- Hive is an innovative blockchain that aims to increase the utility of blockchain technology beyond cryptocurrencies.
- It uses the modern Delegated Proof-of-Stake consensus mechanism.
- It is a hard fork over the social media-focused Steem blockchain.
Hive Blockchain launched with the ambition of bringing blockchain technology to the mainstream. It aims to fuel mass adoption of the decentralization technology and make it scalable for everyday uses by the general public. It employs DPoS consensus to make transactions secure and faster. It is a new ecosystem that is still evolving but is a very scalable solution for the development of a myriad of dApps.
What is new with the Hive blockchain?
It was launched in March 2020 by the developers’ team behind the Steem blockchain. It was created as a hard fork on the social media blockchain Steemit Inc.
Steemit Inc. was founded in 2016 by the American computer scientist Daniel Larimer. Following the sale of Steem Inc. to Sun Yuchen, CEO of Tron, a decentralized solution for content creator platforms, disputes emerged in the company. Conflicts arose due to concerns about the threatened decentralization of the company as Sun wanted more control over the network.
With Larimer worried about the decentralization of Steem, he decided to move out of the company along with his team of most talented developers of Steem to establish a free and honestly decentralized network.
Hard Fork 24, which saw the release of Hive’s mainnet, did not affect the Steem network. Today, both blockchains are working as independent chains with various dApps operating as common parts of both networks.
The blockchain uses a Delegated Proof-of-Stake consensus mechanism. Also, with its enhanced transaction speed and network scalability, it allows the building of a wide variety of decentralized applications. Another important part of its usability for running dApps is using smart contract functionality.
One of the most exciting features of the platform is that there are no gas or transaction fees. With this, Hive aims to attain decentralization on a more massive scale and offers a more equitable distribution of resources.
The company claims to provide “lightning-fast processing times and fee-less transactions.” It has excellent real-life use cases, which is a reason for its gaining popularity, like social media, identity management, and content creator platforms with monetary rewards and earnings like the model of several Web2 applications.
There are many interactive blockchain games on the platform registering thousands of daily active users. It also facilitates micro-loans in the form of cryptocurrency and stablecoins.
It is an open-source blockchain that is a Layer 1 blockchain, but with mechanisms to scale itself through Layer 2 side-chains. It helps in network scaling along with a solid Layer 1 backbone that ensures secure, accurately validated, and attested decentralized data distribution and control. It also ensures that the users are the true and sole proprietors for all transactions on the network and, unlike Web2 applications, their data is not abused.
Hive Tokens
The native token of the network is HIVE. The token is used for staking and trading on the platform. At the launch, the primary token distribution was done to the wallets of STEEM holders via an airdrop. It can also be used to earn rewards from the reward pool. Reward pool gives away rewards for a host of activities besides just staking.
It comes in to aid with the other functionalities on the network utilizing various dApps. For example, there is a reward for content creation, moderation, and curation. There are consensus rewards and rewards for granting microloans. It can also be used to buy Hive Stablecoin.
Yes, the Hive platform uses a stablecoin, developed on its blockchain — HBD (Hive-Backed Dollar). It is pegged to USD, holding a value of 1 USD. The peg is maintained through the conversion mechanism from HBD to HIVE. In this, HIVE worth 1 USD is converted to HBD (no gas fees) and the conversion occurs within 3.5 days. The price of HIVE taken for conversion is the median price of those 3.5 days.
Conversely, HBD can also be converted back to HIVE to maintain HBD’s peg by using collateral. HBD is issued to the user at half the rate of HIVE (median price of 3.5 days taken for the conversion). Then the balance amount of HBD is given at the end of those 3.5 days. So it acts like a loan of HBD from the HIVE holder.
While writing the article, the HIVE price is 0.347094 USD and the 24-hour trading volume is at 1,100,059 USD. The price increase is 1.65% over the last 24 hours.
Current popular applications of the Hive blockchain
Hive was developed to tackle the complexities of the real-life usage of dApps on Web3 from Web2. As a result, the network has widespread adoption with diverse communities, token-based economies, and free and uncensored social networks.
The network has fostered a host of NFTs, marketplaces, DeFi tools, entertainment consumption content, growing social media communities, video games, and the development scope for various online games and vast possibilities for creating an extensive bandwidth of other dApps.
The native cryptocurrencies of the platform – HIVE and HBD can be utilized efficiently with no gas fees. There’s always the opportunity of trading HIVE in secondary market platforms. Currently, operational popular wide utility dApps on the network include Splinterland, PeakD, DappReview, State of the Dapps, Dapp.com, and many more.
