inertia" and try to make the best of it.

Man Cave:

Creator / Leader: @raymondspeaks. Again, an organization is only as good as its people. A self-professed community organizer and "what I'm made for," Ray is, from all impressions so far, the "real deal." If he has taken a "false step" yet, since I became aware of and involved with the Man Cave community, I have not discerned it. Very rare ...

#1 is reinforced by the team he has around him, who have been associated with him far longer, through "thick and thin" it seems. In their own words, they appear to me to be saying more or less what I just said above ...

This community's "value proposition?" Most definitely, given how "close to the vest" Ray "holds his cards" a little uhhh ... "fuzzy!" 😏 One of his key responses, in his justification of this, is how easily copied ideas are. Well ... Hard to argue that I suppose, certainly in these "decentralized" and open-source coded "virtual worlds."

Unlike the comparatively clearly defined path and vision of the LeoFinance community, the Man Cave community's vision is much more abstract. In our crazy, messed up world, where men are too commonly referred to as "oppressors" and "toxic," the idea is to create a bit of a uhhh ... "sanctuary," where it is okay to be men and feel "safe" to do "man stuff."

Great concept and one which I, as well as many other men, can fully support. Can it be "monetized?" And made "profitable?" That remains to be seen!

I welcome input on which of these two directions you'd recommend I focus my time and treasure. "I'll leave the light on" while I wait! 😉

Note: Before moving on, I want to say I believe there are many excellent communities here on our Hive blockchain. With both very passionate leadership and their vision of what "might be," as well as equally devoted and passionate followers. Faor all of us, I hope they ultimately make it. That said, it would take another whole post to go into any depth on why, I have chosen to focus on these two, for now. Perhaps another time ...

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The old saying is - "it takes money to make money" ... Where is it going to come from?

From my May 2018 start "in here" through to my post HF23 decision to power down on the Steem blockchain, I have always fallen dutifully in line with the "Power Up! Power Up!" mantra so commonly heard. Resulting in no decisions to make about "discretionary funds," as there were none.

With some likely exceptions to be made here and there, that is now over for me. In line with the details in my "Money Making Money" post, I will be reinvesting the steady "flow" of HIVE and HBD from various sources.

This "new chapter" in my ~~Steem~~ Hive "journey" began with discretionary funds, from powering down on Steem. That source has not dried up yet, with the recent creation of the Blurt blockchain. And plans for the Zapata blockchain. I have started powering down on Blurt. I will power down on Zapata ...

While I could write a post or two about my perspectives on these new blockchains, it really is not a very complicated decision for me. I am simply unwilling to even think about the time it would take to start over on a new blockchain. I will simply transfer whatever value can be obtained here.

To be clear, unlike too many others, I bear them no ill will, in their endeavors. I wish them well.

"Dry powder" ... 😉 As mentioned more than once elsewhere, I have the means to hold a much greater stake in here than I currently do. For the most part, I stopped investing fresh funds, after HF 21 /22. Perhaps my experience with these "second layer" communities will provide some inspiration to reconsider.

^{Source: Creator UniBay on Pixabay}

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Are the decisions before me (and you ...) as "simple" then, as focusing purely on the "flow of money?" I would suggest to you that it is most definitely not that "simple." At least here on the Hive blockchain ...

Let's take a look at an entirely different perspective ...

A Hive "Middle Class" and Curation "Points of the Spear"!

"We interrupt this regularly scheduled program" ... 😉 All that I have written above is well and good. And represents "classic" investing advice and applying the "conventional wisdom" of "thought leaders" on how to "do it right" ... Except for one "teeny, weeny" problem ...

Enough quotes for you, dear reader? Yep, they were intentional! The problem? "In here," the "market mechanism" has no where near the power of the "free markets" out in "the real world!"

In a word, it is fixed! 😳 What?

The "free market"
of the Hive blockchain
is "
fixed!
"

Whoa ... Why would I make such a statement? Post(s) could be written in response. For this post, I will simply provided a bulleted list of key concepts:

The Hive "ecosystem" is totally "digital." That is, it is a computer-generated "virtual world" totally and tightly controlled by programming code. Black and white. 0s and 1s. No shades of gray ...

The "real world" is "analog." As a result, "out there" we find infinite "shades of gray" in the global mix of nations, cultures, and "human nature," in all its "glory." In which free markets are impacted by "influencers," e.g. the rule of law, state regulations, politics, etc. which have no true equivalent on the Hive blockchain.

Set aside earning author rewards for creating content, which drew most of us here in the first place. The EIP changes of HF 21 / 22 placed an intentionally sharper focus on curation. They went up. Author rewards went down. Fixed!

There was intense discussion about these changes on the Hive blockchain, prior to their implementation. Any decision we make has consequences. Rapidly approaching a year later, what were the consequences of these changes on curation?

Good news: We have more selfless, manually curating "points of the spear." These are community curators that give of their time to find quality content upvoted by community accounts, not their own. Others follow, in support of their considerable efforts.

Better news: We have a (very slowly) growing middle class, which is generally considered to be a sign of a strong, robust, health economy, in the "real world." There is nothing convincing I have ever seen "in here," to suggest otherwise.

^{Source: Creator mohamed_hassan on Pixabay}

Are you on the "fully decentralized" side of spectrum about how best to characterize the Hive blockchain, dear reader? Or more on the side of the spectrum believing we are "ruled over," by a deeply entrenched "oligarchy?" 😏

Going right past my answer, I want to use this thought process as a "springboard" for simply pointing out the powerful incentive we should all have to see replication of ourselves by 100X! By 1000X!! Do I hear ... 😉

Why? Simple supply and demand and the end result on the HIVE token price of a dramatic increase of "happy" and "prosperous" fellow Hive bloggers.

"At the end of the day," we can distill this down to a key question:

How much does the
"
delayed gratification
"
of pushing rewards out to others
vs.
"maximizing" them to ourselves
matter on the Hive blockchain?

Delayed gratification? What @roleerob?! 😲 Yes, the long-term "a rising tide lifts all boats" view of helping others, who ... In turn, help others and recruit new participants, from their network of "real people" out there in the "real world" ... "Wash, rinse, "repeat" ...

Ouch, ouch, owwweee @roleerob! "You're hurting me!" "I don't wanna think about it." "Leave me alone ..." 😉 To finish my light-hearted attempt to make a serious point, I'll borrow from the almost universally known "Star Wars" reference and say - "The WIIFM (What's In It For Me?) 'force is strong with that one.'" As you read these words, are any accounts coming to mind? 🤔

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Let's close this portion of my post, with reinforcement of what I have just covered, by presenting two final points about the consequences of the EIP changes of HF 21 / 22:

Bad news: Unlike the selfless, manual curators mentioned above, are there any self-focused "points of the spear?" In the absence of any "rule of law," we have instead "code is law." How's that working for us? Those so inclined and with the needed coding skills, can join the "club" that takes advantage of the code. By building "auto curation mining" bots ...

To be crystal clear, I am not talking about auto voting services like those offered by Hive Vote.

Worst news: Focusing on and underscoring the word "fixed" be clear the "rewards" available to participants in the Hive blockchain's "social experiment" are finite. Therefore, these "auto curation mining" bots are effectively "rewarding" one "club," at the expense of those in the other "club." How many members, dear reader, do you think are in each?

Question:
Can "auto curation mining"
rightly be considered
"
parasitic
"?

Would it be overstating it, to say these last two points could reasonably be considered as confirmation and justification for those who have a "the rich get richer and the poor get poorer ..." view of the Hive blockchain? Think about it. You decide ...

To be sure, the creation of the Hive blockchain can and IMHO should be classified as "brilliant." But ... It is in your best interest, dear reader, to understand the limitations of it, as much as possible ... While you may choose to disagree with some of what I have written, I would suggest to you it would be a mistake to pass it off as "nothing to it" ...

With that, "welcome" to the Hive blockchain and "come on in!" It is just a whole lotta "fun!" 😉

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In this post on investing, the "bottom line" is investing in HIVE is not the same as investing in the best known example of its alternative, BTC. Hive is far more nuanced and complicated. In my little black-and-white engineering "pea brain," I see the distinction as HIVE being a "smart" crypto, with a whole "ecosystem" built around it, while BTC is a "dumb" crypto, laying claim to simply being "virtual gold" ...

My point? This post began with "classic," age old investment advice which I believe can still be viewed as applicable to cryptos like BTC. But applying it to HIVE? After reading this post and many others, you be the judge. After all, "You are your own bank!"

Which then ... Brings me full circle back to the importance of communities on our Hive blockchain. And making a determination on which, of the two I have chosen to highlight in this post, to focus on for future investment of my "time and treasure" ...

Your thoughts and input in the comments below are welcome!

With the higher priority need to attend to some family matters delaying the publishing of this post, three days ago (July 21st) it was announced in The Man Cave community that its recently announced ~ 300K HP delegation was being removed. 😯

It had been in place for less than 3 weeks. What happened? Why this change?

"He's doing it in anticipation of markets picking up ..."

Announcement channel in The Man Cave community's Discord server.

A better opportunity elsewhere!

^{Source: Investing Caffeine post on "Money Goes Where Treated Best"}

And there's more:

"... my delegator telling me that they were removing their delegation and powering down."

Announcement channel in The Man Cave community's Discord server. [emphasis added mine]

So ... We are faced with not only a 300K HP loss for The Man Cave community, but potentially a 300K loss for the Hive blockchain, as well! Stake movements of this magnitude have "market" consequences. We would like to believe there is "smart" money sitting on the "magical sidelines" somewhere eagerly waiting to buy this 300K HIVE and, therefore, the price will remain stable. Right? If this "smart" money is headed elsewhere, what does that suggest to you?

This news certainly will have a significant short-term impact on the community. It is unavoidable, as it drops the daily curation reward for this account, a key in attracting interest to it, in the recent "relaunch" of The Man Cave community.

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Full disclosure: No, I did not offer the @america account anything to take this action to provide the perfect illustration for my post! 😉

Closing

As succinctly and concisely as I can manage, dear reader, I have attempted to capture the "dynamic tension" inside this "virtual world." Are you focused on making (more) money? And applying "conventional wisdom" in doing it? If you have been "in here" any length of time, you know at least something about the challenge of how best to go about doing that ...

Myself a life-long "free market" advocate, I realize at the end of the day, we are all going to pursue the course we deem best. For all sorts of reasons. Some of which will be rational, logical, financially sound ... And others? Well, again, if you have been "in here" for any length of time, you can only marvel at "what the ...?" 😲 thoughts which will inevitably come to you, as you watch in amazement what others choose of their own free will to do with their "free market" decision-making opportunities. Just like in the "real world" ...

I have a decision to make. Any input you might have on my original questions are welcome. And, as always, I’d love to hear any additional feedback you may be inspired to provide.

Until "next time," all the best to you for a better tomorrow, as we all work together to build up our Hive Communities and add increasing value to our Hive blockchain! 👍 😊

Respectfully,
Hive Blogger & Man Cave "Dragon" @roleerob

🐝 🍯 🐝

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P.S. If I were a committed Hive "maximizer" and focused exclusively and solely on making money, I would be breaking up my content into multiple posts. Instead of just one ... Well, as we can see here once again, that is not my style. For personal reasons that transcend "maximizing" and all that word implies ...

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🌲 No trees were harmed in the publishing of this post! 🌲

Interested in reading more of my related posts?

Lead Image	Title, Link, & Summary
	Land of Leo: My First LeoDex Transaction!? With discretionary funds from powering down on the Steem blockchain, I decided to invest some of it into additional LEO tokens. This post covers my experience with attempting to do it on LeoDex.
	The Man Cave! New Hive Community and First BRO Tokens ... How does any "new chapter" in our life begin? Are there ever really any coincidences in our lives? In this post, you will read my story behind the discovery of The Man Cave, a relaunched community for "man stuff!"
	Yo! Got BRO? Oh no ... 😞 Go! 👇 Since my discovery of The Man Cave community, I had developed a steadily increasing appreciation for it. And had invested into it accordingly. This post was written to encourage others to seriously consider doing the same!
	💲 Your Money Making Money! 💰 Sound Good? How can we apply the "eighth wonder of the world" to the new BRO token of the relaunched Man Cave community? This post addresses that question, along with touching on some of the vital discipline needed for financial independence.