HIVE managed to break the dynamics of the other Larimer's DPoS Blockchains.
As you know, the consensus algorithm used by the HIVE Blockchain is based on what is called "Delegated Proof of Stake" or DPoS.
One of the inventors of this algorithm is also the "father" of HIVE (previously STEEM) Blockchain although it is clear that the real father of HIVE is the community itself since it was created from a defensive hardfork against Justin Sun's Hostile Takeover of the Steem Blockchain.
DPoS is nothing more than a variant of the "Proof of Stake" consensus algorithm where, unlike blockchains based on "Proof of Work", it is the amount of stake that decides who validates the transactions (mining). So, the more tokens a miner owns, the more benefits they can get.
DPoS adds a "democratic" variant to the process which is that the "Miner" or validator or, as we call it here as a "Witness", is elected by the delegation (vote) of the other stakers in the network... that is, anyone with enough technical capacity can become "witness" provided is supported (voted) by the rest of the community.
The more support you receive (Your own stake + Delegated Stake) the more chances you have to enter the top 20 Witness.
This system has a main advantage, it is tremendously fast and efficient in comparison with PoS or PoW Algos.
But on the other hand, there is a very high risk and that is the fact that delegates can form cartels making the blockchain less decentralized and less resilient to attacks. Furthermore, and this is very important, if the holders or stakers do not exercise and take care of their votes, the system cannot function as a proper democracy and so you’ll have a few people making decisions for the many (Remember Justin's Hostile Takeover). This is where the community shows how strong it is to fight against this risk.
And that is what can be seen if we compare the 4 biggest DPoS that Dalimer has created, chronologically, BITSHARES, STEEM, EOS and HIVE.
If we focus on the first 3, we know how they are doing, frankly I would say badly at all levels, at the decentralizing level they are a disaster but the value of their tokens and their continuous decline is not much better.
If we include HIVE in the comparison, the success of the COMMUNITY is evident (I had to delete STEEM so as not to present candles in tabs with HIVE):
So, surely not all the decline should be ascribed to lack of decentralization. There are many people whose opinion is the opposite, they value the power of the CENTRALIZATION in order to lead with the decisions to be performed on a blockchain, but also, day after day, there are more people who give more importance to the decentralization on top of anything as the strongest fundamental of a blockchain.
DPoS is a great algorithm but it needs "Maintenance", and that means that we must be attentive to any de-democratization attempt that, unfortunately, the algorithm still allows.
It is our duty, the community's duty indeed, to prevent what happens with other DPoS from happening with HIVE, and so far we are doing well.
Let's keep taking care of our garden.
Posted Using LeoFinance Beta
