It has been 53 moons since I joined the blockchain, that is 4 years today.
4,350 - POSTS
39,783 - COMMENTS
77,750 - VOTES CAST
739,588 - VOTES RECEIVED
204,618 - HIVE POWER
I was hoping to reach 40,000 comments by today, but fell well short.
At this time last year, I was looking forward to Steem finally starting to get some traction, SMTs finally on their way, all of the time and effort finally starting to make a difference. Well - that didn't pan out quite as expected, but here we all are, on a new blockchain with all of the past securely stored.
For me, this is quite a big thing, as while others may not agree, I think that out of those 4000+ posts, there is some pretty decent material to be found and a lot of quotes that could be pulled and cobbled together into something that might make an interesting little book one day, to be a very important chapter of my life. Perhaps, I will hire an editor to do the work for me as in those posts there is the estimated equivalent of about 40x 300-page novels worth of text. It isn't all gold by any measure, but perhaps with a little work, there may just be some diamonds in the rough.
It has been a very interesting journey from three core perspectives that have become heavily entangled through my time here - work, economy and community.
I have always had a good work ethic to whatever I have turned my hand toward, but Hive has taken the level of dedication to a new level, as it is not salaried and there are no guarantees on any kind of return at all, yet I feel that it is valuable enough to work at, to participate. I haven't missed a day posting since mid-2017 and usually, it is multiple times a day, but I get a far greater sense of purpose in being here than much of the other work I have done in my life - that there is more cumulative value to it.
Which draws in the economic factors of being on Hive. A lot of people will limit this to the financial side with the rewards, returns and potential for profit, but there is more to it than that. Hive is building a functional economy that creates a direct link between work and reward, as well as bundling all kinds of value streams together to underpin the economy in what is a transparent and verifiable way. In time, people won't have to guess at where value lies, it will be trackable along the entire supply chain. Eventually, hype will have less effect and fundamentals more, connecting value to performance.
A core of the value on Hive, is the community itself. I have spent a lot of my life being quite independent and non-reliant on others, which could be due to my exclusion from groups as a child. It was face the world and fend for myself or, stagnate - and wear the consequences of inaction in an unsupported network. Support comes in many forms and I think that working for the community to try and bring value to individuals and therefore, the groups they frequent, has helped me develop a broader appreciation for community in general.
I think that as far as a society goes, these three things have to factor heavily, with work being done to help the community and in so doing, creating an economy. A healthy society is able to continually negotiate these areas to drive development through changing demand, with reward going to those who satisfy community needs. The current global economy does a very poor job of this for several reasons, with a major one being able to create wealth without bringing value to the community needs. The reward goes to passive actors who do very little to generate real value in the economy.
Many of the financial vehicles can generate large volumes of value, but solve zero problems we face and this highly incentivized disconnection of wealth from societal need, leads to a great many social problems as the needs keep growing, but the ability to deal with them is reduced. We see the effects of this behavior daily - with growing unrest mounting and adding pressure to our world. We are also seeing innovative reactions to this, through things like the development of Bitcoin and the drive from retail investors in the recent GameStop trading battle, which is already seeing a response from interested parties.
As you can see - I suck at birthdays.
I said to my wife that this was the 4th anniversary of my blockchain life - by the look on her face, I am not expecting a present to commemorate the day. I take things seriously and perhaps it might seem too seriously at times, but I enjoy what I do immensely, and am grateful to have a place where my thoughts can not only be aired, but be exposed to the perspectives and continued thoughts of others. I think Hive is a place where a community can thrive, by adding value to the community itself, and the direction the world is pivoting is going to be toward places such as this.
There is more to it than free speech and immutability, more to it than the possibility for financial return, more to it than the connection through creation and the support of others in the community - it is a bourgeoning economy in its infancy, but in time, it will challenge the giants and what we learn here, will be taught to others.
Wisdom can't be learned from a book, it has to be applied and in order to apply, participation is necessary. Age isn't an indicator of wisdom, nor are words - behavior is.
Taraz
[ Gen1: Hive ]
Happy 4th blockchain birthday to 