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Hive Power Up Day - 1st July

Here we are then folks - July the 1st, it's power up time!

Although I've powered up about 4k HP in the last 10 days, there's something cool about getting involved with fun initiatives and then using the powered up Hive to spread around to folks. Here's a list of all them powerups from my wallet if you wanted to have a look from the last 10 days but thought I'd ditch my EOS and exchange it for HIVE today to get about 473 HIVE 😃:

45,000 HP!

As a result of all of that, I find myself in the weird position of having 45k HP!

If you asked me over two years ago when I joined this cool platform if I'd think I'd get anywhere near Orca then I'd have laughed at you! I was pretty much a minnow, collecting what I could from post rewards until around August last 2019 where I just thought, "Well, it'd be cool to be a dolphin here", so I just bought some to get there... then after conversations with other folks who I've met on the platform and became good friends with, new goals were set and eventually ended up with this amount today haha!

Hive Goals

And that's what you'll find out if you're new here or even if you have been here a while and drifted along. You will have some goals you want to hit, big or small (maybe not even related to the wallet at all but other things like posting and commenting) but if you're like me and don't rest on your laurels, then you set new goals to aim for, bigger, more challenging ones!

As long as you don't burn yourself out and continue to have fun with what you are doing then you'll do well, particularly in a place as supportive to newcomers as HIVE.

Your Top 3

Speaking of fun things, we're launching our next topic today in the @yourtop3 contest - check the post out here and get involved!

As always, this is open to every one on Hive and is a great way to meet new people and talk about your top 3 things, expect friendly banter though! The other good thing is you get at least 4 comments from all of us who organise the contest (myself, @plantstoplanks, @foxyspirit and @cheese4ead) and resident mascot, Q, who seems to have donned his inner Freddie Mer-Q-ry this month 😃 This month is Favourite Lead Singers!

Answering Some Questions About Hive & Cryptocurrencies

OK, shameless plug and showing off about powered up HIVE over, let's get on with some Q & A from the Hive community! 😜 Some of you have been asking me a load of questions about Hive so I thought I'd make this an even more useful post for those of you who wanted to have a bit more information about Hive - big thanks to @beckie96830 for asking me these the other day - hope you find this helpful!

I'm not a financial advisor and this is not financial advice, do your own research and you are responsible for what you do with your money

Where Do The HIVE Tokens Come From?

These are generated each day on the network by the underlying blockchain technology. Every 3 seconds, all transactions (posts, comments, wallet transfers etc.) are recorded on the blockchain in "blocks of text" known as a ledger. This generates tokens at a set rate with the rate of token generation set to decrease every few hundred thousand blocks so eventually, the amount of tokens generated will be decreased.

How To Exchange HIVE For Money?

There are many exchanges available to do this with. Some don't require any details other than an email address to sign in and create an account which are more favourable (no bank accounts needed). The most common route I know of is to exchange HIVE for BTC and from BTC to your local currency. Some services allow withdrawal to PayPal, others to your bank account but it really depends on personal preference and what is available in your country.

How Important Is The HIVE Crypto Currency?

This is a bit of a tough one to answer as it depends on what you define as "important". Everyone will have their own perspective.

Some people can actually use HIVE as their main source of income and use it to feed their family so I'd argue that it's VERY important to them.

For me, it's a definitely got importance too as a side income with my blogging, sharing music and travel stories and I want to eventually use HIVE to help pay for my music production and things relating to my blog. I'd love one day for it to be able to pay for travelling and holidays (when we're allowed to travel again) but right now, I'm just building my own pot up which is also being used to help other initiatives that support people or are fun (like the @yourtop3 contest - there we go with the shameless promo again 🤣)

Just Like Bitcoin, How Can HIVE Be Used? Meaning Now If I Have $20, I Know I Can Use It To Buy Something But If I Have 20 HIVE, What Can I Use It To Do?

Actually, you CAN use HIVE to buy things from merchants that have installed a plug-in for using HIVE on their website to buy their products and services (created by the great work of @roomservice).

There are also games that are currently on the network that require Hive to be used to buy things in the game like cards and other bits and pieces.

You can also send Hive to other people on the network quickly and easily if you need to pay them for something, regardless of where they are in the world. For example, I've helped some friends out on this site and they've paid me back in HIVE which I've used to Power Up and then help more people.

More options will become available as time goes on I'm sure but us early adopters are now living in a world of abundance where it is possible to give out a lot and also receive a lot. It's a new paradigm and way of thinking but there are many possibilities, which I can't wait to see be developed!

Is HIVE Legal? If It Crashes, Who Is Held Responsible?

I'm not a lawyer so I'm not really qualified to answer this and every country has their own laws on cryptocurrencies but I suspect that HIVE would be treated like any other cryptocurrency.

For example, in the UK, anyone can buy and sell cryptocurrencies but don't have to pay tax on it unless you withdraw over a certain amount in to your own bank account in £.

As for "crashing", it depends on what you mean?

If the price crashes, that simply means there's no demand for the token as the open market dictates that.

If the blockchain itself crashes, then it's the top 20 witnesses responsibility as they are the ones who maintain the chain and ensure it runs. However, the good news is anyone can set themselves up as a witness to secure the chain 😃

Different sites that use the Hive blockchain like peakd, 3speak etc are run by different people so it's their responsibility to ensure they keep things up and running on their sites (known as dapps).

If Cryptocurrency Is Turned To Physical Cash, Which Country Would Claim It?

My understanding is that cryptocurrency would never work as physical cash because you would have "offline" tokens/money that wouldn't be able to be accounted for on the blockchain/ledger.

The whole reason for cryptocurrencies is that they are secure and highly encrypted so can't be doctored and money can't be given that isn't there.

No doubt, governments and countries are looking at how they can control money and use blockchain technology as we see the current financial system in chaos.

Are We Like Ripping Off Others When We Win Or Earn Some Of These Crypto Currencies?

Not at all. In fact, others should be joining in the fun and try to win or earn some of it themselves because we're seeing a huge shift in the way we think about wealth distribution.

Some people can't believe it and think it's too good to be true or too complicated or it "must be a scam"... When I've asked these people a bit more about it and their thoughts on these responses, the common theme is that they simply don't understand the fundamentals and philosophy of what's going on.

Ultimately, it's their loss and people will feel aggrieved when they see what they could have had when the prices shoot up. As you see on Hive, once you have log in password (your posting key), you can actually just write a post like you would do on any social network and start earning - this is available to anyone who WANTS to go for it so no-one should feel they are getting ripped off.

What's Cryptocurrency?

In general, it's just another form of money that has no physical form but all transactions made are recorded immutably on a public ledger known as the blockchain.

These transactions are recorded by computers owned by various people throughout the world and not just one entity. This is known as "decentralisation" because you don't have a centralised, single organisation to rely on to keep the blockchain running and transactions recorded.

That's All Folks!

So hopefully you found this post useful! If you have any HIVE related questions that you want me to answer, I'll do my best to provide some insight and share my experience.

Who powered up today then?! Be sure to write a post and join the initiative from @traciyork & @brittandjosie before the end of today - more information here!

Take care and have fun

Nicky