What is the "success rate" of communities? More specifically, what is the success rate of Hive's Hive-Engine based communities and their attendant tokens?

Sadly, it seems like it is very low.

Following the relative demise of the PALNet community, I turned my attention to the "Proof of Brain" community. Seemed like a good idea: A community that sounded like it had an actual plan, and there were even two free standing front-end sites to support it.

But not all is well... these days, one of those front ends seems to have fallen off the map completely, while the other is basically Ecency with different "wrapping."

The once high-flying token — there was a time when POB tokens traded for about $1.80 — is now down around $0.002 and slowly sinking.

Meanwhile, I have been adding to my stake regularly, but the more tokens I own, the lower the overall value seems to sink. Not encouraging!

I'm not writing these words to pick a bone with Proof of Brain in particular, but just to consider the almost inevitable failure of these communities.

A Long Time Ago

I remember back when these 2nd Layer communities/tokens first came onto the landscape with great fanfare, often with the idea that they were a way for communities and interest groups to "tokenize themselves," I remember thinking "This is an unfortunate way for people and organizations to discover that they are not NEARLY as important to others as they would LIKE to think!"

Whereas I wish I weren't right about that, it seems like the way things have turned out. "Brand you" — whether individually or collectively — actually has very little value.

In some ways, it reminds me a bit of professional sports: For every one who makes it and ends up making a living from the sport they love, there are likely 10,000... or maybe even 100,000... who end up with nothing but shattered dreams.

Tokenomics vs. Value

Seems like many people want to point fingers as the tokenomics of any given community as the issue, but I think that's missing the point entirely.

What we're dealing with here is value. Does your idea offer a value to the users you're reaching that makes them want to help build what you're doing, or is all you're offering just a "free handout?"

The problem with free handouts is that people invariably have no particular loyalty. It's a bit like a restaurant suddenly offering "free beer and pizza." It's great, and 100's may show up to get that free beer and pizza, but if nobody actually comes back to regularly patronize the restaurant, you're basically doomed.

In the crypto world, that means offering something that makes people think "if I choose to HOLD ON to these tokens, I'm going to gain something of more value than I would get from simply SELLING the tokens."

It doesn't have to be tangible, although it can be. It can just be entertainment; membership bonuses, games, whatever... but something with value.

"Yeah, but if you stake the tokens, you earn curation rewards!"

Which is fine, except if the only thing on your mind is to immediately sell those rewards tokens... and then you're right back to square one. There has to be "a product" of some kind; the tokens by themselves cannot be "the product."

We're Still Learning!

I realize the crypto world is really still in its infancy, and we're still learning.

But we're not so far from the point where projects are going to have to start with some kind of deliverable and recognize that their token is only the fuel to make that deliverable become something.

It's not the token that has to become something, it's the deliverable that has to make the token something.

I think I will leave it at that, for now. But this is definitely a topic I plan on exploring further...

Thanks for coming to visit, and do leave a comment if you feel so inclined!

=^..^=

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Posted with proof of brain