Will This Be the Year...? (Probably not)
I had something else in mind as I sat down to start this post — mostly, I wanted to revisit — and perhaps completely scrap — my "2026 goals" post — but then I decided to go for something less "involved."
So, just exploring some of the invariable questions that run through my head... as a dyed-in-the-wool skeptic, in many areas of life and finance.
For Starters...
Will 2026 be the year when the Cryptosphere finally heads upwards again, rather than mostly down or — at best — sideways?
I know we've seen occasional signs of life with $BTC... but is that much more than hype, hope and speculation based on what? An allegedly "crypto-friendly" President?
Then This...
Will 2026 be the year when someone finally figures out some kind of value-generating tokenomics or investment proposale in Hive's second layer?
Just promising people a bunch of coins is NOT a financial plan, nor a business plan. Just having an amazing and well documented White Paper is not the same as executing what you purport to achieve.
Unless you're just trying to scam everyone.
You're not just trying to scam everyone... are you?
Of Course, I Wonder...
Will 2026 finally be the year when (most of?) the Web3 punters finally realize that a project's tokens are not the product?
The Cryptosphere is so loaded up with hype, but so much of it is little more than "vaporware." You have to have some sort of business plan or sustainable strategy! If you don't, the value of those tokens have no place to go but down...
The thing nobody ever seems to consider is that people eventually will want to cash out and use that money to buy pizza. Or a new phone. Or a car.
They are not "in forever."
That's a Unicorn Fantasy.
Let's Consider Possibilities...
Could 2026 be the year when we finally see actual ecommerce in the Hive ecosystem? As in, a real peer-to-peer marketplace where people buy and sell products and services to each other, using crypto?
I am very hopeful that people will actually start using PeakD's new Stores feature and we can develop somewhat of an internal marketplace, also accessible to the external world, and presenting a tangible reason to buy and own Hive and HBD.
I've been floating this idea for years and it always seemed to just slide off into the night... unseen, unheard. Maybe this time...
Let's consider that perhaps the best way to get Hive/crypto neophytes into the game is by facilitating the possibility for them to keep doing things they already do, and KNOW how to do. Like buy and sell stuff.
How About...
What about 2026 being the year where "those with influence" stop fiddling about with adjusting Hive tokenomics, or rewards, or other such stuff (like that's magically going to fix our issues)...
... and instead focus on things like getting our Hive token broadly listed on both DEXs and CEXs?
Yeah, I know... "Hive is decentralized!"
Sometimes that's an excessively myopic song of one note... because — believe it or not — there are actually aspects of centralized structure that are useful. Like presenting a uniform united front and getting shit done.
Let's get REAL here... by using a metaphor: You can build the greatest shopping mall ever, with the best shops ever... but if no roads lead to the mall, it's utterly meaningless.
Afterthought: Maybe some of all that DHF money should be used to fund a Hive PUblic Relations Department that would also have an "Exchange Division" whose primary job is to communicate/update with the world's exchanges? And to make sure Hive is in the news in financial and crypto vlogs, blogs and news outlets?
I Guess...
This got a lot more "involved" than I had intended. So I'm going to stop here... with a deep sigh, as I have my doubts anyone much will actually read this.
But it was fun to write, all the same!
Thanks for coming to visit!
=^..^=
Waves hand I did read it ! All the way through ! Quell those doubts !
I could say something on every point you raise (which I might do, but I'd do it as a post and link back.... that way I get to earn a little HP from the effort 😁), but I'm in broad agreement with you on most of it.
To reverse the ongoing decline in HIVE price, the ecosystem needs to level up a bit in terms of realising it offers a product and then marketing that product. Internal fiddling about isn't going to fix it, and we need to solve the issue of the endless drain of market cap out through DHF grants.
I hadn't spotted PeakD Stores - thank you ! I'm a huge fan of using Hive for e-commerce, but it needs to get to a "critical mass". Free (or almost free) transactions and speed are the biggest selling points. But to be viable for true e-commerce, it needs to solve a number of issues including integrations with web platforms and shipping platforms, csv imports and exports for product and inventory data and reporting, automated transactions via website checkouts etc. Nothing on Hive is close to that yet. I might have to have a deep think about what would be needed to make it work.
For me right now, the biggest blocks are that I can't integrate Hive into my website in any way, and that Hive has a very low presence in the UK - most of what I sell just isn't cost-effective to export or faces significant regulatory barriers, so all my marketing is focused on the UK. But most companies enabling some kind of crypto checkout provide solutions that are both clunky and expensive, so it's a potential huge opportunity for us.