We were plebs

By belemo | belemo | 15 Feb 2021

While playing splinterlands and thinking about what I'd eat for breakfast, my mind wandered. I started thinking about the future of Hive and the huge potential it holds.

When I look around the community, all I see are people growing out of plebish ways and adjusting to the rigours of the market.

I haven't done an official survey but conversations between most dolphins and Orcas around here largely shows an interesting trend.

For most of us, late 2017-early 2018 was our crypto entry point. For those that came in through the blogging route, you probably built your portfolio through Steem and then thought "well, this is nice, I'm going to throw some of my money at this".

When you investigate further, you'll find that most whales and "pre-whales" had already been in the crypto game long before the advent of Steem, so they took to the waters easily and just bought up shares or shitposted and stacked.

When it turns

I keep thinking about the previous bull market in early 2018 when I was still a fresh faced toddler hodler with dreams bigger than me.

Fastforward today and I've been able to diversify to the point that my external investments could actually match my current Hive holding.

Unlike most blockchains, Hive is beyond business. There's an emotional attachment to your stake, and while it does represent one's input, in terms of decision making, there's some personal satisfaction that comes from seeing your stake look fatter.

There's subtle competition, pocket watching to ensure you're not lagging behind and many other low-key trends that keep this place going. It is all good fun and shows how emotionally connected we are to the project.

So when the horns of the bull market hits even harder, I think there will be an increase in the market participation of the previous plebs/current dolphins in the midst.

How I see it, this is a sweet opportunity for hodlers at the mid/intermediate class to climb up the ladder through profits that have been accumulated from external ventures.

I don't think there'll be any immediate shift in hierarchy, but I think there will be some new money on Hive and hopefully, more stakers of last resort.

In the long run, I think this will also have a positive impact on the value of the coin. Just like Bitcoin wallets, an increase in the number of active old wallet addresses is an indicator of good things to come, particularly if the Hive in question stays within. We can't be plebs forever.