Hello and welcome to July's addition of Valueplan the numbers where we look the funds allocated by Valueplan during the month of July. It was a turbulent month on Hive as the Hive DHF funding was given front and center attention by the whole community. Splinterland's applied for DHF funding but the proposal did not get fully backed by the Community. This led to many people asking what exactly the DHF fund does and how does the Hive Blockchain spend their funds on if there was push back supporting arguably the largest onboarder to the Hive blockchain. The strong argument from some of the top witnesses who did not support the proposal was that there was no detail on how Splinterland's were going to spend the funds and at the end of the day there would be nothing going back to the DHF funds from the funding of what was a private company. Some witnesses argued that most Splinterland's users are not that active on the Hive blockchain with the exception of their transactions being validated while they are playing the actual game which does not add value to Hive. This was proven when the Splinterland's users did not have enough Hive stake to pass the proposal by themselves. There was a broad explanation that the funds would be spent on Marketing but the Hive Community especially the accounts with a stake that matters did not think there was enough detail in the proposal to allocate them the funding needed. Fair enough in my opinion so the decision has to be respected. But on the other side of the argument is the question on what the DHF is actually spending their funds on at the moment?
Valueplan which is the marketing arm of the DHF allocates funding every month to projects considered worthy of funding. Valueplan publish a quarterly post and draft a summary of what is being funded but they don't really delve into the numbers behind each project. Some of the numbers are quite staggering so it is important that users realise the amounts of HBD that are heading outwards and how the powers that be are spending the Communities fund on Marketing. Now it is safe to say that Hive has not been pulling up any trees in any metrics since the last bull run. We are looking at a token price of less than 19 cent and dropping. We actually look a bit like dinosaurs if you compare us to the up and coming chains such as Ton, Solana. Arbitrium's so there is a danger that we fall into the abyss if we don't buck up our ideas. The funding of projects get funded in HBD which is converted to Hive and sent to an exchange for FIAT which puts pressure on our token price. So every HBD spent needs to be returning the same amount of value to the blockchain at the very least and this is why we have to scrutinize this funding in more detail.

Recap on June's Post

I asked the top 3 accounts that were funded in June some questions around their funding. You can find that post here. These were basic questions and they were to gather more info on what exactly the Hive Community were funding.

All 3 have yet to get back to me. Given the amount of funding that these 3 people have been allocated in the last year I think it is important to know what value we are getting from these projects and I am amazed that I have not heard from back from any of them. That is OK though because if there is silence then I get even more curious to look into the projects a little deeper.

Julys Numbers

So we move on to Julys numbers. As like June there were a total of 18 accounts funded to a total of $75,907.00 well down on June's total of $100,931.00. The rally car once again was not present this month which is welcome news as it is a massive expense during a turbulent time on Hive.

1 Hivefest Deposit

@lordbutterfly takes number 1 spot with the majority of the funding (16,000 HBD) to secure the payment of Hivefest 9 which happens in Split Croatia this year. 4,800 HBD were given to him to fund his Vibes Project which as you all know is doing well with plenty of posts around it. In the most recent Valueplan post @lordbutterfly is to become a project manager for Valueplan which is welcome news and adds more of a voice to the project team. We see some of the Valueplan project team being high on the YTD lists as they are assigned to allocate the funding on Hive events such as Hivefest , major Conferences etc so it is important to note that the project manager will be high up the list for a reason which is fine. We all get it. One question that I have been asked by a few of you is : Does the Community think a project manager should have their own projects funded by Valueplan? Is this managed by one of the other project managers? Will it be "tots awks" if you are denied funding by one of your colleagues?

2. Community Wells Project.

In number 2 we have @mcsamm moving up one place from June having received 10,373 HBD in July.
8008.00 HBD was for the Community Wells Project and HF which I presume means Hivefest?
The remaining 2,365 HBD was for him to attend a Blockchain EXO called TechEx in Amsterdam. I asked some questions in June around some of these expenses but there was no reply so we will go again.
First of all I think we can all agree that we will never see a return with the Wells project. Bar an odd mention in a newspaper. It is a good deed project assigned to help people. One does not expect a return I imagine which poses the question. Can we afford projects like this that are not giving value back to Hive? Is this more of a major player project from the likes of Binance , CDC or a major exchange? It is more a good will gesture from Hive to build wells for poor people in Ghana but whether the funds can be better spent to promote our blockchain is a question. It is more a charitable cause than a marketing campaign. @mcsamm has been fairly active on Hive showcasing every well made which is positive and he has announced the launch of building Ghana's 16th borehole just recently.

Lets look into each of these boreholes in more detail from the 1st one in Q1 2022.

_{Figures only include only borehole drilling and do not include expenses or any conferences attended during this period}

Now the total funding to @mcsamm is 176,966.00HBD since March 2022 when he was first funded 3,425.00 to drill a borehole in Fawoade Ghana. The total for the first well came to 3,639 HBD.
The 2nd borehole was slightly more expensive at 4525 HBD. Borehole could have been deeper, more remote location, soil condition etc ,whatever it was. It was 886 HBD more expensive. The 3rd borehole cost a total of $4,524 but this time he asked for an additional 400 HBD for books for the children of the village. He also needed a new laptop to present which cost another 500HBD of community funds. You can see the costs above in the table. If an accountants are looking for anomalies they seek similar values with differing explanations. The extra 500 HBD for a laptop on borehole #3 and then school books at borehole #5 for 500 HBD stand out here. 500.00 even is always a red flag. Also I would have thought everybody on Hive had a laptop which should be their own expense if they need a new one!! Free laptops guys for everybody at Hive everyone. Hooray!!!

There seemed to be a major jump in 2023 for the average cost of a borehole. You can see from the above table that the cost went from between 4500-5000 up to 8,550 which is a 3500-4000 HBD increase. I get that costs do rise but the rate of inflation with the Ghana currency Cedi must be extortionate. What first began at 3,639.50 HBD to build a borehole is now working out at 8,550 HBD per well which is 234% increase on the initial price. A good deed at 3,639.50 HBD is an easier pill to swallow than at 8,550.00 per well a year later. As well as that it looks like the school workbooks were not included in the cost of the boreholes in 2023 as opposed to 2022. They were another cost in the Valueplan wallet of 2800HBD for 4000 workbooks early on in the year. 2023 costs compared to 2022 costs increased by 286%. If you divide the number of wells by the total cost then you see in 2022 4707.30 HBD was spent per well. In 2023 there were 7 wells and 2 renovations which came to 7493.33HBD . A 159% increase per well on the year before.
In 2024 there has only been 2 wells completed so far with the 16th well commenced. The comment in the wallet is for 2 X boreholes so there is not much data to analyze here until the end of 2024.

I began to investigate how much a borehole costs to drill if I was to carry out this task myself by simply contacting a local contractor in the area. The world is now a small place. I received 3 quotes. The most expensive quote for a borehole (remote location, 200m depth) would cost me 15,000 Cedi for a borehole from start to finish which works out at about $962 in USD or 962 HBD. There was a 10% discount for early payment.

I mentioned above that @mcsamm has received 176,966HBD since 2022 and boreholes look to be just a % of this total sum. Last year he was given 25,000HBD by Valueplan for a European Blockchain Expo . In 2024 so far he has received a total of 22,228.50 HBD so far as expenses to attend conferences which is separate from the boreholes. I presume he is talking about his experiences at these expo's. The problem with conferences is not the conference itself but the dead money flying people across the globe to attend them.
The bottom line is when you take heaven out of it and whether everyone at Hive is going there for funding the boreholes, does there come a time when someone might take a look at the costs involved because it is getting rather expensive and if our friend lives in the UK, I take it we are paying for the round trip to Ghana! Send the Butterfly Lord down there for a look into things.

No 3. GYM Street Workout

Number 3 on the list from July is Gym Street Workout. I smiled at this as these guys are always there and there about's on the top 5 list every month. These lads have been getting Valueplan funding for a couple of years now and you are not talking small funding either. Not only that but one of the group Victor has now expanded into Bike Racing as well so I would expect this sport to become a highly costly project as well. It is currently number 7 on our list in July.

When you see this expenses line in the Valueplan wallet this month you have to laugh.

'And so on........' and so forth. I may hope so seeing that the community have spent 5310 HBD on hats shirts and sweaters.
Could you imagine if Splinterlands put "and so on...." in their proposal!!! Poor Matt would be hung , drawn and quartered!!

I have always had concerns over the Street Workout and why they incur so many expenses. The equipment and clothing should be well covered at this stage which just leaves logistical costs. Sometimes I wonder whether it is a sweatshop we are funding rather than a Hive events group. Paying to turn up at events confuses me seeing that they are the attraction.
I asked the question last month to no reply whether this is an actual business we are funding here?
Does the Street Workout Group get paid for their events?
One of the properties I run is a Shopping Centre and out of our marketing service charge we would allocate a certain amount each year to attract groups like this to do a display. It could cost us anything between €1,000 and €3,000 depending on the group.
Malls love this kind of thing to attract footfall. But yet each mall display is costing the Hive Community money? Why?
There has been much debate over the Splinterlands proposal. Are they socialising losses and privatising profits? Did we ever question this in any other projects?? This being one?

Looking down through the 2023 funding for the Street Workout crew and indeed the 2024, we seem to fund a vast amount of merchandise. Much more than other projects.

Let us have a look at their funding in 2024 so far in detail.

_{Total higher than YTD total below due to some payments made to @victorwallet above but they are SWC related}

The word "Merch" has been mentioned more than 6 times in the above so it is safe to say that the GYM Street Workout crew give out lots of Hive stuff at their events. But does this expense translate into Hive users is the issue? It looks like they are giving away an awful lot of stuff and the Hive funding is covering this. Should we be moving away from the merch at some point in the project?
If you look at the 15th June, Hive funded 12,500.00 for a SWC Duals Battles in a high end mall but Hive had to cough up the remaining 2650.00 as there was no second sponsor! I think this speaks volumes. Is it time for something new to fund here? Have we exhausted this project? I do not think the Street Crew are returning more than 77,883.50HBD in value since the start of the year.

Major Event This Month : Blockchain Rio

The Rio Blockchain Conference had been funded this June & July but there has been very few posts about it on Hive so far. For what was sold to be the biggest event EVER there is not much media around it especially on Hive. I did find this video of the Hive team hard at work although the first few seconds of the video would not inspire me with that much hope to be honest.

The breakdown of the funding has been as follows

Any metrics guys?? How many did we sign up? Was it any good? Why is the main conference organizer not posting anymore around the conferences?? Any feedback would be appreciated. Did you guys speak at it by the way because I cannot find any videos of this?

YTD Ranking

So not much of a change at the top YTD. @victorwallet creeps funding above 20,000HBD for his bike riding. It would be awesome to see some posts around this sport by the way as I am finding it hard to find anything. I had to go to Instagram to actually find some photos of the bike .There seems to be another bike racing project funded as well which is number 19 on the list as @k13wallet. One is peddle bike racing and the other is motorbike racing but again the posts around these are vague to say the least.

So that's it for July. Not too many questions this month but more a deeper dive into some of the projects that were high on the list in July. See you need month for Augusts edition.