If you post quality content and engage with other creators, you will earn rewards after a week if you get any upvotes over $0.02 in total. That is how I earned everything I have. I spent no fiat. I did benefit somewhat when HIVE forked from STEEM 4 years ago, and I consolidated here, but it's still all a result in participation in the community. There are ways to buy HIVE if you want to play on exchanges though.
RE: Just watched a bunch of videos by @cahlen explaining HIVE, so here I am. Hi ...