The IPFS/encoding/transcoding backend servers of 3Speak are definitely some of the heavier machines, but I don't have real numbers on them. Obviously it is much much lower than any of the mainstream video platforms.

The barrier to entry on Hive is pretty huge when you actually want to understand where you're posting. The rewards are something we can use to promote Hive on web2, but for a lot of people I know, "crypto and blockchain" is an instant nono. The scams in the past few years and the eco-related posts about nfts haven't helped. Now nobody wants to touch a platform that's "so bad for the environment," even though they use Google/Meta and co every single day without a second thought.

On the 3Speak side, I'm doing my part to make it compatible with mainstream expectations, in terms of features and usability. Also we are working on a patreon-like experience on 3Speak that will launch soon and maybe could help with onboarding if our fees are lower than Patreon (and that's not hard I guess). But we can't really fix the blockchain image without sounding fishy or scamy. I remember @detlev putting together a presentation with energy consumption numbers of Hive. If we update that data (give that witness servers have cut resource requirements a lot recently) we could have a solid starting point for comparison. That could help convince people we are not worse than fortnite haha.

The elephant in the room: we're community-owned and community-driven, and no CEO profits off users' content. If big tech keeps going the way it's going, all the work we are doing now could really pay off someday.