I have been part of this ecosystem for nearly 10 years. I began on the legacy chain in July of 2016. So to say I am loyal to Hive is an understatement. I love Hive and I desperately want it to reach its full potential and be a raging success.
I have been kicking around an idea for quite a while. I wonder if it can help increase the demand for Hive and Hive Power. I left this as a comment on a DHS proposal a few days ago but it was already more than 24 after it had been posted so I doubt very many people saw it. I figured I'd post it here in hopes of it catching more eyes and leading to more feedback.
It seems that for many years, our community has focused on attracting content producers to Hive by essentially saying “come blog here and earn.” But that seems to have resulted in mainly attracting other creators rather than actual audiences.
Would it be more effective to instead focus on bringing over an active audience by recruiting small to mid-sized content creators (who already have an audience of a couple thousand people but can’t monetize it well on YouTube) and pay them from the DHF, but only on the condition that they actively bring their audience over and get them to power up on Hive? It is important to note, I am not suggesting these creators be paid with upvotes. That does not seem to work. This is a guaranteed payment from the DHF... if they fulfill the requirements of a specific agreement.
In that model, the creator wouldn’t just be paid for posting—they would be paid for performance, specifically:
- bringing over a defined number of audience members
- getting those users to actively engage on Hive
- and getting them to power up Hive (not just sign up)
If the creator doesn’t deliver on those outcomes, they don’t receive the full payment.
This would shift Hive from “paying creators to post” to “paying creators to build active communities,” where the creator is directly responsible for:
- attracting users
- keeping them engaged
- and converting them into participating, powered-up members
Essentially, instead of advertising Hive to creators, we would be paying creators to bring their audience into Hive and activate them.
I'm not talking about bringing anyone huge over. How about just YouTubers who only have rabid 1000 fans? They make basically nothing. For a few hundred dollars a month in HBD, I bet they would migrate their audience to Hive. And if each audience member just bought and powered up 50 Hive, that is 50,000 Hive. And if we found 10 such YouTubers, that's 500,000 powered up Hive.
The Creator-Led Growth Model on Hive
When content creators come to Hive, it’s not just about posting content—it becomes their responsibility to attract their audience, keep them engaged, and actively convert them into powered-up participants. The creator is effectively running a community system where growth depends on how well they consistently guide their audience into participating and powering up.
Powered-up users should feel like they aren’t just “supporters”—they are the creator’s inner community with direct access, influence, recognition, and experiences no one else gets.
Core Psychology of Audience Members (What they want)
Status (I matter here) Access (I see things others don’t) Attention (the creator notices me) Participation (I influence outcomes) Belonging (I’m part of the inner group)
Examples of Creator Actions To Give The Audience What They Want
Status
- shoutouts in videos
- featured comments in content
- creator remembers and highlights regulars
- recognition of top contributions
Access
- early content releases
- special Hive-only posts
- behind-the-scenes updates
- exclusive Q&A threads
- Attention
- priority replies on Hive
- responding first to powered-up users
- highlighting comments in videos
- direct engagement threads
Participation
- voting on content
- voting on next videos
- choosing topics or ideas
- community-driven content decisions
- prediction games
- debate threads
- creative challenges
Belonging
- recurring Hive “home base” posts
- shared inside jokes and references
- ongoing storylines or themes shaped by the community
- regular community discussions on Hive
Fun & Games
- prediction competitions
- comment contests (best idea / best take)
- meme challenges
- weekly themed prompts
- community-driven storytelling
- “guess what happens next” series
- engagement-based mini challenges
- t-shirt giveaways
- hat and merch giveaways
- creator merch drops tied to participation
Financial Incentive (Curation + Engagement Model)
The financial layer is simple and intentional:
Users are encouraged to power up because it increases their ability to earn curation rewards from voting.
The creator can also upvote comments from powered-up users, allowing them to earn from participating in the discussion.
Powering up strengthens participation, because users are now directly rewarded for being active and engaging with the content.
When users vote and engage, they are also effectively rewarding the creator for producing the content, reinforcing a feedback loop where both sides benefit from activity. (They feel good that they are giving a "thank you" to their favorite content creator. They feel important.)
This creates a system where:
- engagement is rewarded
- participation has upside
- and powering up naturally becomes the mechanism that unlocks both influence and earning potential
While there are still some technological and front-end improvements that could make this smoother long-term, the key point is that Hive already has everything needed to start testing this model immediately.
A popular content creator can already post on Hive. The comment section already exists and can function as the core community hub. Users can already power up, vote, and earn curation rewards.
That means this isn’t a future idea dependent on new infrastructure… it’s something that could be implemented and tested tomorrow using what already exists, with the creator-led community layer built directly on top of the current system.
Something here to think about for sure.
Hey m8,
Are you on Discord?
Me and a few others run a weekly chat show called Hive Thrive.
It hapoens every tuesday at 6pm UTC in the voice channel of the hive discord.
Would you be interested in ciming in and having a friendly chat?
If so lets connect on discord and pick a date 😎
Hi. Thanks for reaching out. I am very humbled and flattered by the invitation, but I really don't like to do audio interviews.
This flips the script on how Hive could grow. The part about paying creators to move their audience, not just bring them into Hive but turn them into active, powered-up members. What’s the biggest hurdle you think creators would face in making that audience shift stick beyond the first month?
My first answer would be to ask the content creators what they think. But my guess would be that it is so new to many and they do not understand crypto and wallets. This brings up a great point. We would need to make onboarding as simple as possible and the creator would need to educate their audience on how to do it. But that is why I am suggesting a relatively small fan base but that fan base is incredibly loyal. They’d follow their favorite anywhere… even Hive.
Doesn't seem to do much for having David Pakman, that Caitlin person, or Dan Dicks who is a real dickhead and never engages with anyone, period, if he's being sponsored by someone and isn't buying in, he's a huge waste of someone's delegation. He has absolutely no one buying into Hive. I think it's a bit naviette to think people will buy into, let alone sign up, on Hive when they can comment on utube for nothing, even if they did, once they find out it's an exclusive club of winners, they'll do as hundreds of others and just wither off somewhere. It's just an honest truth to the matter.
I think you missed the part where the creator would be paid based on performance from the dhf. And that the new audience would not be brought over as content producers but as content consumers. If the content creator did not engage and find ways for their audience to buy and power up hive, they don’t get paid.
This requires a complete mindset shift to what Steemit was originally created as: an alternative to Reddit where people were rewarded for their attention. It has been engrained in our head for so long that hive is a place to get paid to create content that we forgot that we have an incredibly unique system where people get paid when they vote (it’s a tiny amount but how much do people get paid to vote on YouTube or Reddit? 0)
We don’t need any more amateur content creators (and I count myself as one) we need content consumers.
I hope you get some more eyes on this than you did on the other comment. It seems not to be the case so far, but you never know I guess!
This flips the script on how Hive could grow. The part about paying creators to move their audience, not just bring them into Hive but turn them into active, powered-up members. What’s the biggest hurdle you think creators would face in making that audience shift stick beyond the first month?
Forgive me if I am wrong but didn't they try this already with some sort of streaming service that they actually hired Pewdiepie to try to popularize it? Whatever that was it didn't work and I think there is some bad blood there too because Hive helped to build it and then they just left us behind when they launched. I may have my wires crosses because it wasn't really to my liking anyway.
I do not recall paying any content creators from the dhf based on the requirement they bring an audience and that audience buys and powers up hive. There has been plenty of advertising efforts but those have been ineffective. This is not advertising. This would be a specific plan for a creator to migrate their audience to hive. I don’t think that has ever been tried.
well anything that can help is a good thing. I'd support it
I got my wires crossed a bit because like I hinted at, I don't know the technical specifics of really anything.. I'm just happy to be along for the ride. I went and looked and what I remembered was something called Dlive and Pwediepie was probably paid to come along and promote it. I don't know if the rumors were true or not, but I remember someone complaining about how the people behind Dlive kind of "used" this community to gain traction, then abandoned us once they finally "made it." I don't know a single person that actually uses Dlive though, so I wouldn't really call it a big thing.
Correct me if I am wrong, I do hate it when I believe BS
It's an interesting idea, and the best part is that, as it rightly says, it can be implemented right now without needing to create a highly professional work machine. It can utilize existing resources, attracting those small YouTubers and their loyal followers—it's a win-win situation.
I imagine the witnesses would be responsible for accepting the proposed idea, and as it's stated, it's a relationship where everyone involved benefits. Therefore, it would be interesting to create a test and see how it works. Should there be a minimum number of participants per creator, who would have to call Hive?
You haven't placed the bar very high, so, this could work or it is better to say, this will work.
It's a growth and expansion model for Hive that could work. Furthermore, this payment based on positive votes isn't very appealing to "Influencers or YouTubers." This fixed payment would also be made, let's say, if they're part of the ecosystem because they're following their favorite creator.
It's similar to what sports betting sites do with customers they bring to the platform, holding raffles for those who log in with their promotional code to incentivize them. It's an idea that might work, and if certain aspects are improved, it could certainly be a win-win situation for everyone.
Very few old users are left on this platform now. Many have left this platform due to the low price, but demand and supply continue to exist. As soon as the demand increases, the price will also increase
Your idea of using the DHF to reward results instead of just posting makes a lot of sense. Bringing in creators who already have loyal audiences and then making them responsible for activating those people on Hive could solve one of the biggest issues real user engagement, not just more writers talking to each other.
At this time, if we look, there are very few people left working here. Now, just like I am an old member and have been working since the time of Steemit, and then when this platform came, I started working on it again, but the prices here have come down so much that if people create original content, So much money is spent there that we cannot even earn from a single post here. If we look here, YouTube is a very successful platform and it also takes great care of its users. They get a good amount if they work hard there. But we love this platform and it is my effort to continue working here in the same way. You can also see my old posts that I have been working hard for a long time. Some changes must be made, especially for those who have been loyal to this platform for a long time.
This is so enriching and all round robust.A model where everone wins.Thanks for updating.I wanna go through again and again,so it sticks in my photographic memory.