We Don't Want to Sit Around Waiting - Marketing / Adoption
Published on HivePostify by @hivecreators · Fri Sep 04 2026
Hive was born differently.
There is no company behind it making every decision, funding every campaign, or putting millions of dollars into driving adoption. A large part of that work depends on the people, communities, and projects that choose to build around the blockchain.
That comes with a huge advantage: anyone can participate.
But it also comes with a responsibility: if we want Hive to grow, someone has to try to build the mechanisms that can make that growth possible.
A few weeks ago, we submitted a marketing proposal to the DHF. The proposal did not receive enough support, and the feedback we got was limited.
One of the ideas that came up was that maybe Hive does not need marketing right now, and we understand where that perception might come from.
Over the years, there have been proposals, campaigns, and experiments with very different results. Some of those experiences created doubts about how effectively resources for marketing and adoption have been spent. This happens in every area, but marketing tends to receive more criticism than most.
We also understand that we cannot change what happened in the past.
But we can decide what we do from here.
The Problem Still Exists
We can debate whether a campaign was the right one, whether a proposal was designed properly, or even whether the word marketing is the right word to use.
But there is a more important question:
How do we help more people discover Hive, understand what it can do, and find a reason to actually use it?
That problem does not disappear because one proposal gets rejected. It does not disappear because the market is difficult, and it probably will not be solved by a single campaign either.
Adoption is part of building any technology.
Infrastructure and applications matter, but we also need to build the paths that connect that technology with new people, while creating more value for the community that is already here.
First, We Have to Prove It
This experience also forced us to take another look at our own work.
Maybe before asking for more resources, we need to do a better job proving what we are capable of.
Maybe we need to rebuild trust.
Maybe we need to measure things better.
And we probably need to run more experiments before trying to scale.
That means taking responsibility for our side of the equation.
We do not expect the community to fund an idea just because we believe in it. We want to prove that there are adoption mechanisms that can produce results, and that those results can actually be measured.
Trust is not something you ask for.
You build it.
Doing Nothing Is Also a Decision
After our proposal failed to get enough support, we had two options.
Stop.
Or find another way to keep moving.
We chose the second one.
Over the past few weeks, we have been researching alternatives, talking with people outside the ecosystem, looking for advice, and thinking about how we can keep working with the capabilities we still have available.
Right now, our biggest advantage is not capital.
It is our technical ability, our experience inside Hive, and our willingness to keep experimenting.
And for now, that is enough to start.
Try More Paths
Right now, we are considering several alternatives:
- Submit a new DHF proposal that is simpler, more measurable, and focused on specific experiments. - Look for sponsors and external partners willing to fund adoption initiatives. - Explore a funding mechanism focused exclusively on adoption, where the community itself can support initiatives and evaluate their results.
- Build products that generate real revenue and reinvest part of those profits into adoption.
Maybe one of these works.
Maybe several of them fail.
And we will probably have to change a lot of things along the way.
That is part of the process.
The only strategy we know for sure will produce no results is doing nothing.
Optimism Does Not Mean Ignoring the Problems
We know the market is difficult, there is skepticism around marketing inside Hive, and raising resources is hard. We also know that blockchain adoption is a problem that pretty much the entire industry is still trying to figure out.
Being optimistic does not mean ignoring those difficulties. It means believing there are still solutions we have not tried yet. That is why our intention with HiveCreators is not to sit around waiting for better conditions. We want to build, measure, make mistakes, learn, and try again.
If a strategy fails, we will change it. If one funding source does not work, we will look for another. If an idea does not produce results, we will drop it. But as long as we believe we can contribute something to Hive's growth, we are going to keep looking for a way to do it.
Because maybe the real work of adoption does not begin when we find the perfect strategy. Maybe it begins when we decide to never stop looking for one.
Tags: #hive#marketing#hivecreators#hivemarketing#dhf