I almost forgot.
It's my Hive Birthday.
Damn. Time both flies and goes incredibly slow. So much has happened in the last six years since I joined Hive and of course, it wasn't Hive then, was it? I knew nothing about blockchain or crypto and had barely written a word outside of work before, let alone done any creative writing. Yet, within short order, I was writing often, then daily, then not missing a day - a streak that I have kept up for over five years now.
303 weeks of posting at least once per day.
68 months of posting every day of a month.
I think 
I think it is "officially" 1898 days in a row without missing a daily post. And it hasn't come without its ups and downs, nor has it been easy, since I tend not to post short posts and, I try to make them relevant to the community in at least some way. And, despite what some might believe, I have never been much of a shill, posting about how I think the price of Hive is going to be a hundred dollars, or constantly posting the same kind of content derived from articles from the internet and reworded.
This is my blog, which means it has to be my perspective.
And, while my blog is public, I have been involved on the backend of some pretty interesting times at Hive and Steem before, influencing various changes that have been made to the blockchain. Stake is your voice on chain, but stake isn't the only way to speak, content matters too, so does pushing ideas into the community through all the channels available. So, so many discussions!
It has been fun.
And heart-wrenching at times.
After putting so much effort into Hive, it is hard not to take things personally, but I think that in the last six years, I haven't had a blowout, haven't thrown a tantrum, haven't broken down under the pressure, no matter what is happening on chain, or in my life. I can't say the same for many here, as almost all have spit the dummy at some point, because of the investment into the experience Not just the capital investment, but the emotional investment.
But, emotional investment isn't enough. The financial aspect is a massive part of Hive and for all of Web 3.0 - if people aren't willing to be a contributing part of the economy, they are going to slowly be highlighted and weeded out of the community, unable to earn, living on the fringes of digital society, hoping for scraps to fall their way. So many people have had an enormous opportunity to build themselves here and instead, the risk was too much for them and they pissed it away instead.
It might still fail.
And they will laugh.
But, the current economic and government systems are so fundamentally flawed, that there has to be change. And, if we aren't willing to take the risk and invest into changing ourselves, we are destined to be consumed by the activity of a small group of others.
Be part of the solution - or fuck off.
Too harsh?
If the last couple years have taught us anything at all, it is that if we want to have a better future, we are going to have to play an active role in creating it. Being passive no longer will result in good median outcomes, because the system is set up to monopolize everything of importance, giving increasingly more to a decreasing amount of people. And, it only ever ends one way.
We have to opt out.
This isn't easy to do in entirety, but taking steps and being part of a different approach to governance and social organization is very easy to do, because that is what we are exploring on Hive and through crypto in general. So many people see this as a way to secure their fiat future, but the real value is in securing a decentralized digital currency future, where no single entity can control the direction - it has to be commonly agreed to by a varied set of stakeholders.
STAKEholders
It is there in the name, isn't it?
Got your stake?
I have about 230,000 HIVE and I wish I had a lot more, because at some point, I will likely have to cover some of my IRL debts, but I want to be able to also hold a significant slice of HIVE for what I think is going to be a bright future. I might be wrong, but this is one of the risks that I am willing to take for my family now, so that maybe in the future, they will be able to have a slice of that decentralized economy, rather than a continually crushing down of wellbeing, as the economy encourages now.
Whether it be on Hive or in the physical world, stake matters, so don't believe the bullshit of;
You will own nothing and be happy.
It is a scam.
You will not be happy, you will be reliant. You will be a beggar. And as we know, beggars can't be choosers, so you will be constantly living off the scraps that have been thrown to you, until at some point, not even that will come your way.
Participate or be made irrelevant.
On this day.
Taraz
[ Gen1: Hive ]
