It is pretty interesting to se how various people react to declining prices, with some who were "all-in" just a few days earlier, reacting strongly in the other direction. But, one of the things that has to be remembered is that when you attract a userbase on price, as soon as there is a better ROI somewhere else, they will abandon ship. This is especially true for the maximizers who will jump from boat to boat, always chasing the highest return, never staking out some ground and laying a foundation to build upon.
Currently, near the entire crypto scene up until this point today and for the short-term foreseeable future is driven by a chase for ROI. There is no loyalty, there is no community, there is only the feigning to be considered one of the group - as price drops, the fractures appear and the comradery turns altogether different.
Loyalty is a foreign concept for the most part in todays society, because everything has been made disposable, including ourselves as individuals. We are all throwaway items, replaceable with a thousand alternatives. People jump from app to app and partner to partner with the same frequency, it is no wonder that platforms and projects in the crypto space are having a hard time holding attention for long.
When it comes to DeFi products, many of the projects are very much the same and without usecase, there is nothing holding anyone to anything. It isn't personal. Literally. What is the difference between staking onto platform 1 or platform 2, other than the APRs?
This is the challenge the projects are going to have as while everyone is asking "Wen moon" what people actually need in order to stay is the WHY.
This is where Hive has stickiness, as even though price continue fail as attention seemingly keeps looking it by, the active community has reason to be here and it is more than an income stream, more than the ROI on investment. The active people of Hive have themselves here too, they are part of the blockchain - as the content they share is theirs, the comments they make are theirs, the wallet they hold and the HIVE they stake is theirs and, the account they created, is THEIRS.
It is very personal.
If only people realized how much humans value ownership of what they create - like that poorly constructed and crooked spice rack that could be replaced with one from a shop cheaply, but it can't be replaced, because it is personal.
People seem to think we shouldn't be attached to our investments, but if what we are investing into isn't something that can't create an emotional bond with the market, it isn't going to last. As an investor one needs to recognize the line, but also recognize when the product has emotional appeal, that it becomes a part of the user's daily routine, their sense of worth, their heart. Mainstream Social Media has done a very good job of creating this connection and feeling of ownership, without having to give ownership at all - it is just a feeling.
It is because of this that the next evolution of DeFi has to connect people to the platform itself with more than just APR. They will have to bring utility in some way, a service, a product a why this over that factor. at the moment, people do not seem to care, but eventually as they are chasing yield, they will get caught out and have their gains wiped away, with no ground left to stand upon. As they say, if you don't stand for something, you fall for anything.
One thing project teams will have to acknowledge is that while times are good, people will appear to support them, but most are only there when times are good, because they think they can squeeze a little more ROI out, get a larger vote. But, they expect continual rise and they expect the moon to be delivered soon - development, innovation, utility and sustainability are meaningless - because they will be in and out before any of those things come to fruition. This is different in a lot of startup environments because, once in, it is very hard to get out without incurring a massive financial hit. For many, once that capital is invested, it is going to be locked up for years, fingers crossed all the way.
It is a funny thing, as people want the next Apple or Amazon without acknowledging that they took decades to build and they went through some pretty tumultuous timers along the way. They want the polished products, but they do not want to back the development of them and they have no concept of what it takes to get there. Everyone is in such a rush for the moon, that nothing ever gets off the ground.
Yes - some people will become individually wealthy, but they will have nothing to show for it but the money they made and the stuff they bought with it - they will have nothing that they have actually created themselves, nothing they own.
I think that those who are creatives here understand the value of creation itself and, the value of having what they have constructed, remembered. There is not a person on earth that can do what I do, the way I do, with the experience I have - it is absolutely unique and it will forever be mine. People could copy, people could rehash, but they can't beat me to it, they are always going to be verifiably after, unoriginal duplicates. This doesn't mean that what I create is valuable to anyone else but me, but if I can make a spice rack good enough that someone is willing to pay a little for it, I am doing okay.
This is my ground, this is my stake, this is part of me. Even if I stop today and never right another word on Hive, what I have created until this point will always belong to me. Even if no one knows who I am, there is more than a transaction left on a blockchain to show I have passed this way.
In time, the next Apples and Amazons will be built on blockchains and people will eventually say, "I wish I had invested" at the start. Some people will have invested and, they committed to holding their investment because they had a reason to believe.
If there is a compelling enough Why, When is just a matter of time.
There are a lot of steps before building on the moon.
Taraz
[ Gen1: Hive ]
