How many people has Hive actually paid for posting and what did the typical one get?
Same source as the first post in this series: every comment_reward operation from the first Hive block on 20 March 2020 through 15 August 2026. This one only counts the author's half. Curation and the beneficiary cut are separate posts.
90,658 accounts have been paid for a post or a comment at least once. Between them they took 18,128,376 HBD. The average works out at 200 HBD each and the median at 2.08. Those two numbers being that far apart is the whole story.
| Lifetime author rewards | Accounts | Share of all paid accounts |
|---|---|---|
| 10,000 HBD or more | 259 | 0.29% |
| 1,000 HBD or more | 3,576 | 3.94% |
| 100 HBD or more | 12,958 | 14.29% |
| 10 HBD or more | 30,646 | 33.80% |
| 1 HBD or more | 51,580 | 56.90% |
Nobody has crossed 100,000 HBD. The highest lifetime total on the chain is 80,303 HBD, spread over 3,155 payouts and six years and five months of posting.
Concentration is the other half of the picture. The top 1% of paid accounts, 906 of them, took 47.5% of everything paid to authors. The top 10% took 92.9%. The bottom half of paid accounts share 0.1%.
The 40 accounts below took 7.5% of every HBD paid to authors on this chain.
| # | Author | HBD | Payouts | First | Last |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  @oflyhigh | 80,303 | 3,155 | 2020-03-20 | 2026-08-15 |
| 2 |  @tarazkp | 75,223 | 12,922 | 2020-03-20 | 2026-08-15 |
| 3 |  @poshtoken | 62,702 | 67,303 | 2020-07-25 | 2026-08-15 |
| 4 |  @taskmaster4450 | 60,299 | 4,482 | 2020-03-20 | 2026-03-21 |
| 5 |  @galenkp | 52,780 | 16,031 | 2020-03-21 | 2026-08-14 |
| 6 |  @cryptoandcoffee | 47,629 | 9,653 | 2020-03-20 | 2026-08-15 |
| 7 |  @edicted | 40,571 | 5,524 | 2020-03-20 | 2026-08-09 |
| 8 |  @tattoodjay | 37,878 | 8,879 | 2020-03-20 | 2026-08-15 |
| 9 |  @deanliu | 37,739 | 2,067 | 2020-03-21 | 2026-08-15 |
| 10 |  @erikah | 36,678 | 6,416 | 2020-03-21 | 2026-08-15 |
| 11 |  @papilloncharity | 34,797 | 12,056 | 2020-03-20 | 2026-08-15 |
| 12 |  @slobberchops | 33,153 | 5,793 | 2020-03-20 | 2026-08-11 |
| 13 |  @josediccus | 32,508 | 10,934 | 2020-03-20 | 2026-08-15 |
| 14 |  @khaleelkazi | 32,362 | 12,199 | 2020-03-20 | 2026-08-15 |
| 15 |  @revisesociology | 32,015 | 6,104 | 2020-03-20 | 2026-08-15 |
| 16 |  @taskmaster4450le | 30,821 | 27,692 | 2020-03-20 | 2026-04-24 |
| 17 |  @bozz | 30,770 | 22,383 | 2020-03-20 | 2026-08-14 |
| 18 |  @alokkumar121 | 30,695 | 6,769 | 2020-03-20 | 2024-11-20 |
| 19 |  @riverflows | 29,249 | 9,938 | 2020-03-22 | 2026-08-15 |
| 20 |  @pinmapple | 28,364 | 6,901 | 2020-03-28 | 2024-06-19 |
| 21 |  @kkarenmp | 28,281 | 2,324 | 2020-03-22 | 2026-08-05 |
| 22 |  @trumpman | 28,209 | 6,371 | 2020-03-20 | 2026-08-15 |
| 23 |  @derangedvisions | 27,852 | 5,008 | 2020-03-20 | 2025-10-20 |
| 24 |  @nainaztengra | 27,280 | 2,801 | 2020-03-22 | 2026-08-15 |
| 25 |  @mango-juice | 27,202 | 4,561 | 2020-03-21 | 2026-08-15 |
| 26 |  @libertycrypto27 | 27,115 | 9,534 | 2020-03-20 | 2026-01-27 |
| 27 |  @dalz | 26,377 | 2,648 | 2020-03-20 | 2026-08-15 |
| 28 |  @claudio83 | 25,947 | 5,279 | 2020-03-20 | 2026-05-24 |
| 29 |  @daltono | 25,886 | 4,451 | 2020-03-21 | 2025-02-14 |
| 30 |  @strawhat | 25,666 | 1,845 | 2020-03-21 | 2026-08-14 |
| 31 |  @geekgirl | 25,513 | 1,145 | 2020-03-21 | 2025-11-09 |
| 32 |  @solominer | 25,267 | 3,759 | 2020-03-21 | 2026-08-13 |
| 33 |  @jongolson | 25,182 | 9,544 | 2020-03-20 | 2026-08-14 |
| 34 |  @acesontop | 24,860 | 8,972 | 2020-03-20 | 2026-06-01 |
| 35 |  @daveks | 24,228 | 6,634 | 2020-03-20 | 2026-08-15 |
| 36 |  @rivalhw | 23,895 | 1,925 | 2020-03-21 | 2026-08-15 |
| 37 |  @mattsanthonyit | 23,184 | 4,179 | 2020-03-20 | 2026-08-14 |
| 38 |  @silversaver888 | 23,080 | 12,288 | 2020-03-20 | 2026-08-14 |
| 39 |  @fermionico | 23,025 | 3,069 | 2020-03-22 | 2026-08-15 |
| 40 |  @priyanarc | 22,884 | 3,370 | 2020-03-20 | 2026-07-22 |
| First paid in | Accounts | Lifetime HBD | Average each |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | 21,424 | 11,780,346 | 550 |
| 2021 | 23,406 | 3,668,874 | 157 |
| 2022 | 15,599 | 1,579,875 | 101 |
| 2023 | 9,361 | 556,077 | 59 |
| 2024 | 9,390 | 364,980 | 39 |
| 2025 | 9,785 | 170,631 | 17 |
| 2026 | 1,693 | 7,593 | 4 |
The 2020 cohort is 24% of the accounts and 65% of the money. Every cohort since has earned less per head than the one before it.
Of the 90,658 accounts ever paid, 4,855 were paid something in the last 90 days.
A reward pool split by stake weighted votes will always concentrate on any chain that works this way. The numbers above are what that looks like after six years. Whether that is a problem depends on what you think the pool is for. If it is meant to pay for attention it is doing what it says. If it is meant to bring in people who stay, the cohort table is the one to argue about.
Built from Hive chain data on 16 August 2026 · blocks 41,818,753 to 109,070,000 · figures in HBD at payout time
