Value of cooperation in the decentralized ecosystem. What one thing does Hive need to thrive?

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Recent post of @themarkymark and this one from @growthacker made me think about this one thing Hive needs to grow. I started with general thinking like marketing and user-friendly experience but these are just diagnoses of problems. Later on, my train of thoughts went to the general observations and possible solutions.

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A decentralized ecosystem like Hive is alien to Web 2.0 users. It might stay alien (and unrecognized) or try to craft and tailor its features without compromising decentralized values. Elon Musk didn't convince Tesla users that his cars are eco-friendly and good for the environment, he just created a car superior to others in terms of safety, quality and user expectations. Positive impact on the environment is just a smuggled side effect.

Hive, by now, looks like this:

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It's probably very efficient, futuristic, certainly superior in many aspects, but it doesn't fit a customer's
expectations and habits. It's nice to try it, but using everyday? Nah... The trick is to make it good while it seems normal and friendly in some aspects. Almost 5 years of development shows the current framework we are operating in fails to deliver this type of service. It's visible when you consider user experience, our challenges with marketing and PR issues. In my opinion, current organization model of decentralized governance might turn to be outdated soon. Not only technology moves forward, also our understanding and relationship with technology is constantly changing.

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I want to iterate what I wrote in my last post about decentralization. Hive has superior tech, devoted and brilliant developers, but with time and development of other decentralized projects we can find ourselves lagging behind those, who will be able to apply it in a better way. How can we create a product more suitable for masses without compromising qualities brought by the decentralization? I have very modest knowledge in this field, there are plenty of people more qualified to this, but current structure doesn't provide them with opportunities to share and apply their knowledge. My field of interest is within systemic analysis and here I believe my observations might bring some value.

There is one perspective, which I find particularly useful in this case. There are two forces driving development of systems, cooperation and competition. Game theory. Pigeons and eagles. Only cooperation brings stagnancy, pure competition brings destruction in the long term. It's all about proper balance. Decentralized systems disrupt our current modes of using these two forces. The most productive combination of these two is going to change. We are on our way to figure out more efficient ways to apply cooperation in decentralized systems. Of course, we bring the burden of old habits, and those who will figure out, how to exclude these will lead the way.

Going down to the Earth, it might seem that between dApps on Hive are competing with each other, therefore traditional competition rules known from corporate capitalism apply here. However, there are fields where cooperation is required to thrive, thing @growthacker pointed out, no visible affiliation between dApps and Hive, trace amounts of linking between platforms, very little cross-communication, acting just like singular enterprises suspended in the void. It doesn't serve the whole ecosystem when the end-game goal is transferring all user activity from Web 2.0 apps to the Hive Web 3.0. I believe, to achieve this, more attention needs to be devoted to the relationship between dApp's owners and underlying blockchain platform.

From the other hand decentralized system for the first time in history bring the possibility to incentivize all the users to cooperate for the common goal. Removing adds and hate speech, rewards for content creation, proposals system, no fees and decentralized governance are HUGE achievements for the on-line community. I'm heavily invested in this platform and believe in it with my whole heart, this is my motivation to research it and find ways to improve it, even if I'm not a big fish.

Decentralized doesn't have to mean chaotic, and in similar way we vote for witnesses and tech solutions we might choose advisory bodies, council like entities or other decentralized governance mechanisms aiming to smooth some things impossible to solve from the level of dApp and from the level of Hive development. More efficient cooperation seems now to be the lowest hanging fruit to improve this place. We are free to create these mechanisms from the ground, without relying on the obsolete centralized solutions.

I'd love to see all the people responsible for dApps to do monthly AMA with ideas from the community to coordinate their efforts. I'd love to see monthly budget for constant marketing done like with all other crypto-projects. I'd love to see Hive's mouth speaking for the whole community on the major crypto-conferences. I'd love to see the weight of conversation shifting from changes of
technical details to looking for solutions from outside the box. However, these are things beyond reach of a single entity. This requires coordinated efforts.

We cannot just simply pretend the next tech, the next app or the lucky chance of being seen by another prominent figure, will solve issues that are with us for 5 years. It's time to start discussing potential solutions. Half of the decade is eternity in this space, and soon we might be surrounded by other decentralized social-media-like projects competing for the space in the decentralized future, which we certainly are going to see.

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Anyway, love it, hate it, argue with it, just drop your thoughts!
Cheers!



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16 comments
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Hmm, an interesting perspective. I imagine more coordination and synergy between the various dApps can happen if there is more communication between them. Maybe, if there is a community solely for dApp owners/developers, they will be more keen to post there about things that they need or initiatives they are thinking of or challenges they are encountering or whatever else. Do you think so, or maybe something else?

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Seems like a good starting point. If there is the way to get input from community (e.g. AMA) then it would make complete system IMO.

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The problem with Hive is that people outside of Hive don't see the benefit of it.
Then, you probably have a large percentage of Hive users seeing it as a way to become Lambo-Rich.

Blogging fills need for people. If it is easy to do, then they blog away. If they get the added benefit of people actually reading their posts and commenting on them, they are motivated to do more. Finally, if they find that the platform earns them money, they might see a future where they will blog a lot.

Hive could fill all of those needs of a blogger. But, there is that initial on-boarding step of making an account. Then, there is the problem of seeing other posts deemed "not as good a mine" get higher payouts than theirs. Maybe, the solution is just to show the upvotes and not show the earnings on the post itself. Maybe, it should be hidden to everyone except the author. Then people would have to vote blindly and not try to get a taste of the gravy train.

As for the dApps created on the Hive network. Again, we have to see the benefit. Tokens are fun to get, but if most only pay .20 of a Hive and Hive is not even a $1, how does that compete to playing a game that gives out Sats or actual fiat? Will tokens ever be worth more than Hive? I guess Pancake will, so there is probably hope for others to do so. But, just like Hive blogging, Hive dApps have to provide value to people and they have to see it right away.

I don't have the answers. Just giving you a perspective.

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Perspective for perspective. Fair enough:) This kind of platform is sort of reverse prisoner's dilemma. It will be more valuable if we all agree to use it. I can't see reaction for personal frustration of few users as solution, it's good to see how much earnings is possible. Changes brought by HF25 might actually sort out issue with lower rewards for quality content from new users since a lot of voting for the most popular users will be disincentived. And at the end votes at some point will have to get spread even more or Hive will become just a giant circle jerk.

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We keep hearing that with each fork that it will help the small fries.
So, I'll believe it when I see it.

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This is a very good starting point for debate

proper balance between cooperation and competition.

Well, there has been a lot of development in Hive lately, which is right, and there is a tendency for data (especially finance) to move to the other blockchain platforms. If this will be simplified then I believe Hive will be an important player in the Web3.0 decentralized environment. If not, it won't.

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Hive needs be to me rich :D

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Nice informative content. I like it********

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HIVE is incredible indeed, but I think that Discord was made especially for programmers to use it if you ask me 🤭 I usually have a feeling of being lost when I get there 😅

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I think that newcomers should be hold on HIVE somehow.

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