Thanks for the detailed and excellent comment on this topic!

I was aware of the situation with market making in general and also how dubious many of the practices are on centralised exchanges, but it's clear that Hive is competing in a marketplace within exchanges and needs to 'do different' somehow.

If there is a straightforward and logical solution here, it seems to be to increase the userbase of Hive and to increase demand and trading volume for the token. It would be helpful to know the kind of range of volume that you might have been told is a rough threshold for listing on some of the more busy/desirable exchanges.

It is initially sad to think that a powerfully decentralised project doesn't get enough love in the 'decentralised' marketplace because it is too decentralised and has a bit too much intention to stick to ethical ideas! However, I can also see how this could be carefully turned around in marketing messaging to help people see Hive as one of the few crypto projects sticking to the kind of principles that created Bitcoin.

It's already clear that a lack of public trust is a huge issue with crypto project promotion, so finding ways to educate the world on some deeper truths about the industry could achieve two goals in one - both building trust in Hive and also differentiating it from the competition. Clearly that would need to be done in ways that don't annoy the exchanges too, if possible!

I also wonder if there is a way to excite exchanges to use Hive as a platform to grow their own communities - it seems like a 'no brainer' on the surface, but as you pointed out - they seem to focus exclusively on trade income and not so much on human potential/needs. They could certainly gain some positive PR if they were to be seen to participate in projects that support real communities, instead of effectively operating along the same lines as the banks that crypto was intended to replace.

It would also be good to know some of the costings and general details of the market making options being suggested. All the available options for growth should ideally be considered by the community, even if we eventually agree that these particular ones aren't appropriate.

We will absolutely cover this topic as best we can when gathering data for this proposal, should it be funded. Sometimes just having greater clarity on a topic like this can inspire change to come in unexpected ways!