The Hive cryptocurrency ecosystem contains one cryptocurrency, that has three forms Hive, Hive Power and Hive Backed Dollars. These three tokens have a relationship defined by one smart contract and they are transformable into each other by a process executed by another smart contract. Thus the ecosystem is contains three tokens and is run by two smart contracts.
Hive is a Cryptocurrency just like Bitcoin/Ethereum when it comes to having it's very own blockchain or distributed ledger, making this virtual token transferrable, fungible & a freely moveable asset. The Hive blockchain a permissionless blockchain ledger where no one has direct control over the network. This means that the tokens are "governed by cod"e and not an individual, corporation, government or bank. The intent on it's creation, appears to be a decentralized network, which is hosted on computer servers or nodes, which are run by people called Witnesses. These are distributed all over the world, and their job is to maintain the security and intergrity of the blockchain ledger and security of the Digital Currency. Hive is tradeable on cryptocurrency exchanges like Bittrex. Hive tokens are part of a permissionless ledger made accessible to the general public, making it a freely tradeable currency with little to no restriction where the end-user or parties decide on the final price and choose the preferred platform to facilitate this trade
Hive Power is Hive locked up in a Smart Contract where it is not tradeable or saleable.Emphasing on the word Power, Hive Power is symbolizing how much influence you have inside the Hive platform. Influence here is the same as value or amount of Hive you award with your upvote or approval vote on content posted here. If you have a lot of HP your upvotes will count more. Hive Power will result in that HIVE being transferred in what is also known as the VESTED HIVE or HIVE POWER and represents HIVE that is locked up in a Smart Contract which grants you certain a stake in HIVE, a Social Network build to distribute HIVE from it's Reward Pool.If a User wants to convert back from Hive Power to the base currency of Hive, it will be converted within 13 weekly conversions. Then Weekly Payments begin to convert Hive Power to Hive.
The Second Smart Contract is called Hive Backed Dollars or abbreviated HBD. This is a debt instrument that promises to distribute $1 worth of Hive to the token holder in the Future. HIVE Dollar is essentially HIVE in the form of a pegged Currency. HBD pays interest and HBD should be convertible to $1.00 worth of HIVE, however it will take 3.5 Days to complete a Conversion. Note that the Hive Dollar is a Smart Contract which is freely tradeable, hence why 1 Hive Dollar may not actually be worth $1 Dollar because of Free Market Demand & Supply, whenever HDB is traded on popular exchanges the price is directly influenced by Buyers & Sellers who set prices between each other. At any time, the value of the Hive Dollar is roughly equivalent to the value of the Dollar, the World's most popular fiat currency used as Benchmark & Standard, this Smart Contract is backed by HIve's own built-in Market Exchange. This stability is remarkable in the Crypto Sphere where prices are never the same the next day, with unstable price fluctuation. In fact, it eliminates some instability associated to Cryptocurrencies, which most agree is the largest barrier for adoption of Bitcoin or or other Altcoins.
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