Peakd is great, but it's closed source. It's written in Vue, (which I'm quite experienced with by now, so it would be much easier for me to contribute than React code). It has more features, but lacks in clarity, UX design, simplicity and is not yet enhanced for speed. Open up Peakd and Ecency and you'll notice how Ecency is much faster.

Personally, I think Ecency is the better candidate for the default open-source social-interface for Hive. It will need more work for sure, but the fundamental code it's built on is A+.

I've got much love for Peakd and the team behind it, but it will most likely require a rewrite and open-sourcing it, as closed-source code is non-acceptable for hive.blog.

Problem is that rewriting it would take time and two dev teams working on two different open-source code-bases is not efficient. If they do want to rewrite Peakd, I'd advise on looking into making Peakd not only a "Hive" interface but something blockchain-agnostic with an independent revenue model.

Last but not least, IMO any project getting funded by the DHF should be open-source and specialised for Hive.