This is rather long and if you do not want to read all of it please skip to â1Hive perspectiveâ down below. Most of it is not necessary and it should be possible to infer what I am speaking about from general notions of the current cryptocurrency community.
Preface
I would like to start this thread by first stating that I am still a newcomer to 1Hive and that I may not have enough experience within 1Hive to claim that this is a workable idea since it is abstract and relies on certain specific connection between this community and another one from a video game. Still, if anything I believe it is a concept worth exploring, because if 1Hive caused me to so clearly remember the feeling I got from one community I am fond in my belief this is not by accident.
Furthermore, I would like to elaborate that this is also based on my belief that there is a connection between that game, the cryptocurrency market, and the cryptocurrency community. I will try my best to explain the similarities by focusing mostly on the barriers newcomers face when coming into crypto. Building on that, I will then try to explain how 1Hive could bolster its ranks and potentially ensure its longevity by becoming a semi-transitionary community within the cryptocurrency sphere.
So letâs talk about the game.
Letâs talk about EVE Online, but just a little
So here is a second disclaimer, I havenât played a lot of EVE Online, still in my own belief this hardly influences the expected value of this idea. I will also not go into most of the details of the game since they are effectively irrelevant, we are looking at the big picture.
The things we need to know are the following: EVE Online is a video game with a steep learning curve, with a tight-knit community, and with actual potential financial benefits (PLEX/USD for those that know about EVE). In short, it is a game with very complicated mechanics that could have led to you being âdestroyedâ, robbed and any other horrible thing in certain (well, the most prominent) game areas over and over again if without proper guidance. This would be less infuriating if the game were free, but since this is a subscription-based game, that only intensifies the agony.
Now, although these game mechanics do prove to be enjoyable once one gets used to the long term they hinder community growth. EVE Online is not the only example, there are many more, and I firmly believe one of those examples is the cryptocurrency market itself! I will elaborate on this claim further in the next section, but for now, let me continue with the former thought.
Amazingly, due to this effect of game mechanics hindering community growth, part of the community itself reorganized into an entity that is specifically designed with the idea in mind to engage newcomers and lower the barrier of entry while respecting the game mechanics. This entity that formed is the EVE University, a player-led organization within the game that, in a simplistic attempt to find a usable âdirectiveâ, concerns itself primarily with teaching new players the game mechanics (which in and of itself takes a few months) while assuring its own sovereignty, without which it could not continue teaching new players.
The point of âsovereigntyâ is important because these organizations can be attacked at any time, the safety of their members is not guaranteed. In spite of this, this specific one, due to its unique position within the game, has survived, at least to my knowledge, for the last 13 years. The organization has an abundant wiki, classes are held, players are grouped into numerous groups, due to there being a variety of possible activities some specialization is even offered. Most importantly, players are being taught how to âsurviveâ in their new environment.
I think that most readers at this point can already suspect in which direction I will lead my thoughts in this post, yet I would definitely recommend taking the above only as contextual information for what I propose and not to conclude anything at this point.
The current state of the communities of decentralized, cryptocurrency-related systems from my own subjective perspective
In this part, I would like to explain how to me, as a newcomer, the current state of the communities of the systems and the systems themselves stated in the title of this âchapterâ appear through my subject view. I would use this as further contextual information in combination with the former, to set the stage for my final idea.
In short, for me, the cryptocurrency market and communities are not separable, and in fact, tie together into the cryptocurrency game, or even further so to say into the decentralized game. In fact, as games are the very essence of what humans see behind repetition and generally natural, and much more so, human-enabled occurrences, so too does this whole decentralized system constitute a game. Why, in my belief, we have not as of yet reached this point in other systems, for example, the financial system, is simply because the progress of gamification is gradual (take as an example the social credit system in China).
If we were to consider this cryptocurrency game, we would also have to decide the players in this game, which would of course be, in essence, each human actor that manipulates in some way with cryptocurrencies that are in financial relationships with other cryptocurrencies.
Further thoughts, not really necessary
These cryptocurrencies represent points to be gained, which in fact, in a satyrical turn of events (at least on a side note) lower their significance (from my perspective) as a fiat currency that one uses to secure real material possessions, of course not completely, but a slight influence is felt. I can also offer an example;
Let us take an actor named ME that deposits 10$ into an exchange and swaps them for 10 units of a currency A. So ME has 10 A. Let us assume that A can develop in two ways: it can either atmospherically jump to a very high price point, or alternatively, it could, for example through inflation, become nearly worthless. Let us introduce an extra factor. Let us assume that with MEs knowledge, ME deposits knowing that ME is not going to be able to withdraw the money later.
From my subjective experience, the following humorous scenarios occur:
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The currency loses all value and ME is disheartened, due to the fact that he has spent 10$ on a losing game, in some way âlosingâ the money.
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The currency booms, ME is not disheartened, he believes he âwonâ the game, at the price of 10$.
This just shows how far the gamification of a system can create âfake valueâ which then equates with âreal valueâ, which I believe, is the basis of many price changes today.
These human actors or âplayersâ obviously try to maximize their profits by attempting multiple strategies by adopting new ones from the community, creating them by themselves, or learning about them in self-study. Each player obviously also tries to minimize the necessary amount of work to reach their desired profit, which often leads to the most unwanted behavior where players basically seek fake confirmation from other players in a blind belief of their capability of price movement prognosis. âIf I have no evidence of his net account balance change, I have no evidence of a negative change, thus he may be right.â
Of course, through time, many players may adopt different strategies that prove at least by some margin better. These players also discover that being in touch with the community, or at least with proper communities, makes it easier for them to receive useful information regarding trading, financial systems that smart contracts copy, generally anything that they could influence upon if given enough knowledge. Due to that, we see large sub-communities forming, r/CryptoCurrency and their related Discord. Every single Defi sub-community. You can divide it into the smallest parts.
Furthermore, being a little more specific, players, especially small players, notice the Ethereum main net-based barriers, gas prices.
In essence, what I want to say is that in the cryptocurrency game we have the same three elements that we also had in my earlier part on EVE. In fact, there must be more elements that these âgamesâ share, although it is unnecessary to mention them at this point.
This leads us to the question of what kind of position we can take within the system, and what kind of position have we already taken in it?
1Hive perspective
Again, I will start this part off by claiming that this is how I personally view the abstract position of 1Hive within the cryptocurrency game.
1Hive is currently situated on the xDai network, disconnected from the Ethereum mainnet. The xDai network itself is as many of us know a great improvement in comparison to the mainnet due to the 10,000x - 1,000,000x lower gas fees. Still, for now, the xDai network does not have the same allure for investors as the mainnet due to the low amount of startup Defi projects available on it. In combination with the bridging fee, there is little incentive for an investor that is not informed well enough to transfer funds and invest in the xDai network.
Due to the nature of 1Hive it is unique among the DAOâs on the xDai network. In fact, I believe it is also unique among the mainnet DAOâs since up until now I havenât really found any that emphasize the idea of community as much as 1Hive does. Thus for now 1Hive is situated in a comfortable environment with room to grow and does not have to depend on other mainnet projects. I imagine it as a safe enclave within a very tumultuous sea. For this reason, I believe that in addition to, not in complete refocus on, all already stated activities with which Swarms concern themselves, specifically the Buzz, Morphosis, and Fauna Swarm, 1Hive could attempt to further engage the âplayersâ by offering educational opportunities and introducing them into the game in a safe environment.
If the community would opt for this egalitarian approach, it would certainly be unique within this space and others too. The stock market, for example, has no such one community that attempts to work towards the benefit of each of its members in the long run. Thus the immediate reward gained from such an attempt is in my opinion the factual knowledge that 1Hive becomes the only community with a decisive intent on helping each member within this whole game, and not only a platform that offers the tools for its members to further themselves but with no explanation and support. The further, ârealâ, physical positive feedback our âcybernetic feedback loopâ would receive, is:
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The potential amount of connections that are built by having affiliated players as members of the community, which can then help us work on our projects.
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Demonstrating proof of work that 1Hive is a community that can and will prepare its members to interact with the âgameâ, thus rising trust levels within 1Hive itself and towards 1Hive from the outside.
Through this system, 1Hive would also indirectly prolong its own longevity not only by having more members and realizing that a certain percentage will stay with 1Hive for the long run but that also indirectly so long the cryptocurrency community thrives, that means the territory surrounding the 1Hive enclave, 1Hive can also breathe.
Summary
In short, I give an overview of my reasoning for the development of the idea that 1Hive could become a unique space for cryptocurrency newcomers which would benefit 1Hive and the cryptocurrency community in general.
Please discuss this idea below and give me your thoughts, if this idea gets positive feedback I can then do a small writeup on how one would implement this idea.