I keep saying this: Social media became the largest sector of global financial markets in ~10 years. It's more money than manufacturing, transport, mining, or finance. I don't think people I talk to about Hive actually grasp this fact. For Hive to shed ~1M users that took the time and learned how to post during the decade when social media became the dominant financial sector of world market, when our competition was Fakebook, Youtool, Goolag, and Twatter, that openly censored their users, deleted their true and factual content, banned them, and availed monetization to very few and with very little of the value they created, we are REALLY doing it wrong.

DV's don't just tax, they censor. Hive is actually less censorship resistant than all those platforms I just named because many of the influencers that came here after April 2017 have returned to them after being horrifically taxed here.

Hive could replace them all were it to fulfill it's promises to resist censorship and provide the free market for content it originally claimed, and that potential just doesn't exist for smart contracts, an app, or some game. Dominating the global social media market would make every minnow fabulously wealthy beyond their wildest, wettest dreams. But that requires the whales to be imprudent, to risk losing their steady income from completely controlling Hive governance. A bird in the hand, and all that.

I don't really know how to change governance of Hive so that there is a social veto power over stake, and as long as Hive remains a plutocracy the threat of a new Sun shining all over Hive as Yuchen does Steem remains existential. Such total centralization is inevitable in a plutocracy, and the means the whales have undertaken to stave it off have maintained their income so far. Basically preventing dilution of their majority stake by preventing distribution to a growing user base, and creating the appearance of a bad investment to potential sharks that could snap it up, have so far worked. They will not work forever, because sooner or later someone with the wherewithal will snap it up, and that will be that.

1a1v, oracles, and majority rules as TheHair advocated may be the best that can be done, but I'd like to think that oppressing the minority isn't the best we can do. IONO, but I'm not the smartest guy in the room, I sincerely hope. I had hoped that communities would have more power to structure rewards, set rules regarding flags, and etc., instead of just being interest groups, but it is what it is.

This last fork really made me feel that it's becoming hopeless, that the status quo is simply dragging things out as long as possible, as profitably as possible, and not even paying lip service to the community anymore. The threat of KYC internet makes the issue moot anyway, unless I can figure out how to reach Hive using Reticulum, and I'm lucky I can tie my shoes. If my ISP or downstream sites require ID I will not comply, and that will be the end of my use of the internet.

All I can do is point out what I think is happening and hope you or someone else smarter than me can propose some ways to resolve the plutocracy issue that can grant the whales some leeway to risk their steady income for a chance at mooning without guaranteeing that Hive will end up George Soros' private possession.