The whole world is watching the ongoing invasion of Ukraine and its related tragedies. People are sharing footage of battles in the cities, videos of themselves and their children taking cover in bunkers or within their homes, or stories of Ukrainian refugees escaping to nearby countries.
Needless to say, it’s a deep tragedy as well as a crucial moment in our history that will significantly impact our future regardless of the outcome. One thing, however, is certain: There are now millions of people who need help, and Hive has several ways of contributing.
The solutions on Hive
The situation in Ukraine shows the fragility and vurnerability of so much of our modern day infrastructure. Voices looking to express the realities on the ground can be cut off or censored by occupants or oppressive authorities aiming to maintain control of a narrative. People's savings may suddenly become unaccessible, depreciate rapidly, or be left behind when escaping danger. Unfortanely, those who suffer the most are often the individuals who are the least involved.
Hive as a blockchain can provide tools of unparalleled value to situations like this, for many reasons and at many levels:
- It provides a censorship-resistant publishing platform where anyone can share their stories and document what they see happening.
- It can provide financial benefits and support to those in need who shares experiences that the rest wants to support.
- It provides an integrated store of value with the option of saving in a relatively stable while still decentralized currency ideal for people who need both safety and immutability as well as relative price stability.
If Hive does not have something useful to offer for Ukrainian civilians or refugees, then what does it have to offer?
We need to be part of the solution to the current crisis, and in doing so, we can make the best demonstration yet of the power and value of our blockchain. By having a Ukrainian community for Ukrainians to share what is going on, receive support from the global community, and also have a safe store of value and/or regain financial means, we can make a difference.
My suggestion
Let’s get organised and start working to build, grow and promote a Ukrainian community with the same level of passion, urgency and efficiency that we did two years ago during the Tron-take-over. For instance, I think a simple goal could be to attract at least 1000 new members within a week, something I believe would be highly doable and even a low target given the current atmosphere.
But beyond that, I would like to see us attack the problem with the simple goal of seeing how we can provide the best tool possible for the people we believe can benefit from it the most.
What we need
- Onboarders and marketers willing to reach out directly to Ukrainians on social platforms like Twitter etc and introduce Hive as an additional platform where they should share their experience in addition to offer support in setting up an account and getting started.
- "Helpers" willing to be available in various chats, comments or forums (like bee.chat, discord, telegram, etc) to provide answers to the many common questions that always pop up.
- Curators to help vet and support content that is published.
- Promoters to help share good Hive-posts made by users on social media by dropping them in relevant Twitter threads or otherwise helping posts on Hive go viral and attract more attention. Also reach out to crypto-media outlets to let them know that Hive is demonstrating how crypto and blockchain can be used for good, which will be guaranteed to get us good media attention if we're growing a decent community fast.
- Developers willing to listen to the expressed need of new community members of what added tools and integration could serve them better or make the many procesess of onboarding and integration work better.
I am sure that many of you are spending significant time already following the development and news from Ukraine, or discussing the topic with people on Twitter, etc. I suggest that we spend that time dedicated on being part of the solution to the people whose individual freedoms are being crushed one way or the other, doing something good both for them and for Hive in the process.
An opportunity for Hive to shine
While the main objective should of course be to offer impactful help to individuals who need freedom and support more than ever, I also believe that there's nothing we can do to add value to Hive right now than to succeed with this.
An effort like this could attract a significant amount of new users, gain worldwide attention to our platform and its benefits, help us rapidly improve our dapps, demonstrate our value proposition as a blockchain and help propel communities as a feature.
I sincerely doubt that there are many people on Hive with more useful contributions that they can make towards growing our platform and mission. Thus, I hope there are many who will want to help make this idea, or some iteration of it if people have some added feedback. I would first love to hear in the comments what people think, what considerations should be made, how we could best organise an effort, and to what extent you the community would like to get involved. Then, I'm ready to set aside most of my time to work towards making it happen. This is a special time in all of our lives, and also the best opportunity Hive has ever had to showcase its value and usefulness.
Or what do you think?