Hive four years anniversary : The Soul of Steem

Hive is officially four years old and what an incredible journey it has been. The community has grown into a massive and thriving ecosystem of interconnected projects working to push the Blockchain to greater heights.

The official description of Hive is that it is a fork from the original blockchain, Steem. The community was created as a result of our collective effort to release ourselves from Justin Sun.

Sometime in late 2019, we heard rumblings of a potential sale of Steemit Inc to Justin Sun. At the time, Steemit Inc. held majority stake or pre-mined stake that invariably meant that Steem had a central point of failure and control.

So, Steemit Inc was then sold to Justin Sun over the counter, invariably making Justin Sun the "owner" of Steem Blockchain. It was an absolute shit show and a betrayal by Steemit.

There are many things wrong with this situation. First of all, selling over the counter means that the deal is done "under the table" and Steem holders, at the time, don't benefit from this value that should come into the system.

Secondly, the under hand sale of Steemit also meant that Justin Sun got the pre-mined stake that had been a bone of contention for the community. That stake was meant to be beneficial for the community and instead of passing it on to the community for developing the Blockchain, it was passed to an outsider.

Hive formed as a result of a community effort. People voted with their Steem stake, at the time, to create a new chain where the pre-mined stake didn't belong to one entity but was instead controlled by the community. That stake is what we call the Hive DAO today.

After the fork, Hive took a different path from Steem and it hasn't looked back. Today, Hive trades at a higher value and the community has never been closer.

Hive is home to projects like Leofinance and Splinterlands, to name a few, that were on Steem but moved as a result of the fork. These and many others supported the fork and today, they're all working towards the growth of the community.

Hive was created as a result of the community's effort to push back an invader of Steem. In that process, the soul of Steem left its body and found a new host in the Hive community.