What's different about Hive compared to mainstream social media platforms?

This is the second part of the Hive FAQs series, which focuses on the differences between Hive and other social media platforms such as Facebook and YouTube.

For Hive FAQs: The Basics, part 1 please click here.

Differences between Hive and Social Media as Usual

• There is no overall control by one individual or corporation, control is decentralised.
• Freedom of speech and expression are guaranteed: once you post content to the Hive blockchain, it is impossible for another individual to change or remove it.
• Data is more secure than on a centralised database (such as Steem or Facebook), because it is stored across multiple, independently maintained servers.
• Individual users can vote directly for who maintains the servers (‘witnesses’). This means direct user control over ‘blockchain hardware’.
• Decentralised control over the social media ecosystem: Individual users get to vote directly for what projects get developed on Hive and thus the future direction the ecosystem takes.
• Decentralised control over the economy: Individual users determine how the Hive currency is distributed, and this is distributed to users, not third parties.

Decentralised control, anti-censorship and freedom of speech

Hive is not centrally controlled by one individual or corporate entity, control is decentralised. This means that your content cannot be deleted, or your account deactivated by a controlling third party.

Transaction data on Hive is stored across multiple, co-ordinated but independently maintained servers (this is part of what defines a ‘blockchain’). Once you have made a post, a comment, or any other kind of ‘transaction’ on the Hive blockchain, it is a structural impossibility for any one other individual to make changes to that data.

In contrast, Facebook and YouTube are centralised databases – if the executives of these companies or their authorised representatives wish to delete some of your content or deactivate your account entirely, they can do so immediately and without your consent, and they can do so because they have control over the servers on which your social media data is held.

Data security through anti-fragility

Decentralised storage of data also means blockchain data is VERY secure. There are currently over 100 people running the servers which keep Hive going, and on which the blockchain data is stored.

If 50 of these servers were switched off overnight, then the next 50 would just step in and keep the blockchain going. This means data storage is anti-fragile, as there is no single point of weakness in the Hive blockchain. To bring down the chain, malevolent forces would need to take down >100 servers simultaneously in multiple countries.

In contrast, Facebook and YouTube exercise sole control over the servers which run their centralised databases. If the Corporations fold, the main servers, their back-ups and your social media account go down with them. They are fragile because they have a single point of weakness.

Direct user control over blockchain hardware, Hive ecosystem development and rewards distribution

On Hive, users can vote directly for who maintains the servers, what projects get funding and what posts they wish to reward with Hive currency. Voting is stake weighted: the more Hive a user has invested in the system, the more weight their vote has.

There are over 100 people currently running Hive servers (known as 'witnesses'), and the top 20 witnesses are the most important: these are the people who can enact Hard Forks, which are major changes to the blockchain. (It requires 17 out of the top 20 witnesses to agree on a Hard Fork change for that change to happen.) The top 20 witnesses are also the only witnesses who earn sufficient Hive to pay for their server costs.

It is users who determine which witnesses get into and stay in those coveted top 20 slots, through stake weighted voting. If a top 20 witness wishes to remain a top 20 witness, they thus need to get behind Hard Forks the community supports and they need to run reliable servers, which means having a decent hard ware set up.

You can vote for witnesses here.

Users can also use their stake weighted vote to approve which Hive project proposals get funded through the Decentralised Hive Fund, which at time of writing has the capacity to pay out $4500 a day.

If someone wishes to develop an application on Hive (or it could be any Hive related project), they can put together a proposal for funding and submit it for approval by the community. If it gets sufficient votes then it gets funded. Thus Hive users can directly control the kinds of applications that get developed on Hive.

You can vote for proposals here.

Finally, users can use their voting power to upvote content on Hive. The more stake weighted votes any one blog post ,video, or comment gets, then the higher reward the producer of that content receives. Users can also 'tip' content producers directly with Hive.

Note that on Hive, your data isn't being harvested, collated on shielded servers behind the scenes and then sold on to third parties to be used against us you by advertising companies. Your transaction data (which can remain totally anonymous should you wish it) is publicly available for anyone to use on the blockchain - it is thus 'unsalable' as raw data.

At the level of content, Hive economics is purely about you the user directly rewarding a content producer based on how much you like their content, there is no middle corporation skimming a percentage from either of you and at the same time harvesting data from both of you and selling it on.

On Hive, content producers, developers and witnesses get the money, not a Corporation.

NB questions about 'where the money comes from' on Hive, and exactly how rewards are distributed are both very legitimate and frequently discussed questions on Hive, but they are not 'basic' questions. They will be dealt with in the later section on 'Hive Economics'.