It is sad that we live in an instant gratification world. This is one of the reasons why we are falling behind in terms of the technological curve, at least on a historical basis.
Sure, we are seeing technology advance at a never seen before pace. However, when we compare it to past decades, we see the last couple we slower than they should have been.
What is the cause of this?
While the answers are many, one of the biggest things is the idea of getting rich instantly. This has penetrated Silicon Valley to the point where very little is actually built. Public corporations are operating on 90 day windows, maybe 180, and that is it. Anything long term is the next CEO's problem.
The last 10 years saw the development of a lot of apps. We live in a world full of them. After all, this is the path to millions, if not billions. Just ask the founder of Snapchat. While it might be a cool messenger application, did the world really need another one?
Ultimately, the point is that few are focused upon the actual building of something. In the past, it was not uncommon for things to take decades to really mature. Some of the greatest companies, and largest names, took a long time to hit their stride. In fact, it was not uncommon for their success to come as a result of something completely different than what the company started out as.
In the last 30 years, we do see a few example of this, even in the technology arena. Apple is one of the richest companies in the world according to market cap. It was started in the 1970s but was still a "not much" company almost 30 years later. The IPod allowed Apple to go from a niche computer company to laying the foundation to massive success. Naturally, the IPhone sent things flying.
Amazon is another company. Founded in the mid 1990s, during the dotcom craze, this company is now one of the most powerful in the Western hemisphere. Each quarter, it churns out huge amounts of profits. It seems like nothing is stopping this beast.
However, few realize that, as recently as 2017, the company was not the money printing machine it is today. The revenues kept soaring, yet profits were stagnant. Many analysts had a tough time justifying the price.
An interesting thing happened around 2018, the profits started to grow exponentially. Now, nobody questions the amount of money Amazon is generating. Nevertheless, we are looking at more than 20 years before it got to that point.
Another company that is in the business of building is Tesla. This one has its fair share of critics, often rightly so. It is following a similar path as Amazon. Started in the early 2000s, this company is a few years away from being 20 years old. The company has not been one to make consistent profits. That is now starting to change. Last quarter was their best on record.
While this one still is very up in the air as to whether it enjoys the success of the others mentioned, it does epitomize the point.
When we look at this, is it any wonder that guys like Bezos and Musk are two of the richest in the world?
Which brings us to cryptocurrency and blockchain.
The other day was the 12th anniversary of the release of the Bitcoin White Paper. To say that the leading cryptocurrency has come a long way in 12 years is an understatement. However, it is still a long way behind the companies mentioned when they reached their explosive stage.
Are we seeing Bitcoin just start to hit its stride? It is a case that many are many and is hard to debate. Either way, it was a long journey from the early days where 10,000 Bitcoin were used to buy a couple pizzas.
Certainly the price action was able to make many people wealthy very quickly. That said, Bitcoin did not truly have much of a place until recently. Here again, we see Satoshi's vision of a peer-to-peer payment system usurped by the fact it evolved into a digital store of value. We now have Wall Street companies dropping tens of millions (even hundreds of millions) into Bitcoin from their reserve funds.
Getting to this point was not an overnight process. It was years of effort by thousands (tens) of people around the world. Give it another 5 years and Bitcoin might be mentioned as often as Amazon or Facebook.
Hive is a blockchain where building is taking place. This seems to be something that frustrates a lot of people since they are into instant gratification. This is exemplified by their continual focus upon token price only.
Yesterday, we saw an update from 
Here is a line from the article:
One of the nice things about the architecture we’re moving Hive towards is that we can now add more capabilities to Hive without requiring a hardfork to do so.
This is a big deal. Of course, we notice the later part of the sentence, but what stands out is the word "architecture". They were changing the base architecture to something that provides greater flexibility and improvement. This is not something that is going to have in a few days. Nor will it send the price soaring to the moon.
Then we see this comment by 
@blocktrades/blocktrades-update-on-hive-development-work
All this is tied to the idea of developing a platform where people can come and build second layer solutions easily and efficiently. This means the cost of getting up to speed is going to be less while having a system that does not operate in a stalled fashion. One of the drawbacks to decentralization is that it tends to be slows, and more costly, than operating on a server-based system.
Naturally, all the important data will end up on the blockchain but not everything activity requires immediate connection. There are a lot of facets of different applications that run separate from the blockchain.
Nevertheless, for this to take place, the tools much be developed for these builders of the future to use. This is what we are seeing taking place right now across the Hive ecosystem.
We hear a lot of people proclaiming that Hive is dead. How often was that stated about Bitcoin? Amazon? Apple? Tesla? I still remember an analyst saying how he could not justify Amazon at $400 a share. The company, in his opinion, was not worth that.
Are people viewing Hive in a similar fashion? Everyone wants to be in the top 25 in terms of market cap. However, when we look at what is there, is there any value? What is actually taking place with many of those projects?
While name recognition is great for the asset based cryptocurrencies, it does not do much, long term, for the technology based ones. Bitcoin's appeal is financial, thus it will benefit from exposure. In the end, blockchains like Ethereum, EOS, and, yes, Hive are dependent upon what is built upon them. That is what their use case is. Sure they can serve some of the same purposes as Bitcoin yet that is not their forte.
A couple years ago, few were betting on Tesla. In a couple years, if the company keeps progressing, it is likely that even fewer will be betting against it.
Hive can follow a similar path. Since the development is regularly taking place, progress forward is guaranteed. The only problem is it will not happen overnight. This does not bode well in the instant gratification world.
Of course, it is best to remember that Hive is a little more than 6 months old. Sure there is 4 years of legacy but that was stuck under the misguided direction of Steemit Inc. We all know how that turned out.
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