A decade on the blockchain

I was expecting this comment from @hivebuzz, but was not sure when it would come. I knew today was the tenth anniversary of me joining the old blockchain. Back in 2016 I was feeling a bit down as the social site I had been using had just been shut down. That was Tsu which paid users a share of their advertising revenue and you could earn well if you could bring in more people. One of the people there was @the-bitcoin-dood who suggested I check out this new thing called Steemit. I had been burned before when sites shut down. Google were notorious for doing that (Google+, Waves, Buzz, Orkut), but I could see that a blockchain was harder to kill as long as someone was willing to be a witness. My first post went up a couple of days later. I think I was still figuring it all out to start with.

Things were somewhat different back then. The way rewards were calculated meant that some people could make thousands of dollars on a post if the big accounts gave it votes. There was some mechanism for mining rewards, but I think someone figured out how to exploit that. Obviously there were less users to start with so it was easier to get noticed. I did a lot of commenting back then. I ran a @hivesql query that showed nearly 80 people who joined before me are still active, but we have lost a lot of people over the years.

In the early days I was hardly earning anything and some of my posts made nothing, but it was still fun. Of course I was attracted by the possibility of earning, but I had been playing around with various social media for a while by then. After a year I had about 12000 Steem Power that was worth more than my account is now, but then $STEEM was a top ten coin for a while. I keep a record of some details of my account and can see it peaked over $100k in early 2018 and went even higher in early 2022 when Hive was still pretty new. I have to wonder if $HIVE can reach such heights again. The world has changed and crypto has lost some of its excitement. I still think that Hive as a platform has value as you can build on it with free, fast transactions and persistent data.

I considered going to the first Steemfest in Amsterdam, but was not sure if it was me. I did go to the second one in Lisbon and was so glad I did. Lots of people actually knew who I was even though I had only met one or two in person before. Mostly they were a very friendly crowd and it was a great event thanks to the efforts of @roelandp and his team.

Since then I have been to the events in Krakow, Amsterdam and Split. I have also attended a lot of events in the UK. We used to have a fair few in London, but some of those people left. There were a couple organised by @lloyddavis and I set up some myself. Hive people have assembled at some crypto conferences and exhibited at some of them. I get to these events when I can.

I used some of my rewards to fund some trips, but I have probably put in about as much as my account is worth now. It also funded a nice guitar.

I have posted about lots of topics including technology (I am a Linux fan), travel, running and music. I was part of the old Open Mic challenge run by @luzcypher. I did over 100 songs for that and was inspired to write quite a few myself. I have done my #FollowFriday posts for most of the time I have been here, but never claimed exclusive rights to that tag.

I used to be involved with some anti-abuse groups who would downvote those who tried to mis-use Hive with plagiarism and impersonation. I do much less of that now as I found it stressful. I have been blamed for various things, but I think I always acted fairly without getting into feuds and making it personal. That is against my nature and I doubt you could find many cases of me actually being nasty to anyone. There was one guy with control of a big account who used it to give himself big self-votes on several posts each day. He wiped out all my rewards at some point, but others supported me. During the Great Fork of 2020 when Ned sold us out to Justin Sun I expressed my opinion and ended up censored on the old site. You will find that my account there shows no posts or comments. I run a process to make them all point to Hive anyway.

I am well aware that everything is preserved on the blockchain forever and so have always been careful about what I say.

I have not been involved in many collaborative projects such as those who organise votes from big accounts. I did help set up @tenkminnows that I run now. It only supports small accounts to help them level up. I prefer to keep control of where my votes go. I have also run the #BritList for several years. It was started by @pennsif, but he picked the wrong side in the Great Fork and so others would not make him welcome on Hive. I do think that petty disputes like that have done us no favours. Those directly affected will spread bad vibes and others may be put off saying anything for fear of being targeted. I have found most people here to be friendly and reasonable, but some choose to use their power in ways I would not support. That said, we do need someone to keep dealing with the abuse as it is more rampant than you may expect. Anywhere that rewards are available there will be those trying to exploit them. We just have to be fair with those who come here with wrong expectations of what is acceptable. They need to be guided to a better path rather than just being chased away. Some will have something of value to offer.

I am disappointed that Hive is not much bigger. The reasons for this are not necessarily simple. I think that technically it is excellent, but we have failed at promoting the platform and at retaining users. We have had some quite big names here, but most gave up for various reasons. I think we need to support those who create real value here with content that can have wide appeal as they will tell others. I have my own areas that I enjoy such as music, comics and certain technologies. I do what I can to support those, but these days my vote is not that valuable.

Despite the disappointments I have no intention of leaving Hive. I have made a lot of friends here and met a fair few of them in 'meatspace'. It is not so much about the rewards these days for me as I think Hive has value in the technology and the possibilities of creating new communities that do not depend on corporations who try to exploit users. People just need to know that this alternative exists. In recent times we have seen a flood of new applications and games with many exploiting the new 'AI' technologies. We should have something for everyone and anyone should have the potential to earn from it if they bring something positive.

Here is to more decades of online adventures.

The man behind:

@tenkminnows: Helping good Hivers level up @proofofbrian: A bot that checks for tag typos #BritList: A monthly list of Hivers in the UK