Valueplan in Review. Some of Your Questions Answered By Hive Investigative Reporter Charles Mcgarnicle.

Hi everyone, it's me Charles Mcgarnicle and I'm back to report on everything Hive blockchain related. If there is a scoop on Hive I am on it. I'm just back from a trip from Ghana where I was sent undercover by old school editor to infiltrate a large Splinterlands bot farm run by a Militia led by the infamous Capo John. However my trip was cut short after I was asked to report on the recent Valueplan review post which you can find here that was published last week.
So Valueplan was set up to give Hive some sort of marketing outlet to the world as the community were concerned that we were not marketing the blockchain enough. So some of the decentralised fat cats got together and did up a proposal to change that. It's quite a large fund. The largest DHF proposal on Hive right now. Eyebrows were raised when around $60,000 and counting was funded to race a rally car in the WRC. I was sent down to Monaco to cover the exciting story only to hear the car didn't race because of an unfortunate clerical error. However the team still went on a sort of scouting mission so the value of the plan wasn't all lost.
Anyway Valueplan released their end of year outgoings on all the projects that have going on in 2022. They have kindly asked the good people of Hive to review their year and outgoings to be transparent. There is quite alot to get through here so many of our readers have a good few questions coming through to us here. So this article is around the questions asked around the review so at Hive gazette we have you covered.

@takingthepiss asked the question

How come all the Hive Blockchain conferences are based in Venezuela and not anywhere else in the world? Is there a reason why we are targeting Venezuela? Also how come these cost amassed to 104,657 HBD to take part in? I do conferences in Germany. a first world country and I would not spend one tenth of this for the conference season. That's extortionate.

That's a very relevant question @takingthepiss. I am pretty sure Valueplan is open to conferences in most countries. But Venezuela is an up and coming superpower and I am sure Hive wants to get in there before the other multi national cryptos. Also Hive seems to have people on the ground that have a lot of free time and can do the conferences in Venezuela. When you say the prices are extortionate, there are quite a lot of fees when doing one of these events. Granted if it is in the one country then things such as banners and merchandise should be just stored and used again but you are forgetting the other costs like for example the Hive branded bracelets which came to 2350 HBD. Yes I am awaiting clarification whether the bracelets were gold or silver but all these things add up.

And before you ask, of course it is OK to buy the presenters outfits for the conference which cost 325 HBD and 300 HBD. It's all the rage in big business nowadays.
"Natasha we want you to represent us at the conference but your dress is a holy show. Here is $300 for a new one. Something classy and a lil bit sexy."
All these little expenses have to be looked after. You hardly want the presenters going up on stage looking like tramps? Also with "Minor adjustments" , "related costs", "incidentals" , and "miscellaneous logistics" are all relevant expenses. Conferences cost money especially in developing countries in South America. In Germany you can just walk in and set up and for this reason Germany is cheaper. Wash your mouth out with salt water @takingthepiss. Hivefest was in Europe you dummy so not all the conferences were in South America.

Another question in from @ismellarat
On a number of occasions there is laptop / camera purchase as a reason for some of the funding for the events. Do these people not have their own laptops or cameras? How did they get on Hive in the first place if one doesn't own a laptop?

Ratty ratty ratty , ever the cynic. Well for some events the good people that are representing Hive need a laptop for presentations. These could be mega presentations that need a nice computer to get the message across. I know the easiest way is to bring your own but why not just buy a new one?? Also some people use desktops rather than laptops so there is no way they are going to transport their DELL PC to an event. get a grip Ratboy. Also one laptop was purchased as a result of one of our event organizers getting caught up in a bloody hurricane so Valueplan had to issue funds for an emergency laptop here as well. Luckily everything was in the cloud. There was another natural disaster mentioned in the review. Guess our peeps are just a bit unlucky. You could be walking down the street @ismellarat and a piano might fall on your head. You just never know. Natural disasters are now a reality of life.

We have one question in from @thesilenceisdeafening

Charles recently you were in Monaco to cover the rally car that cost Hive $60,000 in Hive and hasn't raced yet this year because of an unfortunate clerical error for the biggest event of the year in Monaco. Could we not have just sponsored the car wrapping rather than buy the an entire car??

Well thanks for your question @thesilenceisdeafening. That would be the normal thing to do alright and would cost considerably less but we are Hive and we are going to the moon. We were told from the higherups on this decentralized mecca that the cost of renting the car would be substantially more than buying it which I know is not your question. The average cost of advertising hoarding on a Premiership football match for example is $15,000 which most crypto companies are doing but we wanted to be different. We were going to be the only blockchain in the Monte Carlo rally. Now granted they didn't race in Monaco but that was the idea. Anyway the best case scenario is we race in some remaining races which will be great. We could get national coverage Worst case scenario is that one of the Hive community owns a $50,000 rally car and there is a heap of Hive on exchanges for cheap before Hive moons. So it's a win win really.

The questions are just flying in.

Charles long time listener first time question asker @bestieswithawhale here
Back to all these conferences that are costing a bomb? Where can I find posts regarding these events?

Good question again @bestieswithawhale. Valueplan do not post or report around where they spent the dosh in detail. But if you just go into the links of where the money is going for the various things you will find most events took place in some shape or form. There are a few Hive Community members who do not like to post that received a substantial sum of money but if they do not want to write about their event then they cannot be made. They are humble and some would rather their privacy which is their right. One in particular doesn't even follow anyone as it is just a holding account for transactions it looks like.

One other reason given to us by @joantheaccountant is for anonymity due to tax implications of the receiver of such large funds. If the tax man checks any of these peoples bank accounts, the tax burden falls on them. Venezuela's tax laws are taxing 20% on cryptocurrency but I am sure they are all aware of this before they drew down so much. But just be safe in the knowledge that Hive has been marketing properly and that we are getting the word out. But good question @bestieswithawhale

I will take 2 more questions.

@extractingtheurine writes
Do any of these projects, conferences or events have to issue receipts for what they spent? I know the crypto world is mostly legitimate people with very little scamming but you always have a couple of bad eggs that take take take?
Unfortunately there is no need for receipts with these projects. An element of trust is involved with the organisers. If you look back over the funds transferred to the various wallets , you can see they are transferred to Binance and other various exchanges in a flash so we know that the Hive is not used to buy say Splinterlands cards etc. So the money is transferred to good solid cash from magic internet money and this is what funds the events. I know we had a lot of shenanigans on Steem before the flight of the earls but it's mostly salt of the earth people on Hive that would not take the piss. If a Hive name is tarnished that will live with them, well, unless they just set up a new name. I think that's what all the Steem villain's did. But we just have to trust that the people in charge of these events will do the best by Hive.

@somethingfishyisgoingon asks

Do you need to be on the Hive platform from the beginning to get paid, I mean to hold an event? And do you need a certain amount of Hive in your wallet.

Not at all @somethingfishyisgoing on. Some wallets that have 6 figures transferred to them have accounts worth as little as $200. So Valueplan does not care how much you have in your wallet or when you arrived on the platform. Again I stress that Hive is not all about the big boy or the person who has lasted longest on the platform. The funds can be given to anybody once they are able to stand at an event and manage to source a t-shirt (laptop preferable but not compulsory) that says Hive on it.

There are so many more questions that I am running out of time and the boss wants me to head to Denmark to cover the first murder connected to Splinterlands Guilds wars this evening. Apparently it involves a player stabbing another player due to using Quora Towershead to win every battle.

Until next time ladies and gentlemen I hope this answers all of your questions.

Charles Mcgarnicle signing off,
putting the honey back in the Hive.