How Hive Engine Has Multiplied Passive Income On Hive

My path on Steem and now Hive has been like a roller-coaster of my finances. When I started on Steem in the summer of 2017, my goal was to make a living from posting. And indeed, after only a few months, I had become so successful, that over 1% of the entire reward pool was flowing in my direction, week by week. Crazy to think about that today. And then came the 20k Bitcoin in December 2017, followed by the altcoin explosion. Steem was briefly worth 8 USD and money was flowing in in ridiculous amounts. I did the same mistake as most people at the time and didn't cash out. By then, I was dreaming of a passive income I could eventually live from.

However, Steemmonster aka #splinterlands came for the rescue, before everything was lost. I shifted most of my remaining Steem holdings into that new NFT card game and was able to create myself a nice little stake with that, while the game was still in its Alpha phase. That was even before we were able to play with the cards. Since then, Splinterlands was probably the reason I didn't give up on the blockchain experiment.

Out of that project came Steem Engine, which opened the door for many new projects to start their own tokens, even with staking and voting power. We came quite a long way since then. Steem died (or at least died in the eyes of many long-time users, including myself) and Hive lived. Today we have Hive Engine and what happens there is dominating my Hive activity. The Dark Energy Crystals (DEC), that were introduced later into Splinterlands, are a constant passive income for me, as other players are playing my cards for me and split the rewards with me.

Projects like #leofinance with their LEO token are now becoming a substantial amount of my crypto holdings. It is fun to see all the cool new ideas they come up with, to make the token slowly but steadily rise in value. My curation efforts are growing my stake constantly, even if I don't buy more on the market. At the same time, the inflation is countered with all the various ways to burn the token. Also, the community around it has helped me and many others to learn more about finances and what actually matters in that regard.

It should also be noted, that projects like the LEO token are becoming larger income sources to authors than their HIVE earnings, which is showing the ultimate potential of these tokens and their communities.

My favorite app is #appics with their APX token. Although it currently still runs on Steem, it will eventually open up to Hive as well, according to the development team. It has become my main source for author income, even though I barely get any Steem upvotes there. It all comes from the curation of APX holders, who reward me with the tokens inflation.

Other projects are popping up and I have been able to grab a large stake of #naturalmedicine tokens. It is not worth much and I didn't count on it to rise much in value but I wanted to reward the community around it with my voting power and also tap into its inflation system. I just love the idea, that my votes actually make a difference to some people, who create lovely content that resonates with me. My favorite people on the blockchain are using this token, so I am very happy to be a large curator within it and even increase my stake further over time.

Now, games like #dcity are bulding on the NFT power, that Hive Engine has brought to the table and people can buy and trade buildings for their city, which produce the SIM token on a daily basis, which can be regulated via a fascinating tax system in the game. Players can vote for a president, with votes based on their average monthly SIM holdings and the president can set the taxes for everyone else, which not only influences the inflation but also the game dynamics and hence the prices of buildings. Plus, there is a cool reward pool sharing, which adds another layer of passive income for the players/holders.

This has all lead me to a very cool position to be in: A constant flow of tokens into my account, which I can use to reinvest into all the projects I find interesting, without me putting any outside money into the system at all. Although I would love to spend fiat money on them as well, I have not much to spend from that direction in the first place. Nevertheless, my account is already producing several USD per day merely from curation or other inflation elements, like Splinterlands and dCity with their ingame tokens.

I don't know where the crypto world is moving and I have stopped dreaming unrealistic dreams about it. But I do see a lot of potential in the status-quo and even if we are "only" able to hold the value of the current projects, I would be super happy to constantly have this little bit of passive income for the rest of my life - even if it is not enough to live from.