Getting started on Hive: What you really need to know!

10 hours ago

If you've just discovered Hive, it can be a bit overwhelming at first.
There are so many different apps, keys, tokens, voting power, communities and features and much more.
I've been on Hive since 2020, and even today I still discover new features, tools, and possibilities. And that’s one of the strengths of Hive; it is constantly evolving, but that also can make it a bit confusing for newcomers sometimes.

I know others already made blogs like this and there is even a dedicated website with information about Hive (https://jryze.me/hive/), but I still think it's useful to create my own 'getting started' blog.

With this blog, I want to make things easier.
Instead of explaining everything, I’ll focus on the things I think you really need to know when you're just starting out on Hive. Just the basics to get you up and running.

What is the Hive blockchain?

Hive is a blockchain. This means that everything published on Hive is stored on a decentralized network.
This blockchain can be used to store all sorts or information, but Hive is mostly used as Social Media Platform.
Unlike traditional Social Media platforms, your content is not owned by a company, but by you. Once you post something on Hive, it is stored on the blockchain and cannot be changed, censored, or removed.

Who owns Hive?

There is no single person or company that owns the Hive blockchain.
Hive is decentralized and run by a global community of users, developers, and witnesses. Witnesses are responsible for maintaining the blockchain and keeping the network running smoothly.
Because there is no central owner no one can ban you from Hive or control what you can post.

Keys and Security

Hive works with different keys. These keys give access to your account.
Never share your keys with anyone and store them safely.

Owner key → Most important (store offline)
Active key → Financial actions
Posting key → Posting and voting (use this daily)
Memo key → Encrypted messages

If you lose your keys, you lose access to your account permanently.
You can use the Keychain browser plugin to safely log into your accounts.

What are apps and frontends?

Since Hive is a blockchain and not a single website, you access Hive through different apps or frontends.
A frontend is simply a website or app that lets you interact with the Hive blockchain. It is a way to show the blockchain data.
The default front end is hive.blog, but there are a few more. PeakD and Ecency are the most popular ones. Choosing a frontend is mostly a matter of personal preference. In the end they all show the date from the same Hive blockchain.

https://peakd.com/
https://hive.blog/
https://ecency.com/

Blogging and communities

Hive is generally used for blogging and long-form content. Many users write about topics like travel, photography, finance, gardening and personal experiences.
You're free to make a blog about anything you like. There are a lot of communities that have been setup by Hivers. Some are more active than others. You are not required to post in a community, but when you do, check out the rules of the community before you do. Community owners can make their own rules which you must follow.
You can even choose to create your own community if you like.
For example, I created the Cycling Communtity, a community for anything related to cycling.

There are some global 'unwritten rules' on Hive concerning blogging. The most important is that plagiarism and AI usage is not appreciated on Hive. As I said before; you can post anything you want, but you won't get a lot of responses when you plagiarise or use AI to completely generate content.
When you are using images, make sure you mention the source you got it from.

Earnings, Hive tokens and Hive Power

As you might have seen already, you can earn rewards when you create content on Hive. The Hive blockchain has its own crypto token called Hive. A certain amount of Hive is mined every day. This amount of Hive is distributed to Hivers that create content. Don't expect to get rich soon; the token price is quite low at the moment, but hey... what do you earn on other Social Media platforms?

Curation and Hive Power

The rewards you receive for the content you create depend on the people who upvote your content. Not all upvotes have the same value, and this is where voting power and staked Hive come into play.

Users can stake their Hive into Hive Power (HP). The more Hive Power someone has, the higher the value of the upvote they can give. This means that upvotes from users with a lot of Hive Power typically contribute more to rewards than upvotes from users with less Hive Power.

Rewards on Hive are split between authors and curators. In general, the payout is divided 50/50. Half of the rewards go to the author of the post, while the other half is distributed among the curators — the people who upvoted the content.

Rewards are not paid out immediately. They become final after 7 days. During this period, rewards can still change as people continue to upvote or downvote the content.

Votes and Voting Power

You start out with 100% Voting Power, both for upvotes as downvotes. With every vote you cast, your Voting Power depletes a bit.
When your voting power is 0%, you cannot cast any votes anymore and then you have to wait for it to regenerate. It regenerates 20% each day. When I started out on Hive I was told not to let your Voting Power go lower than 80%, but I don't know why that was and if that is still the case.
You can give a couple of full (100%) upvotes or a more smaller upvotes. That is upto you.
And then there are also downvotes. Downvotes are a bit tricky on Hive. You might think that you use a downvote that you dislike certain content, but downvotes are often taken very personally. Because the author gets less rewards because of a downvote, it often ends up in discussions or repercussions. I would advise you to wait with using downvotes when you're just starting out on Hive.
Finally, upvoting your own content is also being frowned upon.

Resource Credits (RC)

Every action on Hive uses Resource Credits. Posting, voting, and commenting all require RC.
If you run out of RC, you simply need to wait for them to regenerate.
Users with more Hive Power have more Resource Credits.
A beginners accounts often lack Resource Credits. If you run into this, just let me know and I'll delegate you some.

Microblogging

Besides long-form blogging, Hive also supports microblogging. Microblogging is meant for sharing short updates. This is similar to platforms like X and Bluesky.

On Hive, microblogging is available through different apps such as Snaps (from PeakD), Waves (from Ecency) and some more. These short posts are great for quick thoughts, updates or interacting with other users.

Microblogging is a great way to connect with others, discover new things and grow your presence on Hive.

The don'ts

I've already mentioned them above, but here is a list of things you'd better not do on Hive.

Plagiarism
Self votes
AI generated posts
Use downvotes when you're just starting out on Hive

The do's...

With the information in this blog you should be able make your first steps on Hive. A lot of people create an introduction post to tell something about themselves. If you do, be sure to add #introduction tag to this post. Go out and find the content you like. Subscribe to communites and interact with others. Follow users that create content you like. Making friends and interact with people will make you 'grow' quickly on Hive.