A series of posts regarding Hive, Splinterlands, me, and you!
As a result of a complicated series of negative events in my life I took a step back from hive. I stopped witnessing something like 6 months ago, which was a first for me after ~7 years of witnessing. I stopped posting as frequently. I stopped voting Hive posts. I stopped witness voting and I stopped proposal voting. I even stopped my beloved Meme the News posts.
I still worked on various projects I've built on Hive, but I stuck to the projects rather than the blockchain. I've had to write about 1,000 pages of legal documents, and it required a major undertaking to develop new understandings in law. I think my brain is fundamentally rewired as a result.
By taking a step back I’ve had some time to clear my head and think through some things. This is the part of my journey where I return home and reintegrate with new knowledge and experience. This reintegration is partially out of necessity and the timing of the Splinterlands proposal, it's in part because I think the biggest altseason of all time is about to impact us, it's in part because I have new knowledge and understanding, and a big part of the timing is having had a long enough mental break to clear my head. There’s likely to be some gnashing of teeth, a lot of gnashing of teeth, but I imagine there's a good number of opportunities as a result as well.
I think Splinterlands will thrive in this upcoming market. I think it’s imminent. My guess is that giant geopolitical events are about to unfold and those events prove out to be highly fortuitous to bitcoin and crypto. My guess is that Splinterlands will once again become a powerhouse for play to earn gaming and drive adoption and use of Hive. This run will be especially potent as all the work developing the fly wheel will kick into high gear during an insane bull run. If this vision of the future comes to pass Hive will have a powerful ally in Splinterlands and I'm hoping you'll choose to support Splinterlands along this journey as it will have a massive beneficial impact on Hive and Hivians.
What’s the plan and what am I talking about?
When I was working for the largest chemical company in the world I had a boss that shared a simple format for public discourse. His strategy boiled down to this-
Tell them what you’re going to tell them (we are here)
Tell them
Tell them what you told them
I have a series of things to share and want to lay them out in a series of posts over the next few days. This post is me telling you what I am going to tell you.
Methodology
I’m going to pose a variety of hypothetical questions and then answer them. If you have constructive questions to add along the way feel free to leave them as comments and I may add them to the queue. The questions are meant to do a few things-
Air out grievances, find compromises, build support, and grow the chain with Splinterlands at the Vanguard
- Air grievances and respond.
- Grow support for the Splinterlands Proposal
- Share some of my concerns over the current governance of Hive,
- Re-engage Hive in a positive way. Unburdened by what has been.
The questions I plan to ask and answer in order to summarize the complaints and concerns around the Splinterlands Proposal include:
- What constructive criticism has been posted about the Splinterlands proposal?
- What are some of the root causes that make a handful of powerful whales adamant about blocking the Splinterlands proposal?
- Particularly address my experience in how it seems/feels like a lot of the negativity is personally directed at me rather than at the project.
The questions I plan to ask and answer to Support the Splinterlands Proposal include:
- What is urgent about the Splinterlands proposal?
- What does Splinterlands do to support Hive?
- How does the Splinterlands Proposal help Hive?
The questions I plan to ask and answer to highlight my concerns around Hive governance include:
- What is decentralization?
- Why is decentralization good for projects?
- How can you measure decentralization?
- How decentralized is Hive right now?
- What is the appropriate use of stake?
The questions I plan to ask and answer to reengage Hive include:
- Why should anyone care whether Aggroed is active or not?
- What’s my positive vision for Hive?
- How can that vision be realized?
- Aren't you just being selfish by doing this now?
- What are the key benefits I bring to this platform?
Objectives
Particularly in light of President Trump’s recent speech before the bitcoin community I believe that unprecedented amount of support for Crypto is about to drive it to absurd all time highs. That was the single most important speech I've heard regarding bitcoin and crypto in my lifetime and Trump sets up the United States Government to be one of the biggest allies to crypto in the world. It's essentially a 180 degree turn from the shit this industry has put up with from the likes of Gary Gensler and Elizabeth Warren. It's a remarkable turn of events that just occurred.
Crypto turning into an election year issue, setting reasonable legislation and regulation in place, and getting one of the most powerful governments in the world active in helping the industry succeed sets forth a range of outcomes to me and induces my brain to ask the question "how high can Hive go?" We've fallen pretty low and need to 15X to get back to the Hive all time high, but it's not uncommon for blockchain projects to go 100-1000X in bull markets. So I'm left daydreaming about "What is the penultimate outcome for this project if this community can work together to grow?" And my answer is at the high end of that range.
I want to be in a solid position to promote Hive and Dapps. A strong Splinterlands is essential to maximizing success of this next run for Hive, a case I will make down the line in a separate post. I hope to convince you that working together is to the benefit of all of us.
Please stay tuned for my second post, which will address spoken and unspoken concerns that community members have or likely retain regarding me personally as well as some vocalized constructive criticism of the Splinterlands proposal. If you have concerns, please bring them to me and/or Matt, or post them publicly so that we have the opportunity to take your words into consideration. I'll try to shake the rust and demonstrate high standards in the process.
In the meantime please take heed of the following notice:
People that are actively blocking the proposal and refusing to give any feedback or have any discussions on the matter will see votes removed. Constructive criticism is welcome. Silent stonewalling, false claims, and ad hominem attacks will lose votes for their witness and project proposals. Further, I would prefer not to have trollish comments on these posts whereas I normally don't care. I'll be downvoting purposefully toxic comments/commenters on these specific posts. All constructive thoughts are welcome, but not all delivery of those thoughts will be welcome.
Feels good to be home. Should be fun!
Joshua 1:9
Have not I commanded thee? Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest.
Hopefully the tone at the end there doesn't scare people away from participating. Even now as I say this, part of me feels like I'm walking on eggshells.
Did I say this correctly? Will I be misconstrued? Will a miscommunication lead to shunning? Am I viewed as one of these "active blockers" for voting for the return proposal even though my vote was there before this all began, meaning I could have been away like so many others during summer, only to come back and discover the entire SPL crew hates me for some strange reason...
That proposal system worked the same way it did before the SPL proposal went live. Right now I see the return proposal, or the bar, moving up, inching closer to Ecency. Does this mean people are trying to block them? I wouldn't make that conclusion. Maybe it has more to do with the endless complaints about Valueplan. Maybe those people disagree with that spending so much they actually took action rather than just complaining. Hard to say what's going on, and why. Maybe they're in support of raising the bar, for everyone, since so many complain about spending in general.
Easy to see it boils down to people making choices independently. To be expected. The D in DHF does stand for Decentralized. Does each move need to come with an explanation? I don't think so. Maybe others do, and that's fine.
Products like Peakd and Ecency would receive support naturally from the community simply because so many use those products combined with owning HP. When SPL proposal went live, I was under the impression SPL was in the same boat. And I still think there's a lot of support available out there, somewhere, for SPL. Looking forward to seeing it.
I use Peakd so I've supported Peakd now and in the past. I don't use Ecency so I have not supported Ecency now or in the past. Does not mean I'm against the existence of Ecency. I'm happy people have options and freedom to choose.
I have not put my vote behind the SPL proposal but this does not mean I don't want it here. Just because Burger King exists, that doesn't mean I have to support them, even though they bring value to the community, somehow. I don't play SPL. And I think those who enjoy it are free to be in support of it. They're responsible for its success in the same way Burger King customers contribute.
I don't know enough about SPL in general. All the people saying it brings value and people and good times forever is just hearsay to me. I can't base my decision off that.
Do Burger King people try to make the lives of those not in support of their business, difficult? Of course not.
This is how I vote on proposals too, and actually in these two specific examples, the same exact way for the same exact reasons.
But when people have the luxury and entitlement to vote, they should do so fully informed and fully aware of the things they vote on, not just future looking hype, but also past performance. Of the projects themselves and how they actually did or did not help the chain community, the crypto value and/or the chain technology. (grow a healthy engaged and retained userbase, grow money value, improve infrastructure.) One may or may not also choose to consider the past performance of project sponsors as trustworthy, reliable and competent and capable. Those are the levers that move underneath "future hype" coming to fruition anyway.
I need real hard, rigid arguments for these things to win my vote, and a couple of the most controversial proposals right now, basically SPL and ValuePlan really deserve a lot of scrutiny for the size of the asks vs these criteria. (grow a healthy engaged and retained userbase, grow money value, improve infrastructure.)
Would it be rational to support something that did well in the past, just because they did well in the past?
Saddles. They did well in the past. Want to go all in on saddles with me?
I think if someone was directly asking for funds to cover the costs of productive actions in the past, I'd feel comfortable supporting that, if those actions were contributing to the future, in a way that can be observed.
I don't see thousands of people supporting that proposal. Yet one of the claims to fame was attracting thousands of people.
I don't care how much HP anyone has. They already have an account here and all they need to do is push a button to support a proposal.
Hype is useless. Why am I not seeing these people supporting the proposal!
Am I to just believe they exist? Or does this lead me to believe they don't?
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Nonames, this is definitely one of the best responses I’ve read on this matter. I appreciate your thoughts on it.
I’m a SPL player since 2019, and recently working hard to learn more about Hive and become more active in the greater community (I just voted for my first DHF) . I hope to meet and engage with more people like you.
In terms of your Burger King comment, I think you could also look at it in this way, sometimes people vote to increase funding for their local schools, even though they don’t have children, because they feel it’s what is best for their community.
I realize I am biased, but I genuinely do feel that what is good for Splinterlands is also good for Hive. The issue is that Hive works so well for a game like Splinterlands that we have rarely had to come out of our bubble to engage in the Hive ecosystem - this needs work (and Matt has already taken steps for this with Hive promotion inside the game). We should all be one big family working together to pull each other up.
I’m here to learn and listen and do my best to bring our two communities closer together.
I see your point and respect it.
To counter that I would mention public services like schools aren't expected to make a profit. The artwork the students put all over the walls isn't worth anything aside from grades. The "profit" there is contributing to their future. Them needing help would be a common occurrence so people often accept fundraisers as being necessary.
Meanwhile SPL "students" have money for cards, the various tokens; it all holds value and stays in their wallets. They get paid to "learn."
So this would be like the profitable/wealthy private school in the rich neighborhood canvasing all neighborhoods including the poor neighborhoods, pulling up in a Ferrari, and asking for donations.
Now I want to demonstrate something. I'm going to upvote your comment as much as I can. 100%. I'm not in support of the SPL proposal. You are. In seven days you will receive some HP. The same HP you're using to support the proposal. Notice how I'm now supporting the SPL proposal indirectly?
If you were to turn around and sell that, you're making the choice to weaken your ability to support the things you enjoy.
I don't expect the majority of gamers to become content creators. That vote I gave you, in seven days, gives me HP as well. Just for pushing the button.
So over the span of several years, if thousands of players with 100 HP each were actively voting for content and engaging with their common interests, the value behind that mass of gamers with common interests would be on the rise constantly, growing at the same rate as everyone else. A large group of gamers working together to support their DHF proposal gives them a clear advantage. Could be sitting here upvoting your conversations with one another rather than sitting on Discord for example and that simple act would be contributing to your success.
SPL is just as much "The Hive Community" as anyone else here. Hive is more like the Earth and much like the planet, there are several communities. Might be a Bostonian or a New Yorker, but you're still an Earthling. Boston community members take care of themselves. New York takes care of itself.
Imagine if this entire operation grew into millions of people. Never in a million years would "The Hive Community" be on the same page, agreeing on all things. Yet all the available tools and opportunities would still be available to everyone in the same way they are today.
I'm happy to hear SPL is taking steps to remove the wall surrounding their community and now wants to open the gates and build roads.
Currently, no individual here can say they speak for "The Hive Community."
However, several can speak for SPL.
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Fancy begging for bailouts on a 6 year old business not covering it's own expenses is still begging.
A bible verse AND a Kamala Harris quote? Really going after those demographics angles...
Why doesn't a 7 year business that is so important have enough revenue to run itself? From what I hear, it has something to do with how the first CEO "ran" it. So maybe that's the thing people need to be told you will be telling them?
But you know...
Threats and coercion and blackmail have ALWAYS been your M.O. You don't even "thinly veil" them, it's almost like you think such behavior is normal, because for you, it always has been.
"Dissenting voices will be silenced!" - I think that has a name, um, Facism?
Well I do hope everything goes well. I wrote an article a couple of days ago on this topic which I have been polishing and plan to post it some time today. I for one have voted in favor of the proposal receiving funding and have encouraged others to do the same.
There has been a great deal of discussion in the discord, but it has died down some in order to not alienate potential new players of Splinterlands thanks to @clayboyn's leadership and moderation of said discussions.
When all is said and done, HIVE is good for Splinterlands (and any other blockchain based game for that matter) and Splinterlands is good for HIVE. I state the obvious.
"There is a small country where BCT is legal tender; why isn't there a campaign there? Knowing that this place is quite familiar with the crypto world, I just leave it as a reference. The ninja mine should be used in a better way, not in marketing campaigns that don't show significant results; the numbers don't lie."
Welcome back again.
I'm going to dip my toe into these raging waters and hope that my question is accepted as just that. A Question. I have yet to decide which way I will vote (around 14,600HP worth) and the more information I and the hive community have, the better informed we can be to reach a decision.
In the SPL proposal, I see that there is mention of Shareholders in the company. I am sure these were there from the start and rode the success up and down. My question is, will the DHF become a shareholder in the company when it invests funding?
And here is where I busted out laughing. At the joke, not the re-engaging. Bwaa haa haa haa.
!LOLZ glad I wasn't the only one.
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He goes under cover.
Credit: marshmellowman
@ironshield, I sent you an $LOLZ on behalf of enginewitty
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TLDR - So when you think about it, there is great significance to the passage of time.
Sometimes we need to refresh or recharge ourselves then reflect back. Actions are good but imho we don't have to take actions based on our emotions. We as hivians needs to support each other.
Since thats the talk and you are probably the overlord whale, how much % do you have from total marketshare from free float with total accs? And what % from the issued ratio (distribution), could say from total staked... And what % is that for 10 main wallets? (That are not from the system itself)... Anyway, I have no idea on thoses infos and am asking out of ignorance...
I think its very nice from yah to take initiative to have a transparent talk! And its blockchain, data is there, I just think thats a tough info to gather and you might know better how to drop it... Others big investors would surely try to look into that for trust in current crypto feedback loop... Ty!!
Kind of liked your attitude until you threw that Bible verse in the end. Not that my little flag means much, but maybe you'll see it and know that I come from the buckle of the Bible belt and that is a poor judgement call quoting so little when you put so much into the rest of the post.
Glad to see you involved in the success of splinterlands, I think you should take a look here, it's as good for Splinterlands as it is for Illuvium and even Hive, can't wait to hear from you!
https://peakd.com/splinterlands/@deadzy/diabolical-plan-to-push-the-sps-to-the-moon
It could create a massive influx of players
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