There is (was?) a hardfork scheduled for the 22nd of September, which is 5 days away, but I am not sure it is going ahead yet - which I find kind of weird. The fork is mostly a clean up of code and performance tweaks - but there is some contention around the Hive Development Fund.
I am still of the mind that the ninja mined stake of Steemit Inc would have been better off burned, as it would have sent a strong message as well as lowered the inflation over the last four years significantly, without affecting any current Hive user group. One can only hope that whatever happens with it, it is used to improve the chain and strengthen the community - but I think it will always cause rifts. Which is why (like the one ring) it should have been burned.
While always interested in Hardforks, this one is a little less interesting for me as it doesn't have as many community level tweaks involved that affect user behavior. I think this is why so few people are posting about it, unlike for example the Hardfork that brought in the Economic Improvement Plan or the one for Resource Credits.
When people feel their individual "way of life" is going to be personally affected, they are more eager to speak up, especially if they think it is going to be negative. When it is something boring like under the hood changes, there is less interest, less discussion - Less emotion.
For example when 
Right now, I like the development to happen that focuses on scalability and sustainability, just in case we do happen to get a rush of new users onto the platform. It is far less disruptive to trial things now when there are not many active users than when there are many relying on the chain to perform. The more users, the more impact errors make and if there are many applications leveraging the chain with sttobg user bases, there is more risk with greater losses involved.
I am hoping that the next hardfork will more heavily look at community aspects that affect user experience, but I do hope that the economics will keep getting tweaked and people will be brave enough to try things. The goal has to be to create value for the many, not just for large stakeholders - but it also has to think about what that value means.
User experience is very important but with the continuous move toward second layer solutions for end users, the base layer user is an investor. I think this is part of why many people get emotional over the changes, as there are still many who believe that the base layer is to earn on as a creator and that should be the focus. While that is the case now for distribution purposes, it can't drive design of the chain forever.
Imagine if a company let shareholders drive the design of their end product, would it be made for the end user experience or for profit? But, the question of what Hive is could come into play here. Is it an enduser product or, is it the factory that makes end user products? This is an important distinction because if a factory that supports the second layer applications, the consideration of the sharehold on the base layer has to be taken into account, as without stability, the application products won't be built and there will be no valuable and scalable end user experience, nor investment opportunity.
I think Hive is unique as it has been able to successfully onboard normal people as users and convert many into investors along the way. But eventually, the distinction of whether the base layer is the investment vehicle or the end user product will have to be made in order to clean up the understanding and build a strong marketing message. Companies advertise their products to end users, not their investment opportunities. The products of Hive are second layer experiences, not the Hive blockchain itself - the blockchain is interesting to developers and investors who see the potential of owning a piece of the infrastructure.
Anyway, these are just some thoughts that were knocking around in my head while singing my daughter to sleep and I consider worth sharing. Still don't know if there is a fork in 4 days, but there will be one eventually, so be ready.
Taraz
[ Gen1: Hive ]
