The Concept of Critical Mass

Photo is AI generated using Craiyon

When I read the book Celestine Prophecy back in college, the first concept introduced there was "Critical Mass," which really ticked something in me because I knew the concept can be applied to other things beyond what was detailed on the book.

I actually use this concept to determine when a change of state happened or will likely happen.

To illustrate the concept let's say you want to boil water. You take a kettle and filled it up with water then put on a stove. As heat is applied, the temperature is going up. One property of water is that when it reaches 100 degrees Celcius or Centigrade, it will change in state from liquid to gas state. So you'll notice as you're boiling the water the kettle will whistle because the vapor, the gaseous state, is trying to escape.

Well, all of the water will not dissipate in one second because only the molecules that have reached 100 degrees will transform since stove fire is just a slow burner. So what happens is some molecules reach 100 degrees, probably those touching the metal, and so they turn into vapor or gas. Given enough time, all of the contents of the kettle will eventually become vapor.

The thing here is that from liquid form, water inside the kettle transformed into another state, which is gas or vapor, and it's all because it reached the critical mass temperature of 100 degrees Centigrade.

Another example to illustrate further is the opposite, where vapor gathers up in the atmosphere and becomes liquid water in the form of rain. Let's say a raincloud has formed. A raincloud is basically water in the atmosphere but still not light enough to be in the air. What's happening is that water vapor is changing from water vapor into liquid form. The raincloud is forming as the process of condensation is happening. It can hold as much as water as it can but when the last water vapor condenses into water making it for the raincloud to impossibly hold the change in weight then it has no choice but to let go of the water and so rain pours to the land. The point when the last droplet of water that made the raincloud drop the water is the critical mass point.

As you can see, even in nature, there are clues before the actual change of state happen. We don't see gas but then slowly it forms into a raincloud and into a bigger darker raincloud. That's the same with other things where changing of a state happens, you'll see an agitation or precursors before the actual event does happen.

The point of this post is that the concept can be applied to anything you think there will be a change.

Like when I was a stock broker a few years back I would notice that before a stock takes off there are precedent things that occurs. I would notice that volume spikes regardless if a price is down or up, then technical indicators are slowly forming patterns, more clients are calling about a particular stock even before news comes out, and some of the big brokers are slowly accumulating.

For me, it's like boiling water, the stock in question is being applied heat on except the heat is in the form of volume, technical indicators and interests from clients, and the big brokers jumping in. You can also add lingering rumors spreading from the floor. Now then by the time the news comes out officially, the price mooned or plunged.

For me, I can apply the concept of critical mass to the crypto markets as well.

However, I don't limit the use of the concept of critical mass to the stock and crypto markets. We can also apply it to Hive as a platform as well. We know Hive is blockchain platform and it has NFTs, games, DEXs, blogging, has its own native currency, more or less a full-service blockchain. Right now we have quite formed a community but have we reached our full potential? I don't think any blockchain has reached its true potential, especially for blockchains that are supposed to have an actual use like Hive.

The strength of Hive I can say is the micro-blogging feature which no other platform has(correct me if I'm wrong). It's like a social media platform too. Compared to Facebook and X(twitter), I think in terms of number of users we're still a bit left behind. Hive doesn't have to be a competitor of other social media platforms but if more people share their Hive posts on their social media platforms I think that would attract new members. So probably when we see more shares from other social networks of posts originating from Hive, that is a good sign. More exposure means more people knowing about Hive.

Another sign Hive has gone to the next level would be the amount of upvote rewards will be higher. In my case I am just treating Hive as a platform to voice opinions, ideas, what-nots and what-have-yous. Sometimes I get more than $10, a lot of times really just a bit below $1 in upvote earnings.

I sincerely thank those who have upvoted my posts.

But still maybe when we see upvote values where $50 is the low tier would be a true sign that Hive has hit that critical mark. But I'm talking of quality posts. I don't blame people not getting upvotes if they post something of no value to the reader. I would see a lot of nice posts and still below $1. I think even at present number of members we can reach a good upvoting reward value but what's really lacking is true engagement. That's why kudos to those who read, upvote and comment.

Last indicator I think where we can say Hive has reached critical mass is Hive token stabilizing at $3, at least near the all-time high. I think price will follow when Hive has reached maybe even a 10th of Facebook users.

Of course this is all my opinion, and you can have your own opinion as we may have different perspectives. You may view Hive platform from a different angle like on the dev side or from the point of view of an artist or a content creator. Those things I've mentioned are just what I think, at least for me, that when I see them would mean Hive has changed and has become a better platform.

I was about to end my post but I remembered something where the Chicago Bulls was down by a lot and the coach was ready to sit Michael Jordan and the rest of the starting players. But the opposing player talked trash with Jordan and that really irked His Airness. That trash talking was a critical mass point. That changed Michael's attitude of accepting defeat. Have the other player not gloated over Michael, Jordan would have been benched. But, no, Jordan ain't the consummate competitor is he is just gonna sit down while opponents are trash talking him and his teammates. In short, that trash talking dolt of a guy activated God-mode Jordan and so of course the Bulls won.

In parting, the concept is truly powerful if you can use it because you'll be able to determine when a change is coming.

Hopefully I made sense. Have a blessed day😍