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The Utility Value Of HIVE

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@markkujantunen
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I've had a few discussions on Hive its value recently. What has struck me is how pessimistic and negative some people tend to be when it comes to seeing the value of HIVE the coin. One claim in particular stuck to my mind, which was that "Hive cannot be used for anything". Bundled with that came the idea that HIVE the currency is just a payment tool with which witnesses get paid for producing blocks. Also, the claim was made that Hive Power conferring is Resource Credits is not a significant use case since one needs very little in order to transact with the blockchain.

I can hopefully put the two to rest at least among my readers with this post.

Hive is just a payment tool with which to pay witnesses for producing blocks

There is no such thing as a public and decentralized blockchain without a native cryptocurrency with which to reward block validators. If a blockchain has no cryptocurrency of its own, whoever pays block validators for validating blocks controls the chain. Practically speaking, blockchains without a native cryptocurrency are private blockchains controlled by a single entity. I don't know what the point of such chains is as immutability is doable with a centralized database. One only needs to disable updating and deletion operations when configuring the database.

Hive has a Delegated-Proof-of-Stake consensus mechanism. The Proof-of-Stake part means that in order to have permission to validate blocks, one must have skin in the game. The Delegated part means that one does not need to have a large stake oneself to become a block validator, only that other stakeholders with sufficient combined stake authorize one to validate blocks on their behalf.

It would be completely impractical not to mention dangerous to use some other blockchain or fiat to pay for block validation in case of a public and permissionless blockchain. A money attack could easily be arranged.

One only needs an insignificant amount of Hive Power to transact on chain

It's been a long time since I was a beginner users but I recall that about 50-100 Hive Power confers sufficient Resource Credits to enable one to get through the day as an active user. There are currently about 3600 daily active users on Hive, which is a very small number. But imagine we had 3.6 million daily active users. Hive would still be a small platform. But the demand for Resource Credits would a thousand times larger than now.


I should also add that it is possible for online merchants to accept HIVE as payment using the WooCommerce WordPress plugin using method ported from Steem and that there are apps such as Splinterlands that accept HIVE as payment for digital goods.