Currently there is no full introduction to exactly what 1hive is and how we as a community have decided to organize ourselves. This understandably leads to confusion and a lot of questions, so this post is going to serve as a general introduction to 1hive and the different swarms.
There is a general introduction to what a DAO is and why Honey exists, although it is often overlooked. If you havenāt read that, I highly recommend you do, as it explains the general motivations of why 1hive and Honey exists.
1hive
1hive is a DAO that issues and distributes a digital currency called Honey.
Anyone who holds Honey is a part of this DAO, and therefore has a say in how this issuance is distributed amongst the different Swarms and projects. The newly minted Honey always ends up in the vault of the DAO, commonly referred to as the Common Pool.
How funds are distributed from the Common Pool is decided upon by members of the DAO, affectionately referred to as ābeesā, using Honey Pot, an instance of conviction voting.
By supporting proposals which increase the value of Honey, a positive feedback loop drives growth and sustainability. Conviction voting allows everyone to participate and shape the direction of 1hive, while preventing anyone from taking control or ownership.
This is all that 1hive is. A DAO that issues and distributes Honey.
The community has elected to organize itself in working groups called Swarms that live on the edges and produce value for 1hive in their own ways. The exact purpose and organizational structure of each swarm is unique, and is entirely decided upon by the swarm itself.
Swarms and their projects are funded by 1hive community members - if a swarm fails to create the value the community expected, the community may elect to no longer support it.
Extra: What is a DAO? And why Honey?
To paraphrase the excellent resource on About 1hive:
DAOs are cybernetic super-organismsā¦ or more simply, coordination protocols which enable humans to work together towards a common goal by regulating interactions through rules defined in software.
If someone claims to represent a DAO, they are either lying or they are confused. DAOs are unique because they put automation at the center and humans at the edges. There is no CEO, nor managers. Administration, where it must exist is viewed as a design flaw and ruthlessly minimized.
In the case of the 1hive DAO, a community currency called Honey is used to create a circular economy where public goods and investments which grow the 1hive economy can be collectively funded with conviction voting.
And why Honey?
Because honey is money. Seriously.
Issuing a digital currency allows a distributed digital community like 1hive to build an economy around a set of shared values.
Holding a specific currency is a bet on the future growth of that economy. The more people who hold the currency, the more people who will have interest in participating and growing the economy.
Each community may adopt different social norms, and may use different issuance and distribution policies to allocate shared resources. The most effective communities will thrive and grow, competing for the attention and loyalty of individuals. Choosing to hold a specific currency will evolve beyond just a financial decision into a political and social one as well.
Swarms
As mentioned previously, swarms are working groups that each have their own purpose and organizational structure. They are created and managed by community members, and funded by the 1hive community.
This section will give you a general introduction to each currently existing swarm and their purpose. Many of the swarms are generally still in their infancy and as such they may not have decided on a structure they want to adopt yet to organize themselves - if you are interested in any of them, I would recommend you to pop in to their channel or reach out to a member and say hi!
I do not actively participate in each swarm, so forgive me if I missed something in a swarm you participate in, and feel free to contribute extra information about a swarm!
Note: Some of them are not funded directly, but instead indirectly by the community through Pollen, and some of the swarms may also elect to create proposals every once in a while to get their ideas and projects funded.
Gardens 
Gardens is a swarm that is in charge of developing Honey Pot (https://1hive.org) which aspires to redefine the future of work. Currently it provides the main interface for Honey distribution.
Projects
Tulip 
Tulip is working on trading and DeFi infrastructure, including Honeyswap, a fork of Uniswap v2. It also maintains Honeycomb, the liquidity incentivization program for Honeyswap.
For Honeyswap, Tulip has enabled the protocol fee, and these fees are sent directly to the Common Pool, which means that adoption of Honeyswap will directly benefit 1hive.
Projects
Flora 
Flora is working on secondary services, such as validators, notification services and deployment of bots to execute functions on smart contracts that require periodic execution, such as Honeymaker (mentioned previously).
Projects
- Infrastructure for deploying various types of nodes and services for different swarms
Celeste 
Celeste is working on a decentralized dispute resolution protocol based on Aragon Court that incorporates BrightID to make participation less capital intensive. It will be used, amongst other things, to enforce the 1hive Community Covenant and for enabling the 1hive community to remove malicious proposals from Honey Pot.
Projects
- Celeste
Buzz 
Buzz is focused on organizing external communication across different platforms to spread awareness of 1hive and Honey through marketing and guides.
Projects
- Marketing campaigns
- Outreach
- Social media presence
Pollen 
Pollen maintains a SourceCred instance that distributes Honey based on contributions to the 1hive community, such as helpful posts on this forum, on Discord and on GitHub.
Projects
Fauna 
Fauna is focused on moderation (by enforcing the Community Covenant), community support and ensuring our culture stays inclusive, productive and helpful
Projects
- Moderation by enforcing the community covenant on this forum and the Discord
- Community support
Design 
The design swarm creates various designs for other swarms, including Tulip, Gardens, Celeste and more. It also creates the nice blog post graphics you usually see on About 1hive 
Terra 
Terra is a recently-formed swarm dedicated to translating blog posts, articles, guides and projects from other swarms.
Luna 
Luna is a recently-formed swarm focused on modelling 1hive using cadCAD to support the community with computer-aided governance.
How do I get Honey? 
You currently have a number of ways to acquire Honey and become a member of 1hive, all funded by the 1hive community:
- Through the Faucet
- Through Pollen
- By buying Honey on Honeyswap
- By participating in a swarm that distributes Honey to its members
- By creating something cool and valuable and getting funding through a funding proposal on Honey Pot
Bonus: So who is Seed 
anyway?
Seeds are often mistakenly referred to as āthe devsā or āthe foundersā. Seeds are neither of these: Seeds are just some of the earliest community members who are still around. It is true that some of us are developers, and it is true that a lot of us are the primary contributors in many 1hive swarms, but we are not founders and we are not the devs.
