AMA Session: SimpleSwap & HIVE



Introduction



SimpleSwap is happy to announce that our AMA Session with Hive has taken place on April 5, 2022, on Telegram. It was a pleasure to get so many cool and deep questions from our followers and members of the HIVE crypto community. Thanks to Hive Witness, Reese, who provided detailed answers, we managed to learn a lot more about the Hive project! 

We decided to collect all Q & As here, on the SimpleSwap Blog, and give everyone the chance to enjoy the article in a leisurely and thoughtful way.

Q and A

"Low Liquidity" is one of the most important problems that a project needs to solve. How will #HIVE team reward liquidity providers for facilitating the resolution of these issues?

Reese: Hive is an old project and we already have the liquidity matter resolved. Hive has myriad stakeholders who are long-established and have staked their HIVE as Hive Power with returns either coming through curation or through other means such as delegation leasing. Their constant involvement supports lesser investors and ensures there is always liquidity on chain and in regards to every exchange due to the size of the userbase and its diversity.

What are the difficulties could New users face when dealing with Web 3.0 and how does #HIVE ensure that there is a much more smooth transition for New users who are New to Web 3.0 and #DeFi?

Reese: It's a steep learning curve, we understand that. Users who come from Web 2 platforms such as let's say Facebook are suddenly given more responsibility and a different type of ecosystem. The element of finality comes into play. However, Hive frontends and its vast community try to make the transition as easy as possible with intuitive micro-learning opportunities at every turn.

Regarding the current market situation is too unstable, to restrain investors. So can you give me some good reasons why I should buy your tokens in the current market situation? And also why should your token holders continue to hold?

Reese: This past year Hive surprised everyone including ourselves, pleasantly so, by remaining a steady investment and holding its value through the worst and most volatile times. It's a straight forward investment, you know you won't lose with it. While the value of HIVE fluctuates as with all crypto, there are no massive pump and dumps, meaning it's relatively safe from manipulation. There is also HBD which is a stable coin and has been pegged to the US Dollar consistently and without any surprises. When it comes to investing in either Hive coins vs let's say some new altcoin startup, it's a no-brainer.

Non-crypto users are very important for mainstream adoption. How you are planning to attract non-crypto users towards your project? Is there any upcoming partnership that will brings non-crypto user and real-use case?

Reese: Hive is generally a "gateway" crypto; it's free to get into. Non-crypto users can create their accounts and start their first crypto journey. As far as promotional activities go, while we regularly form partnerships we also have numerous grassroots local community type initiatives. For example, Hive users are currently in the process of putting up a water well in a community in Ghana which will have Hive branding on it. There is also an automotive shop in Venezuela which started to accept HBD this week. Locals from those areas will have an opportunity to explore Hive by talking to their own neighbors about it.

How does HIVE BLOCKCHAIN work to offer a cost-effective and easy-to-use social network?

What is HIVE BLOCKCHAIN goal to their partners? And 

Reese: The Hive blockchain is fee-less by design, meaning to use it one does not need an investment and to develop on it one does not need to pay hefty fees. This makes it accessible. In respect to our goals and intentions with our partners, we aim to form strong bonds across the Web 3 ecosystem and bridge gaps. Through the sharing of resources and collaboration, we can strengthen Web 3 and work towards a better future for humanity in general.

What are plans in for global expansion? Are you focusing on market at this time or focus on building and developing or getting customers and users, or partnerships?

Reese: Hive is already global and has approximately 2.5 million wallet addresses aka user accounts. We have developers, node operators called 'witnesses' and dapps in many different locations throughout the world. Just off the top of my head, these come from Nigeria, Turkey, Australia, China, Bangladesh, India, UK, Lithuania, USA, Canada (like myself), Venezuela, Brazil, and many many more countries. We welcome all partners who believe in decentralization and are very focused on partnerships. Due to our decentralization we actually have a very large team of contributors and are also greatly focused on optimizing our Level 1 and 2 functionalities and developing solutions that are geared towards ease of use and ease of access. For example, we have recently added the Hive Application Framework which allows any dapp developer to integrate without much expertise in blockchain development. HAF uses traditional style SQL databases to allow for relatively simple information retrieval. We also have another, parallel, system called HiveSQL which has much of this type of functionality in querying data. Together, just these two systems alone make integration and use a breeze.

İ Saw those Super projects https://hiveprojects.io/projects/ and just i can ask one thing: when coinbase list ? İ feeling so soon

Reese: Hopefully soon, we're working on it. With something like Coinbase which has very specific requirements it's not a simple matter unfortunately.

Blockchain technology still has issues like privacy & security. How does #HIVE contribute to the adoption of more stable, reliable and secure networks?

Reese: Hive's inherent decentralization greatly assists in terms of baseline security; there is no one entity that can arbitrarily decide to freeze accounts for example. Hive was actually created as a response to a major security incident which saw the destruction of its predecessor 'Steem' and theft of user funds. We understand the risks associated with DPoS and have put in various mitigating controls to safeguard our chain and our community members' funds. Hive also has user security features built in in the form of staggered keys with different permissions as well as recovery and fund control mechanisms. In regards to privacy, Hive does not hold or request any KYC data at any point — another benefit of decentralization. We offer P2P encryption for wallet transactions in addition to everything mentioned above.

Having a fairly varied HIVE ECOSYSTEM with games, video players and more, what other types of Dapps are you trying to achieve? What is the ultimate goal of HIVE? be used on all platforms?

Reese: Hive welcomes all dapps. There is no one type of dapp we want as our opinions are just personal opinions and we greatly welcome and appreciate everyone's creativity and innovation in dapp creation. The ultimate goal of Hive is to provide the ideal blockchain for building on. This is why we are heavily focused on optimization and improvements to existing technologies as well as new methods that reduce any barriers developers and creators face. Hive is like a blank canvas — it's up to the community to decide what to make of it.

Does the HYVE team have a training and guidance system for newcomers to cryptocurrency? How do you attract and reach them?

Reese: We have a lot of different community chats which are full of seasoned users who are happy to guide anyone with questions. These are available in many languages and can be found in both on-topic Hive communities and just in general. The hands-on approach is highly beneficial to newbies who just discovered cryptocurrency and Hive as it lets them learn at their own pace while leveraging mentorship.

Ambassadors and sponsors have their own power to make famous, so have you entered this stage, do you already have ambassadors and sponsors?

Reese: We do not hire people for those types of roles, we leverage our existing userbase. Our community members are our ambassadors and our stakeholders (who are also community members) can be seen as sponsors. Our content monetization capability allows individuals to be rewarded for sharing their efforts and for general participation.

With projects like Hive blockchain industries, and other brands with similar names like hive. what plans has the hive blockchain to stand out from other big players in the crypto Space?

Reese: Unfortunately 'hive' is a common term in virtually every space. We call ourselves 'the Hive ecosystem' which differentiates us somewhat from other 'Hive' brand names. It's not a niche name but as it is a common word it does not belong to anyone and it serves well to convey what Hive aims to accomplish — to be accessible and available to everyone and not relegated to any one niche.

Promoters are important enough for you to popularize your product, so do you have a great promoter to promote it?

Reese: We have a group of Hive community members who have experience in marketing and are taking on marketing type activities. We are also always looking for promotional opportunities to showcase Hive in front of those who have yet to hear about it. For example, there are currently two Hive-focused films in early development, both pioneered and envisioned by different Hive community members.

the differences and uses of HIVE, HIVE POWER and HIVE DOLLAR cases? Having an HIVE ECOSYSTEM that varies quite a bit with games, video players and more, what other types of Dapps would you like to achieve? What is the ultimate goal of HIVE?

Reese: HIVE is our regular liquid nativecoin which operates similar to any other cryptocurrency. It can be sold, traded, bought, and it can also be powered up. When HIVE is powered up (staked) it becomes Hive Power. It is staked for a period of 13 weeks (it can be powered down in increments per week) and allows the investor to grow their funds through curation (voting on-chain for content) and to participate in governance. Hive Dollar or HBD is our stablecoin. It's always pegged to the US Dollar and is a reliable investment. When placed in savings (we offer savings accounts) it generates APR at a variable rate. The current APR is 12%. All of these currency options allow for flexibility in use and utility for our dapps and our community members to leverage. They also support the goal of Hive, which I've outlined in a previous response.

Most of the current projects are often left in the middle of operations and often abandoned due to lack of ability to support growth in a highly volatile market. In what efficient way can you keep up with market fluctuations?

Reese: Hive does not have one entity or one deciding company to abandon it; it can't be abandoned and closed down in the same way that a centralized organization or project can. If a large stakeholder decides to divest, for example, others will replace them. If a development team decides to move on, their shoes will be filled with another team. This is the true power of decentralization and it shows. Hive has managed to weather the crypto market fluctuations very well and has seen steady growth of users, dapps, partners, and stakeholders. There is much trust in Hive. It is easy to trust Hive. Hive can't just disappear (the way that many do) no matter what happens.

There are many trolls on these types of pages who like to waste people's time. Hyve has a reputation system to identify which workers or employers are serious people?

Reese: Hive does not KYC nor does it aim to censor individuals in any way. Hive believes in freedom of speech for all and in transparency. Regulation of user opinions and the selection of users based on various factors are Web 2 relics. Hive does have a reputation score but it's mostly for fun and is not an indication of any preferred personal traits. All Hive users are equal community members and all opinions matter equally.

As Global workforce market, Verifying Jobs and service authenticity could be a herculean task considering bottlenecks. How does Hyve Work deal with this issue and ensure only legitimate Jobs and service come in the Hyve platform?

Reese: Hive has built-in security to mitigate and protect against scams and exploitation. It also has a very vigilant community of Hive members who keep an eye out for any malicious actors, such as phishing applications for example. It is quite unprofitable for anyone to attempt to exploit Hive and scam or defraud the ecosystem as it would cost more than it would gain. This alone is a great deterrent on its own, technology aside.

How does the HYVE Protocol use the self-verification mechanism and what are the advantages of the AI base on your Protocol infrastructure?

Reese: This question is somewhat unclear and I believe you were looking at a different 'hive' project. However, I will attempt to answer both parts in one: Hive operates as any DPoS blockchain where a selection of block producers aka 'witnesses' sign transactions to verify them and write them into the chain. All our witnesses are decentralized individuals and their nodes are selected for operation not only by the underpinning ordering mechanism but also based on stakeholder confidence and input. This speaks directly to the legitimacy of signed transactions. In regards to AI, we do have some developers who have experimented and utilized AI in relation to the blockchain as a layered solution (as a tool or dapp). Hive being fee-less, transparent and very well-documented allows for exploration in respect to AI and machine learning techniques. The flexibility on Hive comes from our layered solutions and our gravitation towards simplicity for the end-user and developer alike.

dlux and hive engine are second layers solutions, what are the benefits of using this platforms that are built on the top of hive? and what other use cases has the hive blockchain has besides nfts and other data distribution networks related operations?

Reese: You are right, both Dlux and Hive Engine are our Layer 2 applications. They are built on Hive, they use Hive for transaction verification and indexing, but they are their own products. The benefit is flexibility. One can build anything they wish on top of Hive as Hive is designed to store and make accessible vast quantities of information. The limit in what can be built is only development skill and imagination. Hive can be used and has been used for everything from gaming to educational applications. If it involves alphanumeric data and the recording of it then it can be built on Hive.

In the HIVE ecosystem there is a post to earn feature. how does post to earn work? How to participate? What causes someone's post to earn in the post to earn feature?

Reese: Hive is designed to hold data and to make it available for time-based monetization. Content presented through this feature (usually on frontends aimed at blogging) is created by users and then curated by other users. After 7 days the votes are tallied and rewards (a mix of HP and HBD normally) is distributed. The content creator earns 50% of the rewards on a post and the curators split between them (based on size of their votes) the remaining 50%. To participate in this one does not need to invest anything, they simply need to post original content. The Hive community greatly appreciates original content of all types and people will seek it out and support it through their votes. There are many communities, which are topical groups, which focus on supporting and welcoming different content creators. Many people ask why some posts earn more and some less: much of it has to do with how well-known the author is and the quality of their work. Someone who writes original content that is interesting and puts a lot of effort in will be discovered by others and curated. Someone who copies other people's work and plagiarizes will be unsuccessful.

According to the HIVE website "Hive has a thriving ecosystem of over 126 apps, communities & projects and is home to some of the most-used Web3 apps in the world," , Can you tell us what are the main role of $HIVE in your ecosystem ? Explain it's Utilities & Real-Life usecases? and Why should i invest in your coin for long term?

Reese: I've touched on the coins in earlier responses so I will focus on other parts of the question. HIVE is meant to be traded as any coin and powered up/down (staked). It's staked form directly relates to the amount of resource credits available to an account, which in turn relates to how much the account can transact (resource credits are consumable and regenerate on their own). These resource credits are leveraged by dapps to allow for mass transactions — for example, the popular game Splinterlands has a sizable stake which allows it to transact freely and to the maximum limits possible with 3 second transactions. Real-life use-cases include paying for goods and services with HIVE and HBD. You can presently buy coffee with HIVE, get your car fixed with HBD, hire people and pay wages, and so on. You should invest for the long term because it's a stable investment that already stood the test of time.

How do you keep your platform safe for Investors, and is your platform protected from hackers? And how do you manage if there’s an attack on your platform, including the personal data of your platform’s users? Is your platform ready for this?

Reese:  mentioned some security features earlier but I'll expand on some others. Hive is very difficult to compromise because, unlike with many centralized or corporate-driven blockchains, there is a massive number of community members monitoring it. It's already overcome unprecedented attacks (that lead to the creation of Hive) and it has learned from these. When there is a phishing attempt against our users, which are very common in all blockchain-based projects as we all know, our community teams are ready to respond and neutralize the threat. We assist individuals to recover where possible. For example, in cases where a user is phished and their keys are changed, under some conditions they may be able to regain control of their account. Staked funds also ensure that the person who is affected has time to respond; it takes 13 weeks for an adversary to empty a staked account, not a single transaction like elsewhere. Hive also does not store any personal data except that which people share themselves of their free will publicly in their posts. Hive users control their own destiny with Hive.

Based on the linktree it says "Hive has a thriving ecosystem of over 126 apps, communities & projects". An incredibly large ecosystem when it comes to newcomers and people outside the crypto space. What is the summary of the HIVE project? who are the target users of HIVE and what will be the target of HIVE in the future?

Reese: Hive targeted users are all human beings, irrespective of who they are. Hive treats and welcomes all equally. Unlike other projects that have a vision of an ideal user, our ideal user is everyone. Everyone is unique and different, has their own vision and opinions, and all are welcome. Now and in the future we will continue to make Hive as accessible and welcoming as possible to all individuals.

One of the most common issues is that most investors nowadays are just concerned with short-term gains and do not consider long-term rewards. Is it possible for you to give them some reasons why they should buy and hold tokens over time?

Reese: Hive is not the platform for short-term gains, we are old and stable. We are not the startup where someone can go and pump and dump and rug-pull at the expense of others. Everything from the staking mechanism to curation is designed with a steady, involved and engaged user in mind. The name of the game for Hive is stability, plain and simple. It does take some time to explore Hive and to find an investment pattern that one is comfortable with but in the end, it is an investment one can be confident in.

How does "Metria Dex" deal with other DEXs currently obstacles to accessing DeFi services : high gas cost with on-chain transactions, liquidity being fragmented to various protocols and services, trade fee, subpar UI/UX and lack of efficient market-making mechanisms ?

Reese: This is not related to Hive in any way. Hive does not have any gas costs.

What is your plan about globlization? Do you have local Comunities for those user who don't undrstand English well?What can we expect to see from your platform in the short-term (at some point in 2022) & 2023?And beyond (long-term goals)?

Reese: We hope to make Hive more intuitive (it already is but we believe in regular improvement with cyclical feedback) for all users. There are currently myriad communities which are topic and language-specific for all who are more comfortable to explore Hive in languages other than English. Since Hive is not based in any one geographical area we value and welcome all languages and cultures equally. In the short-term there will be additional protocol improvements and optimizations. These of course carry over to the long-term as well. Our ultimate goal is to increase the utility of the Hive network and blockchain and to make it as welcoming as possible for all to participate in and build on. Since we are decentralized, we do not have a specific road map; instead we stay true to our general vision and work towards it.

SimpleSwap: Thanks to all the participants for the activity and Reese for great answers!

We are happy to remind you that you always can find HIVE coins on SimpleSwap.