I hear rumblings from Bitcoin maximalists about a future social network built on a sidechain of Bitcoin (BTC.) They presume in some form or fashion lightning network, or some other technology will advance, becoming more decentralized, scaled, and censorship-resistant than anything else.
Let's break down the facts, though. Layer 1 of BTC will never store blog text. Layer 1 of BTC has 1mb blocks (up to 4mb weighted with segwit) & transactions alone swell the blocks to maximum capacity, even with high fees. On average, the cost is about 20 bucks, and I see that going up in the future. Bitcoin core developers believe the fees should be higher; hundreds some even quoted thousands of dollars. The reason for this is Bitcoin is capped and will eventually run out of coins to pay miners. That'll take a good 100+ years, but it will happen. And the only thing protecting the chain at that point are fees, and with such a small cap on the block size (lead Bitcoin core devs have suggested going even smaller via a soft fork), the fees have to be reasonably large to support the network.
Ok, so this is just laying out why a sidechain on Bitcoin will need to be 100% independent of Bitcoin's layer 1. It will need to be fully decentralized; it gets zero security from Bitcoins layer 1. Sure, the Lightening network can be built on top of this theoretical Bitcoin social sidechain, but that is purely for tipping, not blogs and accounts, etc.
Starting from scratch, you would have to build a sidechain, but it's actually a mainchain. A sidechain derives security from layer 1, whereas a Bitcoin social sidechain would not be getting security from layer 1. So it's not really a sidechain; it can communicate with a sidechain like a lightning network, for example, but only in a limited tipping fashion.
By the time you try to build a bitcoin social sidechain that actually worked, IE scaled for millions of users, decentralized, censorship-resistant, etc., etc., you will have built Hive. The only difference is Hive is here now; the community is the most vital asset & time is of the essence.
Hive is the Bitcoin social "sidechain" - because Hive is the world's sidechain.
