where does the crypto currency come from?
Okay, let me give this my best shot.
Hive is an inflationary currency, so new tokens are created on a schedule and sent to a reward pool where they are then distributed to the users, developers & witnesses (people elected by the community to run the blockchain and keep it all decentralised).
As an inflationary currency I am not 100% clear how it is that the value doesn't drop all the time, as is the case with all fiat currencies. Think I am right in saying there are around 500 million hive tokens currently in circulation and I suppose as this idea goes mainstream (hive blockchain is built to be scalable) they expect people to keep placing the buy orders on the exchanges, which drives the price up. Certainly it is prone to big price fluctuations in both directions.
Bitcoin is a proof of work currency (POW) and as you rightly mentioned miners are paid to process the transactions. Hive is a delegated proof-of-stake (DPoS) consensus mechanism which takes us back to the hive power I mentioned before. This is our stake, which we 'prove' by powering up our hive into hive power. As I mentioned, this locks it into the platform for a minimum of 13 weeks so it shows confidence in the system and is rewarded accordingly whenever we vote on another person's work.
So unlike bitcoin which pays the miners, hive mostly just pays the writers & the voters. But importantly 10% of the reward pool is reserved for witnesses, who are essentially the people processing the transactions. Which by the way, are instant and free for us users. Unlike most of the other crypto currencies which take a fee on every transaction to pay the miners. Hive differs from other blockchains because our transactions are many. Over the course of a day one votes a lot. And voting = moving crypto.
I must admit that very few people have asked me this most important question over the last seven years and I don't think I am very good at answering it!
A decent post from a friend explains more of the details behind the platform here:
This is in my opinion the cutting edge of decentralised social media platforms and as more and more people wake up to the censorship of centralised platforms they will arrive here. Certainly that is why I joined this place seven years ago. To find freedom and a crowd of advanced minds around me.
Does this mean you are spending money on me so my RC go up faster?! From what I understood, RC go up anyway, just slowly over a period of a few days
Yes. Very small amount of money however! My 100% vote is currently worth around $0.04. So each time I vote on your comment that's what you get. Seven days later. And this will work towards building your RC. But only if you power the hive up and convert it to hive power in your wallet. Like I said, the more HP you have the more confidence it shows in the platform, the more privileges you get. Once you have a ton of hive you can delegate and earn a passive income. Delegate means 'loan' some hive to a person who clearly takes the time to vote on decent content. By doing this you will earn hive based on their voting actions while the person you have delegated to will have the ability to give bigger votes/rewards and also earn bigger rewards themselves.
RC will go up slowly on its own if you do nothing but it can be a bore to wait. It would be my pleasure to send you 5 hive which I think should be enough to give you a seamless experience here. I just need to wait a few days before I can do that, due to the locking mechanism and my lack of liquid hive.
If I make a post, do I need a certain amount of RC? More text = more RC needed?
In a word, yes. Only way to know if you've got enough is to try and post.
If you do intend to start posting here I would like to give you some further details relating to communities and tags. Hopefully that won't be so convoluted!
That's probably because the creation of money (or anything of "value") is fundamentally a bizarre concept, based only on the fact that a group of people agree that a piece of paper (or a work of art, or a piece of metal) has a certain value...
Essentially, I tripped you up with my question! (I'm serious - but then I'm not. It's like Gödel's incompleteness theorem.)
That sounds like an advanced activity on hive?
Do I get this right - the first steps would be (for a beginner like me):
a) Commenting, voting, posting. Which result in spending my RC.
b) Receiving upvotes, which would earn me RC.
c) RC are converted to Hive Power, which can (optionally) be converted to real dollars, but as long as they stay on the platform, it increases my "value" (reputation, but also the ability to comment, vote, post).
d) The more RC I have, the shorter my wait time for posting/commenting/upvoting.
A few dollars to boost my RC would be amazing, thank you for your offer!
And yes, whenever you have time, I'd appreciate some useful advice about posting. I guess that is going to be my next step.