Axie Buzz, 1UP, and Hive: A Big Opportunity for Axie Scholars (Part 1/2)
Axie Infinity scholars and managers around the world are struggling with low SLP prices right now.
This is a painful time with Axie earnings going down so much… on top of that, many of the smartest players are saving their SLP and farming RON, so they aren’t cashing out anyway.
I agree with the “Axie Influencers” who say that Axie Infinity has the strongest foundation of any blockchain gaming project. On the other hand, a lot of players were enticed into this ecosystem based on the idea of being able to play2earn. What can we do about this?
I think there’s a huge opportunity that most people don’t know about yet. It’s something that lets you save your SLP and worry less about Axie prices.
What is it? Here’s the opportunity: Blogging on the Hive blockchain.
Hive Blogging: “Proof-of-Brain”
In short, the Hive blockchain offers remarkable rewards for people who share high-effort content there. There’s a growing scene of blockchain gaming or “play2earn” content creators and video game grinders on the platform.
Blogging about your Axie grind is a proven way to earn some Hive tokens. You will diversify your income streams and be less impacted by short-term price movements in SLP.
You can think of it as “proof-of-brain” mining. When you provide valuable ideas and share your perspective, people who stake HIVE tokens can upvote your content to show they support what you are doing. Your brain is essentially mining for Hive tokens by sharing content.
Of course, the actual code that secures the network is not “proof-of-brain” — that would make no sense — but as a concept, proof-of-brain is an interesting way to think about your crypto earnings.
Disclaimer: This is not a get-rich-quick or “easy money” opportunity. Like all legitimate blockchain opportunities, it requires hard work and 5–10+ hours per week of work to really “tap in.”
With that said, let’s talk about Hive.
What is Hive?
Hive is a community-led hardfork of the Steem blockchain. It’s a place where people from around the world can share content about anything — gaming, music, art, programming, science, farming, ANYTHING! — and have the potential to earn cryptocurrency in the process.
With that disclaimer out of the way, I will share a screenshot of the front page.
These are the top posts of the last few days. As you can see, they earn quite a bit of money! Not all of the money listed under a post goes to the author — 50% goes to the author, with the rest distributed to curators who voted on the post. (The details of this are interesting but too complicated for this article)
This method of distributing new coins was the innovation that initially launched Hive (then called Steem) to relevance in the blockchain world.
Now the community of Hive is full of die-hard blockchain people who use cryptocurrency on a day-to-day basis. It’s one of the most intensely dedicated communities I have ever encountered in my five years of being in the blockchain space.
I believe that every Axie scholar should be journaling about their Axie experience on Hive. It is a new income stream that could realistically double the amount of money they earn.
Furthermore, Hive exists outside of the game — so if a player decides to explore other blockchain games in the future, they can continue to post content on the same blog. Your Hive income stream will be available even if you pursue “variety content” later on.
There are a few really dedicated communities for crypto gaming on Hive. Axie Buzz, Gods On Chain, and 1UP are three examples.
Why Hive?
Before I explain how to start blogging on Hive, let me explain a few reasons I like this blockchain.
(1) The community is very dedicated. Hive is a community-led hardfork that happened as a result of corruption by founders of the original “Steem” blockchain. Hive has now “flippened” (reached a larger market cap) the original chain and proven itself to be a strong force within crypto, despite resistance from many of the “powers that be” along the way.
(2) The Hive token is liquid. Ever since I started using this network in 2017, I have never once had any issue getting liquidity from Hive to BTC, ETH, LTC, etc without having to use intermediary coins in the process.
It’s easy enough to earn $20 in a week and then withdraw it to LTC, Doge, or another low-fee coin from there. Much like earning SLP in Axie, earning HIVE is a great supplementary income or a way to save up crypto and buy NFTs without spending your personal money on it.
How to set up a Hive account
Ok! Let’s assume that you are interested in checking out the Hive blockchain. How can you set up your first Hive “account” (aka wallet/address)?
It’s really easy — you just go to signup.hive.io and choose one of the options.
To set up an anonymous account with no email/phone needed, you’ll have to use one of the paid services that cost a few bucks. If you are willing to offer an email or a phone number, you can use one of the free services.
When you create your Hive account you will choose a username between 3 and 16 characters long. This is a “human-readable address” and will be what you give to other people so they can send you stuff.
For example, my public Hive address is @quixoticflux — which is also my username. It’s pretty easy! On Ethereum, you start out with a long address full of random numbers and letters… so Hive makes it a bit more beginner friendly.
(On a side note: For Ethereum, you can use the non-profit Ethereum Naming Service to claim a human readable address — it just costs a bit of money to do so)
Keep Your Keys Safe
Your Hive account will have several private keys associated with it. These keys are randomly generated and consist of long, random strings of letters and numbers. YOU MUST KEEP THESE KEYS SECRET!!
Anybody who has these private keys will have control over your account, they unlock everything in the account. That is why they are called keys.
It is EXTREMELY BAD and IRREVERSIBLE if somebody else is able to get your private keys. They can lock you out of your account and steal all of the assets in that account. Since this is a blockchain, just like Axie’s Ronin blockchain, there is no way for anybody to get your stuff back. There’s no “Customer Support” to help resolve hacks. This is why you have to keep your private keys VERY SAFE.
At the minimum, you should use a password manager. I recommend a plugin called Hive Keychain, available both on computer and mobile. This excellent guide for setting up Hive Keychain is still accurate, even though it was written back in 2020.
Next Post
This post explained the basics of what the Hive blockchain is and why you should start posting content on there.
In my follow-up post later this week, I’ll share a full strategy about what you can post on Hive to start earning HIVE tokens. I’ll explain how often to post, how long the posts should be, and what the format of the post is.
I will also share examples of Axie scholars and players already posting content on Hive. With all of this info, it will be super easy for you to get started.
Before reading the next guide, make sure you take time to set up your Hive account. This is not hypothetical — these are real tactics you can use to build your blockchain “web3” lifestyle and start living in the future, earning cryptocurrency and getting used to the “new normal” where you get to truly own your in-game assets.
Do your homework and then I’ll see you in part 2 of this guide.
