The Value Plan account was launched with the intent to bridge that gap between marketing and sponsorship and allow us to more in order to promote Hive.
We started out in January with 50,000 HBD for the year which was based on projections as this kind of budget never existed until now. It has proven to be sufficient for approximately 6 months or Q1 and Q2.
This report is in two sections and will first review of Q1 and Q2 and will then speak to Q3 and Q4, including expansion of the total budget.
Your Value Plan key holders are as always @Blocktrades, @Crimsonclad, @Guiltyparties, @Smooth, and @Theycallmedan. All have the full set of keys. More information can be found here.
124.380 HP
7,151.103 HIVE
3,382.246 HBD
HIVE was converted as we do get unexpected external opportunities where HBD is not suitable and quick HIVE payments are required or where the recipient for legitimate reason cannot exchange HBD at the time. These situations are typically avoided but it is always beneficial to have some reserve of HIVE.
The following wording is taken from transaction memos.
https://hiveblocks.com/@valueplan
5,423.420 HIVE to 
4,675 HBD to 
2,959 HBD to
5,525 HBD to
1,579 HBD to
400 HBD to
500 HBD to
489 HBD to
5,473 HBD to
3,425.500 HIVE to 
214 HBD to
4,325 HBD to
200 HBD to
1,575 HBD to 
(*) This is a partial payment. These funds are intended to be refunded back to the account, see write-up below.
700 HBD to 
100 HBD to 
2,787.540 HBD to 
28 HBD to 
90 HBD to 
95 HBD to
70 HBD to
20 HBD to 
500 HBD to 
It has been a strong show so far but not without points that can be improved upon.
The biggest issue is that not enough Hive community members are coming forward with suitable and properly planned projects. Projects must be geared to an external audience, which is more challenging than internal-focused. Individuals also are hesitant to approach all key holders, particularly those they do not know ahead of time. For this type of an account to be truly successful it requires wider engagement. For example, 
The other issues are not under our control. Pandemic-related challenges and other global factors greatly restricted our sponsorship and appearance at key events. For example, we had to turn down a speaking engagement in Singapore because of travel restrictions. The rising supply chain costs and general inflation of regular products has caused significant spikes in prices without warning. Fuel prices are a huge problem.
Adherence to our vision to showcase Hive as the blockchain to build on and as a complete ecosystem has so far been going extremely well. In none of the promotional activities or any activity related to the use of Value Plan funds was Hive ever referred to as a place to get paid to blog. Mentions of content monetization are only included in the general overview of Hive capabilities as a blockchain. There have been absolutely no known incidents of anyone being told that they can post on Hive to make money or otherwise treat Hive posting as supplemental income. Hive is instead presented for its technical capability and for what entrepreneurship and grassroots opportunities (to build on) that it fosters. It is an achievement that this cohesive vision was maintained across this many activities.
Every project that is considered under Value Plan must present a proper breakdown of costs with exact line items. Those line items do end up being adjusted as the projects change, but their presentation and planning is expected to be done professionally. Costs are to be reduced where possible.
The need to keep real, professional project management budgets is novel as far as Hive projects go. Some organizers had the existing knowledge of project management to achieve this and others required help to get up to standard. Vendor invoices and documents are also reviewed and adjusted for some larger single expenditures. Not everyone is familiar with vendor sourcing and management. In some locations products had to be shipped or otherwise obtained with undue effort. This caused challenges for the individual organizers in terms of budgeting.
Many of us have preconceived ideas which are based on a simple lack of knowledge as to what items and services cost in different geographical areas. For example, many believe that the entire country of Venezuela lives in poverty and there is no business or innovation there. While this is partially true, it is also partially untrue. It has been an eye-opening experience to discover the real capability and opportunity of the specific areas and understand the true extent of the opportunities Hive received rather than granted.
Not all events and activities will see instant returns on effort and investment. Some have much longer timelines in terms of returns than others. The wells in Ghana see almost immediate marketing and publicity due to the presence of reporters on site. The SWC tournament has a much longer timeline due to the involvement of government officials and other formal bodies recognizing and understanding Hive. We would have to re-evaluated after a considerable time to gauge our successes and opportunities.
The tournament was an online e-gaming tournament conducted by
SWC stands for 'Street Workout Community'. This event started out as a simple sports competition in a park with the intent to produce social media hype on Instagram and Tiktok. Due to the hard work of 
Most have seen the two wells that were built in Ghana communities so far. They are physical wells with Hive branding and an inscription that relates that Hive is decentralized and equally present in all parts of the world, including Ghana, where it has dedicated these wells to the local community. This project differs from humanitarian group approaches as it is carried out only by locals and with utmost respect for the communities themselves and follows local customs of engagement. The number of news sources and individuals who have taken notice of Hive is too many to list here. Notably, we are also inviting existing Hive partners to consider collaborating with us on a well as dual-sponsors. This is another first for any blockchain technology and possibly for any non-humanitarian/non-governmental entity in the world. Read more here.
This is a long-term investment which is also a long-shot. It's the only activity that is a "risk" because we do not have vendors for the film yet. The script is being written and the project will then go to the sponsorship phase, which will account for the real budget behind production, which will also lead to return of funds. This is not the documentary film; it is a Hive-inspired fictional film. The script is being partially financed by 3Speak and return of the funds will thus be processed through one of the key holders.
This is a very straight forward activity where only HBD is being accepted as payment in a functional automotive shop in a smaller town in Eastern Venezuela. The shop does not accept any other cryptocurrencies and services not only existing HBD holders but also its regular customer base, who have the opportunity to use the shop's dedicated laptop to sign up for their own Hive wallet and to view presentations about Hive. Read more here.
A bi-monthly virtual reality space meetup/conference type activity originally organized by Splinterlands. We are currently in discussion to make this event half-Hive and a regular staple promotional activity. During this event we had a chance to showcase our documentary teaser and to speak about Hive.
A set of 40 presentations in educational institutions in Caracas, Venezuela. The presentations are about Hive technology and encourage students to build on Hive or integrate with existing business ideas/projects. The purpose of these presentations is to promote our ecosystem expansion and attract investment. No mention of posting to earn (or playing to earn) is permitted.
This ends the review portion of this post.
The ask for Q3 and Q4 is 100k HBD. That would bring the total for the year to 150k HBD.
The following events have variable costs and organizational timelines, requiring some flexibility, and are thus not suited for their own DHF proposals.
This year's HiveFest will be a physical event that will take place September 15 to 18 in Amsterdam. The event itself is organized by 
In follow-up to the national sporting event held in May, numerous additional presentation opportunities have been requested by governmental officials and local business leaders. The requests are coming in at a regular basis and are too numerous to list here. They include conferences and conventions. Fortunately the physical assets required for these activities have already been purchased.
We will continue the well project which we hope to also partner on with others in the blockchain/Web3 sphere in order to reduce costs, amplify number of wells, and extend our promotional reach. The costs for these wells are generally predictable and fluctuate only based on depth of drilling and transport costs.
Conference attendance with the intent to promote Hive as presenters/speakers is in the works and will be focused on for the rest of the year. This budget item was originally envisioned as conference sponsorships but due to current market trends we have to be more frugal and logo placement in the corner of a venue is no longer feasible.
Thank you for reading our report and we look forward to your support of the Q3 and Q4 proposal #227.
