So as to ensure that everyone gets the relevant info for this topic, here is a very basic run down of the economics of Hive printing/inflation, distribution and rough values which will help anyone not familiar with them.
Block Production and HIVE (currency) Production/printing.
A Hive block production cycle occurs every 63 seconds.
During one cycle the top 20 witnesses all sign blocks.
& 1 backup witness (non top20) takes a turn to sign one block.
A top 20 Witness gets to sign one block every 63 seconds.
A top 20 Witness signs 3600 * 24 / 63 = 1371 blocks per day.
A top 20 Witness receives only 0.228 HIVE per signed block.
While a backup Witness receives 1.142 HIVE per signed block.
So a top20 witness on Hive roughly earns 9,300 HIVE per month.
or somewhere in the figure of under 114,000 HIVE annually.
Note: ALL of the fore-mentioned HIVE is automatically staked, aka "HIVE POWER (HP)",
so it must be powered down for it to be liquid "spendable".
The powering down process takes 13 weeks for a full 100% completion.
Staked funds earn “interest” while liquid funds don’t.
i.e. locked up funds in a fixed term “high yield/interest rate” savings account (Staked) vs a regular spend when needed type of bank account with a debit card (Liquid).
How are the new HIVE coins distributed?
65% goes to the reward pool, which is shared between content creators & curators.
15% of the new coins are awarded to holders of Hive Power-HP (Stake).
10% of the new coins are deposited to the Decentralized Hive Proposal account.
10% goes to our witnesses.
There is approximately 26 HIVE printed/produced every 3 seconds (per block).
Note: the printing rates aka "inflation" decreases by 0.5% annually, so the numbers here are rough figures, not down to the cent/penny!
All in all, many millions of HIVE printed annually.
Once printed, these coins are all there, they are all in existence.
None of them are magically "not accounted for" in the economics of currency inflation.
Why I say that is because some people seem to have an illusion that if those funds are not being utilized that this may in some way change the laws of inflation.
Then again, not all of us have had to deal with these types of topics, nor should we expect everyone in this world to read up on it. No matter how important it may be.
We have seen many discussions in the past, but none of them change the laws of inflation.
HIVE IS A CURRENCY. It is not an "apple or a mobile phone".
For those who see the terms/names “Hive” and “HIVE”, but are not sure why one is in all caps & the other isn’t:
Hive = the blockchain
HIVE = one of our two native currencies. (The other currency being HBD)
Some rough figures:
The total number of HIVE vs the current figure of almost 5 BILLION people on the internet.
There is currently about 400 MILLION HIVE printed to date.
= 0.08 HIVE per person.
In twenty years that total could be a little closer to the real needs of people and practical figures for usage = spending. So that people are not calculating in decimals, but round figures. HIVE is a currency that brings crypto to the world, not only to “traders”.
Likewise, the printed HIVE, as is clearly shown above, is also intended to serve for the long term needs of our chain.
Note: The relevant basics/points on the above topics, for this post have been stated.
The above facts had to be stated so as to make sure everyone can now get into the reality of the long term NEEDS of Hive.
& NOW FOR THE PUNCHLINE:
Long Term Requirements of Hive – RPC Nodes.
RPCs are the communication centres of Hive.
Everything anyone sends to the chain, goes through a RPC node.
Without this node, nothing anyone types out there on any front end would be on the chain.
THAT IS THE SHORTEST OF SHORTEST VERSIONS!
& the only thing that is relevant on the role of an RPC node for the following suggestion.
Justification in accordance with the above facts:
Owning, renting and running a RPC node is no “cheap” thing.
IT ALL COSTS MONEY!
& a fair amount of time.
Add to that, the fact that the vast majority of people who do run a RPC node are in fact coders, who in that field earn anything from $50 to over $200 per hour. So each hour invested into maintaining a RPC node does have a comparable value to it.
Until we see a reliable foolproof “RPC in a box” as what we have “Hive in a box” (Witness node setup package, by @someguy123) RPC nodes will be solely dependent on people with a firm and sound foundation in the relevant technical fields.
Which brings me to the reality of things, for the long term logistics of Hive:
Those that run and maintain RPC nodes are not getting anything for it.
ZILCH, ZERO, NOTHING!!!!!!
It IS NOT the role nor duty of a Witness to run and maintain a RPC node.
Many of us (including myself) in the past when our native currency was at $1 to $5, seem(ed) to justify the notion that Witnesses should/must run RPC nodes because of the huge earnings.
Well, that was back in the day, mea culpa.
RPC nodes have absolutely NOTHING to do with running a Witness node.
“Apples and oranges” as often said.
Yet, the costs to run a RPC node (aka “Full Node”) far exceed that of running a Witness Node.
However, there is no set budget in the economics of Hive (the distribution of printed HIVE) to stimulate or incentivize anyone to run a RPC node.
I will go so far as to say that this is yet another “gap” in the system, left over from the old way of doing things in which a long term vision was restricted and haltered by a centralized body and those who did not understand the concept of “abundance”, let alone the idea of “sharing the wealth”.
We (imo) have only one logical long term option to fix this:
Reconsider the distribution figures in a way that takes into consideration the long term infrastructure needs of Hive. Particularly the need for RPC nodes.
The amounts of Hive printed are “plentiful”, so there should be no reason to think about this in any way that is only about “here and now” or the “me, myself and I” thought pattern.
FACT: Not enough RPC nodes to handle the future apps and second layer options on Hive = FAIL.
A crystal clear potential BREAKDOWN of everything.
No, I am not dramatizing.
It is inevitable if we do not cover all the technical/infrastructure logistics of Hive.
We must not leave this to “chance”.
Every time anyone says “we need more investors” or “we need more apps” etc.
It seems to always come back to “Who” and not “How”.
The answer to “Why” is clear to everyone, yet somehow, we seem to forget that we have an inevitable potential for a breakdown in the infrastructure needed to accommodate for/to the needs of millions of people utilizing Hive.
I will leave it there, for now.
All I humbly ask is that you “Think about it”.
Communities without borders. A social network owned and operated by its users, powered by Hive.
Source: https://hive.blog
Facebook | Twitter | Linkedin | Reddit | Xing | Telegram