Hive (HIVE) is a DPoS social blockchain and content monetization ecosystem created on March 20, 2020, as a community hard fork of Steem — precipitated by the controversial acquisition of Steemit Inc. (the founding company) by Justin Sun, who used exchange customer funds to vote in favorable ‘witnesses’ and effectively took control of the chain. The Hive fork preserved Steem’s original vision: a decentralized platform where users own their content and earn cryptocurrency for posting and curating through apps like PeakD, Ecency, and Splinterlands (a blockchain game built on Hive).
| Stat | Value |
|---|---|
| Ticker | HIVE |
| Price | $0.06 |
| Market Cap | $32.30M |
| 24h Change | +3.0% |
| Circulating Supply | 537.33M HIVE |
| All-Time High | $3.41 |
How It Works
- DPoS with witnesses — Hive uses Delegated Proof-of-Stake. 21 elected “witnesses” (validators) produce blocks. HIVE holders vote for witnesses, and any witness found to act against the community can be voted out.
- Account Resource Credits — Transactions on Hive don’t cost fees. Instead, users have “Resource Credits” (RC) replenished over time based on their HIVE POWER. RC limits spam without requiring per-transaction fees.
- Three-token system:
HIVE — Liquid token, tradeable on exchanges.
HIVE POWER (HP) — Staked HIVE. Provides governance weight, more RC, and curation influence. Powering down takes 13 weeks.
HBD (Hive Backed Dollar) — A stablecoin pegged to $1 USD, backed by HIVE collateral. Earns savings interest (set by governance). - Content rewards — Blog and social media posts earn HIVE and HBD when other users upvote. Curation rewards go to upvoters who discover quality content early.
- Smart contracts (Hive Engine) — A layer-2 smart contract platform (Hive Engine) enables custom token creation and DEX trading on top of Hive.
Tokenomics
| Parameter | Value |
|---|---|
| Ticker | HIVE (+ HIVE POWER + HBD) |
| Max Supply | Uncapped (inflationary; content rewards, witness rewards) |
| Consensus | DPoS (21 witnesses) |
| Launch | March 20, 2020 |
| Inflation | Annual inflation decreasing to ~0.95% long-term |
| HBD | Stablecoin; earns 15–20% APR in savings (governance-set) |
Use Cases
- Social media / blogging — Publish content and earn HIVE/HBD from votes.
- Gaming — Splinterlands (a major blockchain card game) built on Hive.
- NFTs — NFT marketplaces and art platforms built on Hive.
- Governance — Vote for witnesses and on proposal system (DAO funding).
- HBD savings — Earn stablecoin yield in Hive’s savings mechanism.
History
- 2016 — Steem blockchain launches (created by Dan Larimer and Ned Scott). First blockchain attempting to reward social media content directly in cryptocurrency.
- 2019 — Ned Scott sells Steemit Inc. to Justin Sun (Tron founder). Community alarmed by Sun’s plans to “migrate” Steem to Tron.
- 2020-02 — Justin Sun uses Binance, Huobi, and Poloniex customer funds (held in exchange hot wallets) to vote in 20 new “steemit” sock-puppet witnesses, effectively taking control of the Steem witness network. Major controversy erupts.
- 2020-03-20 — Community hard forks Steem to create Hive. Steemit ninja-mined tokens excluded from the Hive airdrop. ~80% of Steem’s top users and most content move to Hive.
- 2020 — Splinterlands migrates to Hive (from Steem). Becomes Hive’s flagship dApp.
- 2021 — Splinterlands BOOM: the game becomes one of the most-played blockchain games globally. Hive sees surging activity. HIVE reaches all-time high of ~$3.41 in November 2021.
- 2022 — NFT boom on Hive. Multiple NFT platforms emerge. HBD savings APR jumps (20% at peak), attracting stablecoin yield seekers.
- 2023–2024 — Activity continues. Hive remains a niche but functional social blockchain with real daily activity. Splinterlands retains a player base. New dApps continue launching.
Common Misconceptions
“Hive is dead/abandoned like most Steem-era projects.”
Hive has a continuously active community with real daily transactions, active dApps (Splinterlands, PeakD, Ecency), and HBD earning genuine usage as a stablecoin. It is one of the more actively used social blockchains.
“The Steem takeover was legal.”
Using exchange customer funds (coins held by users, not the exchange) to vote in blockchain governance was widely condemned as a misuse of custodied assets. Binance and Huobi later withdrew their votes after community pressure. The incident became a textbook example of custodied asset governance risks.
Social Media Sentiment
Hive has a tight-knit, ideologically motivated community that values decentralization and censorship resistance (stemming from the Steem-Justin Sun incident). Content ranges from crypto commentary to travel blogs, and it represents one of the few functioning social blockchain experiments. Outside of its community, mainstream crypto awareness is low. Splinterlands remains the gateway for many new Hive users.
Last updated: 2026-04