There's one way to look at it you did not mention: how much enjoyment you get from posting and interacting with other users. If I look at my earnings and the time spent earning them, it is absolutely clear that it has not made any sense from an economic perspective. I do not say this to complain about my rewards because they are much better than average, which I'm grateful for, but to make the point that working for this kind of hourly compensation is simply foolish because in a country like the one I'm living in, there are much better options available for additional income. For example, the best case scenario is that I'm going to make about $6-$7 worth of HIVE on the steam train post I just made. It's got $2.8 now of which I'm going to get a half as the author if what if the current votes are all there will be on it and if the token price won't change. That's $1.4. If that photography post was commissioned work, I'd have to charge for the time it took me to drive to the station and back, taking the photos and finally editing them. Even posting them took some time because uploading pictures to PeakD takes tens of seconds per post. I also had to write the text in the post. That would actually amount to about two hours of billable work. The results are not up to professional standards but they're pretty solid. About $100 per hour would perhaps normal for a pro. If I charged a half of that, that would still be $100 for today's post. (I have been asked to do commissioned work.)
Hive went 124x from the all-time low to the all-time high in the last four-year cycle. We're up about 2x from the all-time low of HIVE. So, assuming we will go up 60x, the tokens I'm probably going to earn will be worth $84 at the next peak assuming I'm able to time selling them just right.
Doing what I do ONLY makes any sense because I enjoy what I do. This is a hobby that I'm capable of monetizing this way. They money is all extra. The significance of the $2.8 I'm looking at is not mainly in the money but the votes that signify recognition.
I wanted to keep it more financially orientated, even though it is not the main value of Hive imo.
How much commissioned work can you get and how much time spent getting it? I know people say "I don't get out of bed for less than--- " but I don't see them out of bed much :)
However, this is precisely my point - your numbers (in the first paragraph) are looking at it from the immediate moment - not the future. This is how many people look at Hive, but if they aren't able/willing to put that couple of dollars in themselves, then posting for it is worth it, if they think that the future 100x or whatever is possible.
Until that 2.80 is worth 280. At that point, that is very much worth it and there will be people who have out-earned paid professionals.
Not for me, at the moment at least. If it were, I would go and deliver ads for €5 per hour (after taxes) with getting cardio as the main motive and the money as a way to maximize the value of my time - and buy HIVE for it. That would actually be a better way for me to maximize my investment in HIVE.
Not much, I guess. But then again, if I did not enjoy photography, I wouldn't take a single shot.
I got the offer by just posting what I normally post to a local Facebook group. I could do that in a matter of minutes on top of my Hive posting routine. I don't enjoy posting to the Facebook group as much as I enjoy posting to Hive, however, because I don't want to support Facebook.
You're forgetting there's a third option. In any first world country, it would actually be illegal or against collective labor agreements to pay as little as even someone who is probably in the top 5% is paid her hour for posting to Hive. From a purely financial standpoint, I should take up a second job and invest that money in HIVE.
From a purely financial point of view, it is completely senseless to do what I'm doing. But I'm not doing it for financial reasons but for enjoyment.
Only in a place like rural Pakistan or something is what the average Hive author earning of any substance. For them, the money is lucrative whether it is invested in HIVE or not.
If I had spent that time cleaning toilets and earned at least ten times as much, it would be worth $2800.
But.... are you willing? I have brought this up many times in the past (I have a post earlyish 2017 on this I think). Often when people complain about the rewards, the don't have one job, let alone are willing to take a second. Then, once working - how many are willing to convert into Hive?
It is a similar argument for "if I had bought BTC at 1 dollar" - how many would have actually held?
I once got paid several hundred dollars an hour for modelling work - if only I could work 20 hours a week as a model for the last 20 years ;D
Same as a above - you should - but will you?
I am yet to meet many educated Finns willing to clean toilets - even as a second job. People fight for more responsibility for a 5-10% pay increase, yet a couple of night shifts at McDonald's or stacking shelves at Prisma a week would get them not only more, but would be easy and responsibility free.
The point here is looking at posting to Hive from a purely financial point of view. Again, I enjoy posting to Hive. This is why I'm willing to accept an extremely low hourly pay by my local standards. Because I wouldn't enjoy cleaning toilets one bit, I wouldn't do it as a second job if it wasn't quite well paid or if I didn't have a job at all and I was forced to.
!ENGAGE 20
ENGAGEtokens.This is currently my major reason for sticking around (excuse my lack of blogs recently that's life and nothing to do with Hive).
Truth, this does present problems for Hive, since it's actually profitable for some people. There is often a difference in the quality, but one day or another someone will need to devise a solution if none just appears.
I often wonder how to make a lot of money off hive without speculating about future value. If I blog every day or do a few good ones, I can easily earn around 100 Hive a week in rewards. Right now that's not enough to live from in most developed countries, but at 5$ per Hive it would be a meagre option.
One advantage at high prices is curation rewards earned are stable, there won't be a sudden massive influx of HP or vests. However, let's assume curation needs to be reinvested to not fall behind.
While author rewards are shared among more people as more posts are made. Earning 100 a week may become even harder. I may only be able to earn 30 Hive a week under that situation. Who knows really?
Mine, too. Recently, my earnings have been very good compared to most other Hive users. But they alone a far cry from enough to justify the time spent from a purely financial perspective.
I'm not following you now. Could you please clarify?
If the price hits $5, it will happen near the end of the next bull run and it will crash hard afterwards. The price will go back to under a dollar but possibly not much if BTC bottoms out at $50,000 or thereabouts in 2024/2025. It is all driven by the BTC mining reward halving schedule. What else?
If you live in a developed country, the worst possible thing you can do with your Hive earnings is to cash them out immediately without reinvesting them during a bear market when the price of HIVE is so low that you're getting peanuts in fiat terms.
Imagine if you had a second job delivering ads the main motive of which were you getting cardio. You earned a little bit of money that you did not need for living but the catch was that your earnings were paid in tokens that had the possibility of spiking x50 to x100 in value if you waited for 1-2 years. Why on Earth would you do that if you really didn't need the money right away?
Of course you can choose to invest in some other project than Hive.
I was referring to the fact that for people from developing countries, blogging on Hive is profitable and perhaps even lucrative. This may present unique challenges in terms of the authors it will attract and the content that will be created. Tasteem was a great example to illustrate this point. I mean did you find the reviews of cafes and working-class restaurants from the suburbs/non-tourist areas of developing megacities valuable? They made up the bulk majority. We also find this problem with travel dapps. I'm guilty myself of posting things that would only ever attract very niche interest.
I agree, moving them into other high-risk speculative assets (other cryptos) this could be a great hedging strategy. SMTs will make it more likely that this will stay within the Hive ecosphere.