Hi Everyone,

The Steem thrill ride takes yet another turn. That turn is away from Steem and on to the Hive. Hive is a HardFork of Steem. Therefore, Hive will be very similar to Steem in many ways. There is one big difference. Hive will not have the Steemit Inc Ninja Mined Stake (STINMS). For many of us, STINMS has been a nagging thought rather than a realised problem. This changed when Justin Sun bought Steemit from Ned Scott. The moment Justin took over Steemit he laid out his plans as if he owned the blockchain. Using social media such as Twitter and YouTube, Justin strongly pushed for Steemit as well other Steem DApps to migrate to Tron or some new Tron Token. On the other hand, in his SteemitBlog posts, he was claiming very little would change. The Steem witnesses, using a SoftFork, placed some restrictions on the several of the Steemit accounts to prevent Justin taking over the blockchain. After that, Justin showed his true colours. To cut a long story short, Steem is locked into a stalemate with half the witnesses representing the community and half representing Justin Sun.

A few days ago I wrote an open letter to Justin Sun. This was part of an initiative started by @jaynie. I thought it was a good idea and I hoped it would contribute to swaying Justin to listen to the community as well as take the time to understand the Steem Ecosystem. In all fairness, it was a last ditch effort with a very low chance of succeeding but it was better than doing nothing. A few hours later @blocktrades made the announcement about the HardFork and creation of Hive. I was both excited and sad. I was excited about the opportunity for the community to build the blockchain they always wanted. I was sad that this was the beginning of the end of Steem. I have been on Steem for almost 3 years. I have stayed this long because of the opportunities and potential that this amazing blockchain and ecosystem offers. I have written dozens of posts about Steem. I even created an in-depth Udemy course that covers almost everything a new and even intermediate user needs to know about Steem. I have also been burning half the rewards on many of my posts in an attempt to contribute to the reduction of inflation on the blockchain.

What is next for me?

As I mentioned in my open letter to Justin, Steem’s greatest asset is its community. The community will go to the blockchain they believe has the most potential. I believe the new blockchain has more potential as it is offering decentralisation and more importantly freedom to users. Steem is heading down the path of centralisation and most likely censorship. Just read this latest update from Steemit. It appears posts about Hive are being blocked from the Steemit user interface. I see this as being the beginning of the censorship of any posts that displeases Steemit. Many in the Steem community came to Steem to escape censorship from centrally controlled social media such as Facebook or YouTube. It is possible Steemit will become as controlling as these other social media, possibly even more so. Most of the community will not tolerate Steemit’s behaviour. This becomes a bigger problem if many of the alternative user interfaces leave Steem as Steemit may become the only recognised Steem user interface.

The next thing is the DApps. The DApps play a huge role in making Steem great. From what I have seen and read, it appears many DApps will be migrating to Hive. I guess we will only know in the coming weeks but I believe what I am reading so far. It appears that Steem will lose a large proportion of the community. It appears that Steem will lose many DApps. As more DApps leave, the smaller the remaining community on Steem will become. This is likely to push most of the remaining DApps to leave. There is a possibility that Steem will gain some users from Tron. At the moment, I do not see many new users from Tron. If there are, they are not very vocal. I also do not think the number of new Tron users will be anywhere near the number of Steem users leaving. Steem could become flooded with bots but I don’t consider them users.

The prospects of Steem are not good. That alone is a good reason to move to Hive. On a personal note, I do not support a centralised blockchain. I have only had a Facebook account for 3 years. I only set one up because I needed it for business purposes. I do not expect to use Steem much after the launch of Hive. I will remain powered up on Steem for a little while longer. However, if a detrimental Steem HardFork is pushed through, I will choose to power down, this is likely to be very easy and quick if the power down period is reduced to one week. I will also need to figure out what to do with my 14-hour Steem Udemy course. The content is likely to be relevant but it will be relevant in regards to Hive and not Steem. I will also need to change my signature; the Steem DApps Gif will no longer be relevant.

New character creations for Hive

When I write posts, I like to include plenty of pictures. In these pictures, I like to use characters and sometimes vehicles that have unique liveries. Many of these characters have Steem logos on their clothes. When I post to Hive, I will need new characters with different logos and clothes. Yesterday, I made quite a few. Many of them are old characters with new clothes and possibly new hairstyles. I will make more in the coming weeks. I will also design some new Hive liveries for my Gran Turismo cars.

Anyway, here are some of my creations so far, enjoy!

Hive Guys

Hive Girls

Hive Heroes

Captain Hive

Politicians who wish they were on Hive

Sending a message to Steemit

Hive to the moon, thanks Hive Stem

Steem Whales are now Hive Whales

Final word

The market seems really excited about Hive. The price of Steem has gone crazy over the past couple of days. There was a period where Steem went from $0.12 to $0.40 in under a day. I think many people want the Hive airdrop. I am sure there will be a few bad actors in there. I doubt there will be enough bad actors getting in before the launch of Hive to put Hive at any risk. If you want to learn more about Hive, read their official announcement. You won’t be able to read it on Steemit as it has been blocked. Another good read is ‘Hive Brand Guidelines’. This post will take you to a link where you can download Hive logos.

Hive on everyone.

If you want to read any of my other posts, you can click on the links below. These links will lead you to posts containing my collection of works. These posts will be updated frequently.

It’s Hive Time