Seven Years on Hive and Still Going Strong

Hi Everyone,

I have made it to seven years on Hive. Where has the time gone? It has been an amazing journey so far. There is nowhere else where I would rather write blogs. I feel comfortable that I can write about whatever I want and express any opinions I have without fear that my content will be censored (i.e., treated unfairly by the algorithms, shadow banned, or banned).

My experience on other social media has been far less pleasant. I had frequent bans on Facebook. I do not get banned anymore because I rarely post anything. I strongly believe I was shadow banned on Instagram. The number of likes on my posts suddenly plummeted. I think it had to do with me sharing content relating to Steem or Hive. I have started posting again on Instagram to see if I am still shadow banned; I want to promote my book. I am currently receiving just one or two likes. It looks like the Instagram algorithms are strongly biased towards certain accounts.

The worst is probably YouTube. They have too many rules, and they are very biased against particular opinions and sometimes even facts. I left YouTube before Covid-19. After that, the rules became ridiculous. I feel there is little to no point in posting videos on YouTube. I would not follow their rules. Therefore, I would be banned or blocked. Hence, I would have no chance of obtaining an audience. Odysee seems like a better option than YouTube, but I still do not trust their algorithms. I posted my ‘Economics is for Everyone’ course to them. Unfortunately, I could not embed the videos into a Hive post. Therefore, I had to post to YouTube. The videos are marked as unlisted. Therefore, they are reserved for those who have the link. I mostly use Odysee to watch videos rather than post them.

X is the only social media I frequently use besides Hive. I believe it is a little better than most of the others, but it is still heavily censored. X is good for accessing content from well-known people who are censored on other platforms. However, X is heavily biased against lesser-known posters. If you do not have a huge following, it is highly unlikely you will obtain much attention. However, there are some exceptions where certain accounts obtain a huge push. Posts from these accounts appear in the feeds of people who do not follow them. Posts from these accounts appear higher up on the trending tags.

My Seven-Year Journey Through Posts

For my seven-year anniversary post, I want to run through the main topics of my content for each year. The emphasis of my content has changed a little from year-to-year, even though it is fundamentally based around economics.

Year One (June 2017 to June 2018)

I began my journey on Hive (Steem at that time) by posting content I had already posted on YouTube. I embedded the video into the post and provided some additional information to support the video. Most of the time, that information was from the descriptions I put in the original video. After about two months of being on the platform, I started to put more effort into the posts. I included pictures to support the videos I shared. Just after this, I began posting fully-written blogs for Hive.

Many of my posts in the first year focused on adding real-world context to economic theory. For example, see my post Macroeconomics – Inflation. Every theory needs to be explained in the context of its possible application.

My more important contributions during year one were my ‘Dark Side of Economics’, ‘Cruelty-free Economics’, and ‘Game Theory’ series. I am still adding posts to these series.

The ‘Dark Side of Economics’ series is a very important series as I use economics to explain how certain groups of people are manipulating the general population. Important early topics in this series were democracy, contrived scarcity, and banking.

I am passionate about the ‘Cruelty-free Economics’ series. Animal cruelty is a huge issue. We all contribute to it in one way or another. I strive towards minimising the amount of cruelty that I cause towards animals, with the eventual aim of eliminating that. My focus in year one was the real costs of eating meat, my journey to becoming vegan, and the five areas of cruelty; food, clothing, entertainment, testing, and pets.

The assessment of the real cost of meat was focused on the costs to the animal that was being killed. This was in terms of quality of life and the loss of life to the animal. I used and modified the statistical value of life methodology for humans based on data relating to life expectancy and intelligence. I believe this approach to be somewhat revolutionary, but ultimately incomplete. I updated the approach several years later in my post, Valuing Life (Part 3) – Valuing the life of an animal.

I wrote a large portion of my ‘Games Theory’ series in year one. I wrote about most of the basic stuff as well as introduced my triple threat theory. Basically, triple threat describes how games can change as more players are added. It described how weaker players could increase their chance of success by teaming up against stronger players.

Year Two (June 2018 to June 2019)

In year two, the appearance of my content received a significant overhaul. Instead of searching for pictures and images online, I made my own. I took photographs of various things. This could be toys and action figures, objects, buildings, and even vehicles. I also took screenshots from PS4 games. I would then, using Paint 3D, turn images into PNGs with transparent backgrounds. I would then paste these PNGs into Microsoft PowerPoint to create my own unique picture. I have continued to use this method ever since. I explain how I made the pictures in my post, Fun Portable Network Graphics (PNG).

Year two was the year, I began to overcome my learning curve regarding Hive (Steem at that time). Steem and Steemit felt like one entity. It felt okay to use them almost interchangeably. However, they are completely different. Steem was the cryptocurrency and the blockchain. Steemit was the DApp, and the company controlling both the DApp and the blockchain (this was because of its enormous stake). At the beginning, Steemit was the only DApp to use Steem. Hence, it felt like the two were the same.

Once I was comfortable with my knowledge of both Steem and Steemit, I wrote a marathon blog explaining both Steemit and Steem. In year two, I wrote about a dozen posts relating to Steem. They included discussions relating to the ecosystem, rewards, promoting content, advice to investors, and bid bots. I did not become a technical guru, but I was a knowledgeable layman.

In Year Two, I started the monthly Buying and Selling Game contests. These contests did not take off until 2020. Ever since, I have run some form of monthly contest. Currently, I am running the Sapien Loop quizzes.

I dedicated several posts to analysing Brexit. Brexit was the biggest thing in the UK in 2019. Was it actually going to happen? I believe the results of the Brexit referendum in 2016 were a surprise for the elite. They did not want it to happen. However, they soon made the most of the divide in society that it caused. The UK ended up with a weak Brexit and a door half open to return to the European Union. My posts covered several of the twists and turns and ended up discussing the Brexit election, which ended the speculation on whether it was really going to happen.

Year Three (June 2019 to June 2020)

Year three was very important. It was the year that Hive was born. Steem had been taken over by Justin Sun and was going to change forever. These changes would have been out of the community’s hands. People needed to decide whether they wanted to stay with Steem, move to Hive, or continue with both. I chose to move over to Hive. Hive is far more closely aligned with what I expected from the ecosystem. Steem was going to be fully controlled by Justin. His ownership would ruin any chances that Steem could be a decentralised blockchain.

My final post on Steem was my three year anniversary post. It was taken off Steemit because I mentioned Hive. I demanded for it to be reinstated. This led to my account being completely censored on Steemit. My posts are still on the Steem blockchain, but without a commonly used interface to display them, they receive zero visibility. Luckily, all my Steem posts are on the Hive blockchain.

By year three, I had posted a significant amount of content. This inspired me to write blogs that linked together many of the ideas from different blogs and content. I wrote about my projects as an economist, the political spectrum, understanding what we want, veganism and the blockchain, and my favourite post, Power, Money and Me Me Me.

I consider Power, Money and Me Me Me to be the most significant post. I believe this because I frequently reference it in other posts. The post sets the foundations for what motivates us, which is our own self-interest.

My ‘Economic Solutions’ series was my most significant series in Year 3. In this series, I defined the Prevent, Solve, and Manage approaches. I used this basic model to discuss many different areas within our economy. These included, health, crime, education, housing, and many more. This series continued into year four, and I added another post to this series in year seven. This series was significant because the approach is so flexible that it can be used to assess almost any form of problem.

Year Four (June 2020 to June 2021)

Year four was the Covid-19 year. Much of what I was planning to write about in 2020 was put on hold to discuss Covid-19. For me, Covid-19 started off as one of the scariest events of my life. I was most afraid for my mother, who was in her late sixties at the time, and my brother, who has Down syndrome; both of them could be considered more vulnerable to Covid-19. I took all the necessary precautions not to catch Covid-19 as a way of protecting her and my brother. My greatest concern was that it was some type of bioweapon.

While treating Covid-19 as genuine, I also took the time to research what was going on, the real extent of the risk, and what governments were proposing to do. I wrote an extensive series about Covid-19, responses to it, and possible outcomes of these responses. In the first post, I focused on Covid-19 itself. I discussed how well it had been handled by countries such as Singapore, Hong Kong, and South Korea and how poorly the UK and other European countries had handled it. I discussed how European countries should learn from how countries like South Korea stopped the spread. I even posted about a possible cost benefit analysis approach to assessing who to respond to a pandemic such as Covid-19.

Ironically, the world copied the European countries' atrocious policies of lockdowns and restrictions. Countries’ responses were far more in sync than I ever could have imagined. All the leaders were taking their countries down the same disastrous path. It became so bad, that I now refer to it as the Covid-19 fiasco.

The Covid-19 fiasco ushered in the launch of the Great Reset. The ideology had been in the works for a while, but it was formalised during the Covid-19 period by the World Economic Forum. I read Klaus Schwab's book and summarised each section in different posts as well as provided an overview and summary of the main themes. I found the contents of the book deeply concerning. The greatest concern was the strong emphasis on centralisation and global control.

The biggest scandal that came out of the Covid-19 fiasco was the so-called vaccine. Pharmaceutical companies lied about developing a Covid-19 vaccine. Instead, they developed a jab, which they were paid for using taxpayer money, that did very little to stop the spread of Covid-19 in the short-run and likely increased its spread in the long-run. This led to continuous booster jabs and even more money for the pharmaceutical companies.

On top of ineffectiveness, the jabs were not even safe. This became apparent very quickly with the soaring number of reported jab injuries on various vaccine databases such as VAERS and Yellow Cards. I made my concerns very clear in my post, My Concerns about the Covid-19 Vaccines. I followed that post with a few others in the following year, when the evidence was even clearer.

Year Five (June 2021 to June 2022)

In year five, I posted several more posts about Covid-19. My focus was mostly on the jab and the extent of the damage it was causing. I even assessed the Covid-19 fiasco from the perspective of the Establishment. I discussed what they might have gained from their approach to it. By early 2022, the Covid-19 hysteria was close to over. The incredibly mild Omicron variant ended the insanity around Covid-19. Media coverage quickly disappeared. However, the impact of the jabs continued as excess deaths remained high.

The Covid-19 fiasco proved how gullible and foolish the majority of the population can be. By the end of the fiasco, it appeared a large proportion of the public was waking up to the government and media lies. That ended in a heartbeat with the war in Ukraine. Again, the people instantly believed the nonsense pumped out by the mainstream media. The propaganda was more intense than ever. It gave me something new to write about and analyse.

The main war started very conveniently, just after the Covid-19 hysteria had ended. The Establishment needed to maintain the fear. A war in Europe would serve that purpose. The war in Ukraine did not start in 2022. It started in 2014. In 2022, it greatly escalated when Russia directly militarily intervened. The way they intervened made it incredibly easy for the western media to criticise them. They went in hard, fast, and aggressive. The media conveniently left out the previous eight years and any provocation from Ukraine and NATO leading up to the invasion. I discuss the start of the war in detail in my post Russia Invades Ukraine: What is going on?

It is often said that there are no winners in war. That is a lie; there are normally several big winners. However, none of them actually fight in these war. In two posts, I discuss the winners and losers from the war in Ukraine.

In year five, I contributed many posts to my ‘Dark Side of Economics’ series and ‘Piecing Together My Work’ series. I wrote about the ongoing health crisis caused by the responses to Covid-19, the potential threat of World War, and rapidly rising prices (inflation and the prelude to the cost of living crisis). My bleakest post was A Possible Grim Reality. In essence, I was predicting the collapse of western civilisation. Sadly, we are still heading down that path, and I believe we are past the point of return. It just comes down to when and how bad.

My content was not just doom and gloom. It also focused on the value of freedom and how we can use freedom to improve our lives. My posts, Freedom for Us, Them, and Everyone (Part 1) and Part 2 were two of my main contributions. This work continued into years six and seven. I intended to write a book titled ‘Freedom-Based Economics’.

Year Six (June 2022 to June 2023)

In year six, I decided I would take a different path in terms of my book. Instead of publishing, ‘Freedom-Based Economics’ as a book, I decided to publish it as a living book as collections of posts (Part 1 and Part 2 on Hive). The reason I chose this approach was because the content required continuous updating as the world was moving so fast. A published book would be out of date before anyone had a chance to read it. I do not have that problem with a book I can update with posts on Hive. The collection feature on PeakD enabled me to tie all the books together. I had other ideas for another book, which I intended to publish as an ebook; I discuss this in year seven.

Many of my posts in year six, were intended to fill the gaps between many of my other posts. They meant to tie the content together so that the living book would fit logically together. These posts described the Establishment, possible networks of control, how our own money is used against us, stakeholder capitalism, centralisation and decentralisation, political systems and freedom, and acceptance of a new system.

My views in year six were a little more optimistic than in year five. The chances of World War Three seemed slim as the war in Ukraine had not escalated beyond its borders. Despite the mad propaganda push, people’s trust in the media and authority had begun to decline again. The push of the absurd woke ideology had increased that distrust. I wrote the post, Bright Future out of Chaos. I looked back on 2016 with the rise of Trump in the US and Brexit in the UK. It was an awakening year that was thwarted in the following years. However, the attempts to thwart it have been desperate. It appears the fight back against the Establishment is possible.

I rarely write about myself. When I do, it is normally at the end of the year. In 2022, I watched several great live performances. I took so many photographs that I needed to divide the post into two parts. The first post contained the Jurassic Live, Disney on Ice, and Beauty and the Beast shows. The second post contained Harry Potter and the Cursed Child Parts 1 and 2 and the amazing studio tour.

The Harry Potter Studio Tour was probably the highlight of them. It contained so much of the Harry Potter world that I have grown to love from the movies. I think Part 2 holds my personal record for most photographs in one post. I even made some of my snippets of recordings into gifs; they further capture the fun from that day. I think we all need to have a bit of fun sometimes.

Year Seven (June 2023 to June 2024)

Year seven was the year of my first fiction book, Sapien Loop. I wanted to tell the story of our world. However, I knew that would not get me far. It would be treated as conspiracy and buried. Instead, I told the story of another world. It is not our exact story, but the sentiments are almost the same. It is about the struggle for freedom. It is about an elite group controlling the majority. It is about deception and lies. It is about greed and power. It is about the ignorance of the masses. It is about the collapse of a whole world.

I posted all 115 chapters of Sapien Loop on my alternative account, @captainhive. I wanted to separate the fictional content from my economics posts. I posted five collection posts on my @spectrumecons account. This was my quietest year in term of content on my regular account, but the busiest in terms of content overall. I posted more posts in year one, but, on average, they were considerably shorter.

The book has also been published as a full ebook on Amazon. The book brings to life a world where the elite can rule and control everything, yet the ruled and the enslaved can live very happily. The story is an exaggeration as well as a simplification of our own world. I believe it still makes a very strong point and could be an eye-opener to many who do not understand the flaws of our own world.

In year four, we had Covid-19. In year five, it was the war in Ukraine. In year six, it was the fallout from the previous years. In year seven, it was the war between Hamas and Israel. Western countries have been mostly supportive of Israel and the struggles they have had with their neighbours. On the surface, the US has been Israel’s strongest ally. On 7th October, Hamas committed a horrendous terrorist attack on the Israeli people. They killed around 1,200 people from the Nova Music Festival and the nearby Kibbutz (community) and kidnapped over 200 people.

The reaction from the western world was surprising. There was a very brief period of solidarity, compassion, and sympathy for Israel. This changed very quickly to support for the Gazans. The switch in support occurred even before Israel had responded to any real effect.

It took me several weeks to absorb and understand what was happening. There were massive protests across the western world showing support for Palestine, and many amongst them also showing support for Hamas. Much of the mainstream media was portraying the Palestinians as the victims. While many of the governments’ were supporting Israel, I decided that I needed to take a bit of time away from writing the book to discuss what was going on. I did so in the context of the dire deagel.com population and economic predictions.

In Part 1 , I discussed the deagel.com predictions. In Part 2, I reviewed the continued impact of the Covid-19 fiasco on the economies and health of western countries. In Part 3, I discussed the events in Israel and Palestine, but I focused more on what was happening in western countries with the protests and the support for the terrorist group Hamas. In Part 4, I explored the history of tensions between Israelis and Palestinians. In Part 5A, I discuss how this war could progress and several possible scenarios. In Part 5B, I discuss the possibility of civil wars breaking out across the world, which becomes considerably more likely if Israel loses the war.

To finish out year seven, I have begun work on the next book in Sapien Loop series. I plan on writing three books altogether. I have made decent progress. I am almost halfway through the first draft of the book. I aim to be finished by the first month of the fourth quarter of this year.

Wrapping It Up

This is by far my longest anniversary post. I thought I would make it a little special since this is the seventh anniversary of my account. Seven is my lucky number, and it is the logo for @spectrumecons. I hope all of you enjoyed my little trip down memory lane for all my seven years here. I am just shy of a thousand posts on my @spectrumecons account. I have eclipsed the thousand mark if I take into consideration my @captainhive posts.

I am very proud of all I have achieved over the years. I am also very grateful to my awesome following as well as those that helped me all the way back in year one. I aim to be around on Hive for many more years. I see no reason to leave. I also see no reason for Hive not to be around either.

My New Book, Sapien Loop

I have published an ebook on Amazon; it is titled ‘Sapien Loop: End of an Era’. The book is fiction. I do not normally write fiction. However, I felt it was appropriate considering what is happening in the world today. Freedom is the most important thing we have, but we are gradually losing it. I have covered this in many of my posts.

In the story, most citizens do not understand the concept of freedom because they have never really experienced it. In essence, the story is about an alien world that might represent our not-so-distant future. There are many other elements to the story that are an abstract and exaggerated version of our reality. I believe this book to be an important read, and I believe it has the potential to change the way you think.

Brief Summary of Sapien Lopp

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.

If you want to buy a copy of the book, below are links to the relevant Amazon websites for each country it is available in. The book is priced at approximately US$5.08.

I am also running monthly contests where participants are required to answer questions based on the book. The prize is 30 Hive Power plus upvotes for the first twelve entries. You can recover the cost of the book with just one win.