Hive

**Hive** is an [open-source](/wiki/Open-Source) [blockchain-based](/wiki/Blockchain) ecosystem hosting a social media platform, tens of [Dapps](/wiki/Decentralized-Application) and hundreds of [L2 tokens](/wiki/L2-Token). Launched as a community-governed [[Hard Fork]] of the [STEEM blockchain](/wiki/Steem) in 2020, HIVE shares fundamental principles with its predecessor: a novel approach to content creation, [[curation]] , and monetization.^[1] Participants are incentivized with [HIVE tokens](/wiki/Hive-Cryptocurrency) for their contributions, including posting, commenting, and [voting](/wiki/Upvote) on content. The platform employs a [Delegated Proof of Stake (DPoS](/wiki/Delegated-Proof-Of-Stake)) consensus mechanism for [[transaction]] validation and [block creation](/wiki/Block). The ecosystem is purely meritocratic, with HIVE vested in [HIVE Power (HP)](/wiki/Hive-Power) representing the token of merit. Besides of HIVE and HIVE Power, the ecosystem hosts [HIVE Backed Dollars](/wiki/Hive-Backed-Dollar) as its native token.
## Features ### Transactions Thanks to the DPoS consensus, Hive has 3-second block times with transactions confirmed within seconds due to one-block irreversibility.^[2] Transactions are free of any monetary fees. Since [[Hard Fork 20]], each of them consumes rechargeable [[Resource Credits]] though. Similarly to other blockchains, RC fees vary depending on the current network usage. The RC available to individual accounts is directly proportional to their Hive Power.^[3] As of May 2024, around 10-20 HP is usually sufficient for any user to participate on the blockchain with no limitations experienced. ### Governance Model Hive is not governed by a central authority like enterprises or other legal entities are. Every account is eligible to participate in the community governance based on its Hive Power stake. The common governance-related acts are: * Voting for [Witnesses](/wiki/Hive-Witness) * Supporting [DHF proposals](/wiki/Dhf-Proposal) Most governance actions are merely parametric adjustments (such as setting the [current price](/wiki/Price-Feed) of HIVE, new [account creation fee](/wiki/Account-Creation), or the [HBD savings](/wiki/Savings) interest rate) and are taken care of by Witnesses. However, the community may agree on a major shift that requires changes in the core protocol of the blockchain, which is called a Hard Fork. ### Immutable blogosphere Steem, the direct predecessor of Hive, was launched in April 2016 as a pioneering attempt to diminish the role of conventional social media and transfer ownership of the data and content to the users, an approach now referred to as [[web3]]. Steem aimed to provide a decentralized censorship-resistant platform for users to express themselves freely, and reward the contributors with STEEM tokens and Steem Backed Dollars.^[4][5] However, there are proven attempts to censor content on Steem’s primary front-end steemit.com upon the takeover of [Steemit, Inc.](/wiki/Steemit-Inc) by TRON-Foundation Ltd.^[6] Censorship was one of the keen concerns which eventually led to launching Hive in 2020. Unlike Steem with a single dominant front-end, Hive offers a wide scale of independent interfaces to interact with blockchain. The most frequently used ones as of April 2024 are:^[7] * [[3Speak]] * [[Actifit]] * [[dBuzz]] * [[Ecency]] * [Hive.Blog](/wiki/Hive-Blog) * [[Inleo]] * [[Liketu]] * [[Peakd]] ### Reward System Hive accommodates a wide range of content formats from [[microblogging]] to [vlogging](/wiki/Vlog). One of the core features of Hive is the reward system, which incentivizes content creation and curation through cryptocurrency rewards. Users who contribute content perceived as valuable by other users receive rewards in proportion to the upvotes the content receives within 7 days of publication.^[1] The rewards vary from an equivalent of $0.02 (the Dust Threshold)^[8] to several dozens of dollars per post or comment. The authors receive only 50% of the total payout their content generates. An author can also define (upfront) beneficiaries who will receive a portion of the author's reward. The other half of the payout is distributed proportionally among the upvoters, commonly called curators. This measure rewards HP holders and incentivizes active participation. Since opinions on what constitutes quality content are very individual, thematic [communities](/wiki/Community) and [curation initiatives](/wiki/Curating-Initiative) have emerged to support and promote content that their members find interesting and of high quality. There are also downvotes (sometimes called "flags") which reduce the rewards for a post (even to 0). One should generally use downvotes very sparingly and only use them for spam, identity theft, promoting scams or plagiarism, but not, for example, for disagreement with the content or expressed opinion in a post, because free, uncensored speech is a core principle on Hive. In any case, after 7 days these author rewards (minus any downvotes) are ready to be claimed, but not as a (liquid) Hive, but half as HP and half as HBD (see below). Voting Power is the value of a user´s upvote, it is higher the more Hive ones has staked and shrinks when used, but regenerates to 100% after 5 days. ### Reputation System The more upvote value a user gets the higher his/her reputation score. It starts at 25 and can go up to 80 and beyond. The score is not linear but for climbing each point the amount of upvotes required is doubled. Downvotes on the other hand cause the reputation to drop (depending on the amount of downvotes). The score can also turn negative in case more downvote value has hit the account than upvote value. In such case some frontends limit the visibility of such accounts (typically scammers or accounts targeted for censorship). ### Tokenomics [Hive](wiki/Hive-Cryptocurrency) exists in several forms, as liquid Hive, in "savings" and staked. In addition there are Hive Dollars (HBD). **HP** stands for Hive Power and they are nothing other than Hive that are "staked", i.e. bound. With Hive there is a 13 week binding period. This is how long it takes to convert staked Hive, i.e. HP, back into liquid Hive (whereby one thirteenth is "liquefied" every week). But keeping Hive as HP has several advantages: - For simply holding HP (i.e. for staking Hive) the user gets an interest rate (called "inflation") of currently 2.96% per year (this changes according to the Hive price). - For upvoting posts (or comments) above a certain "dust" threshold (currently 0,02 Hive) a user receives Hive (as HP) and therefore these "curation rewards" are all the greater, the more HP one has accumulated. Currently 50% of the author rewards go to the author himself and the other half to the curators. The idea behind is to be an incentive to accumulate HP and award good content. Converting liquid Hive into HP is called "powering up", the reverse process is called "powerdown". One can do this at any time, and one can also cancel (or edit) powerdowns that have already begun. The curation rewards create a return for staked Hive of approx. 7-8% annually. Together with the almost 3% interest rate, Hive in its powered-up form therefore yields around 10-11%/a. **Hive Dollars** (HBD) are the amount of Hive worth exactly 1$ and are also displayed in a user´s wallet. HBD is practical as a currency for payments in the Hive ecosystem, as it is easier to calculate and one doesn't have to check how much Hive is worth at any given moment. HBD is a "stable coin". HBD has been successfully pegged to the dollar for years (by an algorithmic, autonomously working scheme), and there is an [internal market](https://hivehub.dev/market/swap) that allows to exchange Hive for HBD and vice versa conveniently and free of charge. HBD can be transferred to "savings", which binds them for 3 days (i.e. it takes 3 days for HBD to become freely available again). As long as HBD are in savings, they currently generate an annual return of 20%, which is paid out every 30 days (in form of HBD in savings). The APR is governed by the Hive [witnesses](wiki/Hive-Witness) and may change. Summary: Hive: a freely transferable and tradable (e.g. on crypto exchanges such as Binance) cryptocurrency. Hive Power (HP): staked Hive (13 weeks bind period) for more curation rewards, automatically earns interest at just under 3%/year HBD: as many Hives as 1 USD is worth. Can generate 20% interest. ## Hive-based Dapps The fast feeless transactions in combination with a simple address system (instead of a long random string, a Hive [wallet address](/wiki/Wallet) is a common username), and the ability to host L2 tokens including [NFTs](/wiki/Nft), also make Hive attractive for non-content-related dapps, mainly games. Most Hive dapps rely on [[Hive Keychain]], a mobile-friendly Hive Wallet [[browser extension]] that reports over 100,000 users as of May 2024. L2 tokens are commonly [minted](/wiki/Token-Minting) and traded on a smart contract [side-chain](/wiki/Side-Chain) platform, [[Hive Engine]]. ## Disputes When the Hive blockchain forked from Steem in March 2020, an [[airdrop]] was conducted to distribute HIVE tokens to existing Steem users. However, not all Steem users received this airdrop. Users who were associated with TRON-Foundation Ltd., which had acquired Steem and gained control of a significant portion of the total STEEM supply, were blacklisted and did not receive the HIVE token airdrop.^[9] The blacklist was presented as a community decision that had been discussed.^[10] Several users were later removed from the blacklist and airdropped additionally.^[11] ## Further Reading * [List of Hive gaming dapps](/wiki/Hive-Gaming-Dapps) * [List of Hive non-gaming dapps](/wiki/Hive-Non-Gaming-Dapps) * [[Hive timeline]] ## References 1. ↑ ↑ (2020) HIVE Whitepaper https://hive.io/whitepaper.pdf 2. ↑ Hive.io https://hive.io/about/ 3. ↑ Hive Developer Portal https://developers.hive.io/tutorials-recipes/calculate_rc_recipe.html 4. ↑ Steem Bluepaper https://steem.com/steem-bluepaper.pdf 5. ↑ Steem Whitepaper https://steem.com/SteemWhitePaper.pdf 6. ↑ Samuel Haig (2020) Cointelegraph https://cointelegraph.com/news/justin-suns-steemit-accused-of-censoring-hive-related-content 7. ↑ @dalz (2024) A Look at the Top Hive Frontends https://hive.blog/hive-133987/@dalz/a-look-at-the-top-hive-frontends-or-april-2024 8. ↑ https://developers.hive.io/tutorials-recipes/understanding-configuration-values.html 9. ↑ Stephen O'Neil (2020) Cointelegraph https://cointelegraph.com/news/steem-community-resists-takeover-hard-fork-launches-hive-network 10. ↑ @lukestokes (2020) How Steem Became Hive https://hive.blog/steem/@lukestokes/how-steem-became-hive 11. ↑ @hiveio (2020) Community Discussion and Updates: Hive Airdrop Exclusion List and Code Corrections, Core Developer Meetings https://hive.blog/hiveblockchain/@hiveio/community-discussion-updates-hive-airdrop-exclusion-core-developer-meetings ## Related Articles [[Hard fork]] [[Curation]] [[Transaction]] [[Hard fork 20]] [[Resource credits]] [[Web3]] [[3speak]] [[Actifit]] [[Dbuzz]] [[Ecency]] [[Inleo]] [[Liketu]] [[Peakd]] [[Microblogging]] [[Hive keychain]] [[Browser extension]] [[Hive engine]] [[Airdrop]] [[Hive timeline]]