Hi Everyone,
I’ve made it to nine years on Hive. Every year takes me on a slightly different journey. My ninth year has been my least active on my @spectrumecons account. I’ve only posted around fifty-plus times. Most of those posts have been related to my contests/challenges and Actifit updates. I have posted more times on my @captainhive account. These posts have been chapters from my soon-to-be-officially-published book, Sapien Loop: Worlds Collide.
For my @captainhive account, I post most of the chapters within a very short period. I posted 80 chapters in under two months. I only finalise individual chapters after I have written at least a first draft of all chapters. This is for consistency. The story evolves as it goes along. Sometimes, earlier events need to be edited for the later events to make sense or naturally flow better.
For my tenth year on Hive, I will be devoting more time to my economics content, which has been mostly neglected for the past three years. I have a lot of content to catch up on considering the state of most Western economies and the crazy events of the past three years.
The Future of Hive
The price of Hive is incredibly low. It is below 5 cents and is barely above the all-time low, which seems to be frequently reset this year. The altcoins did not have a bull run this cycle. Hive performed worse than many other coins. I believe this has to do with many of the projects on Hive that require funding. This causes more selling pressure. The selling pressure clearly outweighed any buying pressure that these projects generated.
I do not think there is anything wrong with the projects, but they do not appear to be drawing in a sufficient number of new users. The falling price is causing users to leave Hive. This causes engagement for the remaining users to fall, which causes even more users to leave, and this creates a spiral effect.
There seems little interest from investors either. Hive is well outside the top 500 coins in terms of market cap. Therefore, it has minimal visibility on crypto websites such as CoinGecko. Hive is also only on a few crypto exchanges, making it more difficult to find and buy. Hive’s biggest problem is too few people know about it. This affects both users and investors.
Two years ago, a documentary titled ‘Freechain’ was completed. So far, it has very little exposure. This could change soon. I believe there is some sort of deal with Al Jazeera. When or if it is aired by them, Hive could receive considerably more attention. The story of Hive is quite an inspiring one, which could draw investors in.
For Hive to succeed, the focus needs to be on the DApps rather than the blockchain. The DApps are what users engage with; they attract users and keep them coming back. This has yet to happen in a significant way. The Splinterlands game DApp had some success. More DApps with similar levels of success are needed if Hive is going to grow in terms of users and investors.
There is also the problem of other mainstream social media platforms capturing the market. Lack of free speech on these platforms was identified as a huge problem. The Hive social media DApps were and are viable solutions to this problem. However, perceptions changed when Elon Musk took over Twitter and renamed it X. X became the perceived platform of free speech for ‘right-wing’ users. These were arguably the most censored users prior to the takeover. Fewer people searched for free speech social platforms because of this perception. Most people do not realise how manipulated content on X actually is. Topic for another day.
The Hive DApps for social media do not seem like a particularly important alternative to mainstream media. X even allows users to earn money as well, and it is quite likely, considering the price of Hive, that users will earn more money on X than they do on the Hive DApps.
My longer-form content is still better suited to Hive than X or any of these other centralised platforms. Therefore, I’m still going to remain here. At best, I will use them to share what I have posted here.
Even though the price of Hive is incredibly low, the ecosystem is still going. We still have plenty of witnesses keeping the blockchain going even though their earnings are low. Many of the DApps are also still running and well-maintained. I feel it can endure even tougher times if it needs to, thus giving us hope that times will improve.
Conclusion
I am optimistic about my next year on Hive. I will post mostly on PeakD, which remains my favourite blogging platform. I will still use Actifit for reports and updates. I also want to get back to using 3Speak, which is a good video DApp. I will be more focused on my economics content, but I will still run Sapien Loop contests. The books need a bigger push now that the trilogy is complete.
The Sapien Loop Series
I am writing a trilogy of books titled Sapien Loop. The first in the series is Sapien Loop: End of an Era and the second is Sapien Loop: Frozen in Time. I published both of these books as ebooks on Amazon, and I have posted completed chapters to my @captainhive account. I anticipate publishing the third book in early 2027. I expect to title this book Sapien Loop: Worlds Collide.
In 2025, I wrote a short stories book about some of the characters and their adventures. This book is now available on Amazon. I have also posted these stories to my @captainhive account.
Brief Summary of Sapien Loop: End of an Era
This story is based on the fictional planet Sapia and its sole country, Sapey. Sapey is portrayed as a form of utopia for all its citizens. No poverty. No war. Almost no crime. Opportunities for all.
This was enough for most citizens, but not all. In one of the small regions, some of the citizens had become discontent. They felt something important was missing in their lives. Their discontent did not go unnoticed. Some of the Sapey elite wanted to weaponise this discontent to gain more power. This created more chaos than they anticipated. This led to further widespread social unrest.
On top of the chaos, ambition and greed provoked another enemy. This enemy was on a mission to settle both new and old scores.
Brief Summary of Sapien Loop: Frozen in Time
This story is based six years after the original story. The Downs Region is still suffering from a serious health crisis caused by the contaminated water. The main characters are desperately trying to find a cure for the illness that has been caused by the water.
One of the main characters has discovered frozen humanoids in hidden chambers. It appears they have been frozen for a long time. These chambers connect to a vast network of tunnels. While exploring the tunnels, one of the frozen humanoids disappears. It appears he has been stolen.
The story takes a step back in time to tell the story of the frozen humanoids. How and why were they frozen? This part of the story also explains the fall of ancient Sapey and the birth of the Sapiens. Can those from the past be able to coexist with those from the present?
Hive: Future of Social Media
Spectrumecons on the Hive Blockchain
Happy Hiversary!
I believe the users who are leaving because of the low price would have left sooner or later because typically their content don't pull in good rewards. There are a lot of them who were told they can earn by writing, only to find out the rainbow isn't as bright as sold.
The user numbers may have dwindled from the early days, but there's still a good solid bunch around.
Thank you!
When I first started posting nine years ago, Steem was promoted by many of the more successful content creators as a place to make a quick buck. Many users would receive the occasional large payout because of curation groups/bots. That gave them some momentum, but the higher payouts eventually fizzled out. I rarely see that type of promotion any more. Despite that, most of the newer users I’ve encountered do not hang around for long. Most of the people I engage with have been around many years. Then again, I’m not particularly social.
Congratulations on being on the chain for 9 years, it's not a little feat, and congratulations on your Sapien loop book, at left this is the the only decentralized social space where your book will live forever because it's never getting deleted. Thanks for all the support all these years.
Thank you, @josediccus.
It's awesome to know that the book is secure here. It is scary thinking about the extent of censorship elsewhere. If the book is deemed offensive in some way, it could get pulled.
Congratulations on the milestone, nine years is a long time! This year I’m celebrating 5 years, and I already feel like an old man. Imagine how you must feel haha!
Thank you!
The time just flew by.
Well done on five years. That's still great commitment.
Happy cakeday!
Thanks!
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Congrats on your journey, @spectrumecons.
It's a great achievement.
Thank you.
Congrats to you friend
Awesome. We joined on the same day almost.
Hive is the best thing ever
That's pretty cool.
Well, I keep coming back.
You've been curated by @plantpoweronhive! Delegations welcome!
I'm going to have a nine-year holiday on hive soon too. It seems to me that it was like 1 moment. I've seen the dawn of Steemit and Hive. Now they had both fallen into a deep pit, very deep. I really want to believe that we even will rise higher.
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STOPyour 9year retrospective is a sobering yet balanced assessment of the ecosystem’s current state
i just joined the hive network and the opinions of old friends like you are valuable to me
how do you see the role of "niche expertise" on Hive evolving to counter the influence of mainstream social media platforms
do you believe Hive can thrive as a curated hub for deep dive intellectual content rather than trying to compete as a general purpose social network?
A late happy-birthday, with an extra of of Hive !PIZZA.
Wish your book release will be smooth, and pleasurable event.
🙏
Congratulations on your 9 years here on Hive