This post assumes a few things.
One, you don't know much about HIVE, but you've at least heard of cryptocurrencies, most likely Bitcoin, but maybe some others such as Ethereum and of all things, Dogecoin.
Two, you've done some kind of consuming of content on the Internet. YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, blogs, memes, etc.
Making Money On The Internet
No doubt, you're well aware of all the people who are somehow generating income through posting videos or articles. For every one of them, there are dozens if not hundreds more who can't seem to get their content off the ground. It's pretty much the same situation as any medium throughout history—eventually a saturation point is reached and breaking through all the noise becomes harder and harder.
Meanwhile, most of us consume much more than we create. We aid these creators via clicks, likes, or, in the case of Patreon and others, we even subscribe. In other words, someone else is benefiting from our consumption, which even if it is free, still requires our time and attention, commodities which are neither in abundance or things we wish to waste aimlessly.
What If You Could Earn While You Consume Content?
Plenty of places offer some form of payment for creators, but just how many are you aware of that also offer any kind of earnings for consuming that content? You can like, dislike, comment, review, etc., but rarely is anyone rewarding you for your own efforts. Instead, you're just a number in the hundreds of thousands of views that some viral content received.
HIVE Curation
HIVE is a cryptocurrency, like Bitcoin, in that it runs on a blockchain. It is decentralized, meaning no one individual, entity, or organization controls it. Unlike Bitcoin, you can do quite a bit more on HIVE than just buy or sell the token.
HIVE also has a blogging platform, games that can be played, and other kinds of apps that connect to the blockchain and provide means of earning HIVE. There is quite a bit of app development currently taking place. It can be hard to keep up sometimes.
Along with ways to earn HIVE via blogging or even shorter form content is something called curation. Essentially, curation on HIVE is liking content, only it's done by something called upvoting, where you allocate an amount to a post based on how much HIVE you have locked up.
How that all works isn't really within the scope of this post, but suffice it to say that the more of this locked up HIVE, or HIVE Power (HP) you have, the more you are able to allocate to a post. And instead of actually taking your HIVE or HP and giving it to a content creator, you're actually dipping into a rewards pool that everyone with HP has access to. In other words, when you curate or upvote content, you don't lose HP in the process.
It's kind of complicated, and if you're really interested in knowing more about how that works, searching posts about it will undoubtedly give you all kinds of reading. The main point is: you can earn something while you read posts or watch videos that you actually want to read or view.
How Much?
Good question. It depends on how much you curate, how much you allocate per post, and how much HP you have. The more HP you have, the more you can curate and allocate.
HIVE is not a get rich quick scheme. For the vast majority of us, it is a "sweat equity" endeavor. If you have the attitude of, It's not much, but hey, I'm getting paid to consume content! it will benefit you in the long run.
Because that's what HIVE is meant to be. A long haul proposition. Unless you have other crypto or fiat that you want to use to invest in HIVE (something I would recommend after you've done some more homework about HIVE and you're sure you won't need that crypto or money for something else), you will slowly but consistently build up your HP via curation.
It's not like you can't post if you like, too. Many of us do. The purpose of this post, though, is to introduce you to the concept of earning through content consumption.
Potentially Earn Through Commenting, Too
In addition to curating, commenting on the posts you read is another way you could possibly earn HIVE/HP. Many people on HIVE don't reward comments, but there are a core group of us who do. Especially comments which pertain to the subject matter, are well thought out and provide some kind of value to the post. Plus, commenting on other people's posts is a great way for others to get to know you, so when you do decide to post, they'll know who you are.
Find Your Community
HIVE has a general trending page where the highest earning posts at any given moment can be found. However, unless you're really interested in posts about crypto, HIVE itself, or one of the many projects associated with HIVE, you may or may not have to scroll a bit to find something else.
It would be much easier just to peruse the various communities that exist and join them so you can find content that way.
Follow
Also, if you decide you like the work of specific content creators, you can follow them so that they show up in a personalized friends feed.
My suggestion if you want to do that is to make sure you really like what they post, be selective, and don't follow to be followed. The latter can lead to disappointment on both ends, since no one on HIVE is compelled to follow you simply because you follow them.
Hashtags
You can drill down still further—some communities and authors can write about a lot of different subtopics within a community—by going through the hashtags. The easiest way to do that is to click the hashtag in a post and then bookmark it for future reference if you happen to like the content.
New Page
In addition to a general trending page, there is also a general new page, where the latest content appears. Again, you can get more specific with communities and hashtags. Each have their own new pages to peruse, as well.
Upcoming Changes In Curation
Within the next couple of weeks, an update to the blockchain will take place that will change curation. It would be best to learn, if you want to know more about it, what those changes are rather than reading about how curation looks now.
These updates are called hardforks and they tend to happen as development of the blockchain continues and other needs or wanted changes get discussed and coded for implementation. All this code is available for viewing by anyone at anytime, since it's all open source.
In Conclusion
Hopefully, I've provided you a taste of how your content consumption can lead to earning HIVE/HP. I haven't mentioned everything, but I believe I've covered quite a few of the basics. As in any worthwhile endeavor, you'll want to check things out, read other posts about the topic and of course, you'll need to set up your own account. While everyone can access content on HIVE, only members can curate/upvote, comment or post.
If you find any of this intriguing at all, I invite you to learn more. HIVE needs a variety of users, which includes content consumers. In that way, HIVE is like most other sites on the Internet. Unlike 99.9% of those, HIVE gives you a way to earn something for your time spent here.
Thanks for this. I typically feel inadequate trying to explain Hive to people and why they should migrate here from centralized social media. I'm sharing this to my Facebook and Twitter accounts.
Hey, @sidekickmatt.
Thank you for the sharing. :)
re: feel inadequate
I know that feeling. I tried to keep it as simple as possible but there's no way around it—curation and how it works is complicated (okay, maybe not so much post HF 25, but as of right now...), and so hopefully I was able to give a general enough description of it that was accurate enough.
Hopefully, this can be a part of the conversation with folks outside of HIVE. I'm sure many more posts like this will be needed to even put a dent in things, let alone gather the masses.
If you are new a lot of good points from Glen. It is still hard, but the reality is that comments do garner attention. Commenting is beginning to be a real thing on Hive Block Chain. There used to be very few real comments from real people, a few bot comments for this or that token.
Commenting in the last 5 months has really begun to take off, there have always been a few people people going around consuming and commenting, but as mentioned it seems to really be growing in spirit. People are letting the content creators know what they liked and what they did not.
So for the new user to Hive, pump out those comments on things you like, things you don't like and soon you will find a people commenting back and maybe even following you or putting you on a list they maintain.
(good post Glen I hope a few new users find it)
Hey, @bashadow.
Well, thank you. There were posts and comments kicking around a week or two ago about this topic so I decided to take a crack at it. It's very much a chicken or the egg scenario. We've heard people say that we need to attract creators with followings elsewhere, so they'll bring those followers here, but the few times that's actually happened on its own, the followers didn't seem to come over in droves, and I don't even know if those creators are still around.
I think there are a few non-creator types coming to Hive, people like me that are looking for interesting things to see, read, and watch. Yeah content is still hard to find, but people seem to be finding it.
For new users, especially those new to crypto completely; commenting & curating are a great pair! I expect very few people to purchase Hive for HP upfront. Commenting and a post or two are the best way to kickstart your Hive Power! From there, Hive is a perfect example of that “compound interest” stuff you always hear about in every other form of investing... only on Hive it’s the effort of investing your time which compounds in multiple ways to reward you!
Hey, @bryan-inhoff.
Thanks for bringing all that up. And I agree—too few of us actually can or are willing to invest some amount into HIVE from the beginning, even though it's very much in our best interest to do so. I guess we're still look for RC delegations as a way to help out with that at some point. I've lost track of whether or not it made it into the latest hardfork.
There are plenty of ways to earn HIVE/HP. More people need to know about those ways beyond just posting.
You were very informative, especially for someone like me who is still trying to grasp this whole concept. I am going to share this with my facebook friends, as I am trying to recruit more people to the platform. In addition, I will also repost this just in case someone missed it.
Hey, @domgreg.
All of that is very much appreciated. Thank you.
I'm glad you got something out of the post, too. Believe me, though, there's plenty to try to grasp. I think the upcoming changes to curation and how it works will help to simplify some of that. What the end results are as far as rewards go, though, I'm waiting to see.
Great points... obviously the vast majority of internet users are consumers rather than creators... but unfortunately most people seem stuck on the big four... FB, Twitter, Insta and Tik Tok... there's so much more out there... and obviously earning for curation is the most amazing thing...
Hey, @aussieninja.
It's interesting that you mention Tik Tok, since it's by far the newest of the group you mention. Users seem to go to the next big thing, and in the case of Tik Tok, it's taken over for something else before it, just as Facebook did. Twitter and Instagram have yet to have serious contenders.
It seems to be that once those competitors show up and prove to be stable and interactive enough, people start making the shift. As big as those four are, it will take some doing, but maybe a crypto based social media app is what people will finally gravitate to.
In my mind it makes sense... who doesn't love earning while doing what they enjoy?
The eyeballs on traditional social media sites are intoxicating for a lot of people, so we kind of need to make a cultural shift towards "10 superfans > 10,000 fans" - ie, 10 people upvoting you is far more exciting that 10,000 just seeing your content.
I definitely agree with the idea that people upvoting your content is much more valuable than people just seeing your content, to whatever extent they may see it. That would seem to be a no-brainer, and yet, as you so aptly put it, it does require a cultural shift.
Your post has been voted as a part of Encouragement program. Keep up the good work!
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