Hive Projects Budget Transparency Meeting

@stoodkev: Great meeting! I've been through the first half already and it seemed like a lot of good and actionable things can come out of this. As mentioned by @starkerz I couldn't join due to the chosen timezone but I'll be releasing a post soon on these topics, along with some thoughts on what was discussed during the meeting.

@beggars: Thank you so much for running this needed call. It's nice to see that the concerns around the DHF and transparency issues are being taken seriously, especially with @blocktrades getting in on the convo. I posted something in Discord, but I am going to post it here too concerning testing. I've got a lot of testing experience across multiple types of testing: With computer/tooling use, AI can do this increasingly well now. I have an Android/iOS game I built that had a pathfinding bug. I got Codex with GPT 5.4 to open up the iOS emulator, click around, debug console output and fix the issue (so you can do semi automated mobile testing). Combined with established testing methodologies: Unit tests Integration tests End to end tests Smoke tests Visual regression testing The tooling side of things was already resolved before AI and now AI is making testing even easier. It's no longer a chore or PITA to set up good test harnesses. I'm honestly a little confused why mobile testing is allegedly a sticking point for time/cost for projects, because mobile emulation isn't hard. The iOS emulator supports numerous emulations, same with the Android emulator. Maybe this comes down to inexperience and people who aren't mobile devs are building mobile apps? Also, building mobile apps is easy now too. React Native is a mature ecosystem that lets you build cross platform mobile apps from the one codebase. There aren't really any reasons for people to develop native mobile apps anymore. React Native + Expo is incredible. It's incredibly easy to build apps on Hive now. I've even got a simple starter I open sourced on GitHub called Honeycomb: which gives you an instant starting point for Hive applications (Node.js backend, indexer, DB integration and front end). I also have a library I've been working on for the past 7 years for Hive called Hive Stream: which gives you a simple, extensible and adapter driven approach to working with the blockchain (supports MongoDB, Postgres, SQLite, MySQL). From my perspective 80 85% for developer expenses is far too high for a project to spend its money on. It signals that for a user facing project, that it has no real go to market strategy, no one is doing user research or design properly, QA is treated as an afterthought (or done by the devs which means dev work stops) or worse: the team is just larger than it needs to be. What is the output relative to the spend? A solo dev shipping a game every couple of weeks makes the math look pretty brutal for a funded team burning 85% on developers and shipping quarterly at best. The ratio itself isn't inherently wrong, but it becomes a red flag when velocity doesn't match the investment. AI tooling has genuinely changed what a small team or solo dev can produce (as everyone on the call acknowledged, with figures cited around 10x more efficient). If someone is employing the same team size they had three years ago and pointing to the same developer cost ratio, the honest follow up is: what are all those people actually doing day to day? Because the productivity ceiling per developer has gone up significantly. Maybe it's a visibility issue, but I don't see many Hive projects that are DHF funded shipping any faster than they were prior to AI tooling becoming good. One of the big questions I want answered is, what the heck are Hive Keychain spending 600 HBD a day on? Because another takeaway from this call (that I have already mentioned numerous times in my posts, comments and Discord messages) is infrastructure costs for Hive are dirt cheap. Hence why projects on this call all seemed to cite close to 10% ish of funding for infrastructure, which anyone who works in tech and has experience with servers already knows (especially when your apps are offloading the database work to the chain itself).

@hurtlocker: I’m not a developer so a lot of this discussion is way outside my wheel house. That being said, I think transparency is extremely valuable and it’s very encouraging to hear a conversation like this. I believe there are a lot of people who are passionate about Hive and want it to be successful. The people who are passionate about Hive and want it to be successful are our base; these folks are our foundation. Hivians will not always be totally aligned. Hivians will not always agree on everything. I think it’s good if people do not agree on everything and still find a way to work together in a POSITIVE way; in my mind, being able to do this as an ecosystem is very valuable. I am not particularly worried about the $ value being spent on the current proposals I can vote for RIGHT NOW. If I am ever concerned about the $s being spent I will be sure to mention it. But like I said, I am not a developer so I don’t have a good frame of reference for what these things cost but I also believe these things cost more than the average user thinks it would. I am not a fan of cuts but do think sometimes they need to happen. These are sad and tough choices when people decide to reduce headcount / team sizes. But it also does seem to be realistic to make cuts based on how close we are to the debt limit. It is really encouraging for me to hear Blocktrades talking and sharing his perspective. I think it’s encouraging there is so much CONSTRUCTIVE criticism on this call. Also, hearing Blocktrades talking about improving process is very encouraging. I do think there is a silver lining here to cutting costs when we are at where we are right now. This is a good precedent for the chain. It is a good precedent to cut costs in hard times so we can be a better chain in the future. That being said, I do not think we should have the expectation that people work for free. I do not think people working for free is sustainable or a good precedent. I am glad to see some reduced spending while having more efficient marketing is being discussed. Ultimately we can cut costs all day long but that will not make the price of Hive go up. We still should market the chain in a cost effective way. If Hive is going to market itself, we need to be excited about Hive. We need to be excited about the future and Hive’s potential for greatness. Hive is great right now. The price of the token does not take away from that. But just because we are a great chain does not mean the sentiment will always be positive. When things are not working as everyone expected, it’s always good to review things and say “what can we do to make things better?” I think that’s what this call is. To me this call is Hivians with a passion for Hive searching for solutions so we can have a better future. I am a bit of a dreamer. I’m usually excited for the future. I am usually excited for Hive’s future. But this call in particular makes me very excited for Hive’s future.

@mcfarhat: That is the type of meetings I like to hear (and hopefully participate in) I just allocated 1 hour (on 2x lol), and I love the discussion and the vibes (pun intended) wouldn't expect anything less from all participants as i know first hand their great contributions and positive motives towards Hive. As a development contributor to Hive, whether via our Actifit team or Hdev team, the overall direction and discussion is great, especially in terms of collaboration and open source, which we've been promoting and supporting for years. The focus on marketing is definitely a big key factor for the future of Hive, we've been putting a lot of effort from our end into marketing, and I'm glad to see the alignment there. Looking forward to upcoming meetings with such a positive spirit, and even more collaborative agenda/effort across hive dev/dapps. Maybe make those as monthly meetings similar to Hive core dev meetings (or maybe a part/extension of it?) Was also so nice hearing @asgarth 's and @good karma 's voice for the first time (@starkerz and @blocktrades we're kinda used to your voices lol). oh and @jarvie congrats upfront :)

@ph1102: Not sure why this couldn't be done live in public, but that's not the primary concern... It's very easy to fall into the trap of being an OG, for having RIGHTS to spend HBD without proper accountability and transparency... DHF is a "community owned fund," and everyone who gets funded from it should be very open and transparent toward the community, as WE have funded those projects! That's why it's hard to understand why someone can get upset if the community asks for accountability... Anyways, laying off part of the team hurts, but we can't blame DHF for that, or the community... It's a fact that "general" productivity of developers went up significantly, and as someone said in the comments, it's completely different than it was 4 5 years ago... Today, one person with the help of an AI can do at least 5x more than it was able 5 years ago, and it was nice to hear developers who USE AI confirming these numbers... IMO, cutting expenses can be one of the solutions for this problem... The other solution is to embrace AI in your development process and SHIP MORE! You don't have to lay off people; you can give them different tasks, create something new... Maybe something that is self sustainable! That's definitely a more sustainable approach than the never ending DHF funding... It doesn't have to be 100% self sustainable, but maybe less... IMO, that's the direction in which we should go... Many Hivians will be glad to vote for proposals which have a long term vision, but with a solid business plan... Sharing this on Ourpick for a bigger exposure... I have picked this post on behalf of the @OurPick project! Check out our Reading Suggestions Posts! Please consider voting for our Liotes HIVE Witness. Thank you!

@mrtats: I couldn't listen to all of it, as I have been busy with fixing stuff around the home. But I listened half ish of it. To me, this seems like a much more productive discussion than yelling at discord that we have to cut everything. Projects' budgets line up with what I thought they were spending their payments on. Payroll is one of the hardest thing to cut when it is a small team. Transparency is important, but we should also be vigilant against fake transparency reports. I don't think such reports would come from projects that were on call today. I think most projects that are funded through DHF are not as opaque as we make them out to be. Marketing is one of those areas where we have been deficient, our return on what we have spent on marketing in my opinion have been abysmal. Spending money to chase partnerships that don't materialize seems like a waste to me. Someone said if we spent those money on listing Hive on exchanges, we would have gained more exposure, or at least more ramps to get into Hive. And I agree with that sentiment. There should be better ways for us to get a return on our marketing investments. I am not a marketing guy, but even I can see that. I am not sure how the retention and onboarding part would pan out. It is too early to say anything without seeing it in action.

@cositav: Hi, I'm a regular Hive user and I don't have experience in DHF application development or most of the topics discussed here. But if there's one thing I know as a user of this blockchain, it's that I'm happy to see you all here talking about the future of Hive and how we can improve it, make it excellent, and make it accessible to everyone. Talking about transparency is a good example of us being on the right track. It builds trust and is positive for everyone. I'm very glad that the blockchain leaders aren't just focused on technical development, but are truly committed, and it gives us the necessary encouragement to keep creating and giving our best every day on Hive. Hive's development is absolutely necessary, especially with the use of AI and all the technology surrounding it, but marketing and user support are essential for user retention. We must ensure that users stay and join, and we'll achieve this by making the process as easy as possible for them. Furthermore, it's necessary to ensure that no one feels ignored upon arrival. That first vote or supportive comment is what makes all the difference for a new user in a committed "Hiver," finding ways to make them fall in love with Hive, to attract them, to fill them with the passion of Hive. Investing in marketing and user retention is a good growth strategy; it's a way to grow Hive and show interest in the existing community. I'm very glad that solutions are being sought. I'm happy to know that there are projects underway and that Hive has a promising future; it gives me great confidence to know that there are people committed to making it a reality. I hope that the new projects to attract and integrate new users through good marketing are a complete success and that solutions can be found for any differences that may arise. Hive is great, it's beautiful, and it's worth being here. Thank you.

@howo: Thanks for the meeting, I enjoyed listening to it. I am glad to see that this didn't go towards trying to reduce spending as much as possible, I know earlier numbers floated about reducing by 50 to 70% which would have no doubt heavily impacted our ability to compete with other chains when they go all out on AI to go faster rather than use it as a cost savings tool. I'm also glad to see a focus be put on marketing, this has always been our weakest point

@ecency: It was great discussion, thank you for everyone on call, hoping to see more transparency and communication between teams. For reference to community spreadsheet can be accessed from shorter url: In video, we mentioned estimation for development was 80 85% but that was before cut on proposal, after the cut it dropped to 65%, spreadsheet is updated accordingly. We will be maintaining and keep filling spreadsheet with missing items. All code opensource on our github:

@stresskiller: Good to hear that we try to work towards open source with or without limits but atleast a guarantee for future programmers to be able to continue if one of the current programmers / developers is no longer able to do his work . I wouldn't mind doing some testing every now and then as long as it ain't on mobile , i really prefer to work on desktop . replied to 28:48 on 3speak.tv

@davideownzall: Hmm I like the idea of transparency reporting expenses like on ecency sheet, but it doesn't make much sense to write 3000 usd x monthly wage for developer, does that means 8 hour a day for a month? Or 8 hours a month? There's a big difference

@borsengelaber: First time since years that I see this coordinated approach accross Hive DApps to find a united way forward. Good signal.

@ponpase: Great report, sir. By the way, sir, please promote Hive with advertising features on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok. That would be a very efficient marketing tool. Hive is getting old, so we shouldn't just focus on development, but also improve marketing...

@chronocrypto: Transparency, Productivity, and the Future Direction of Hive Development The conversation around development funding and transparency inside the Hive ecosystem continues to evolve. Discussions like the recent meeting summarized in the post highlight an important reality: the Hive community is actively examining how projects communicate progress, justify funding, and collaborate more effectively. Hive operates differently from many other blockchain ecosystems. Instead of relying on venture capital or centralized funding, Hive uses the Decentralized Hive Fund (DHF) . This pool of funds allows the community to vote directly on development proposals and allocate resources to projects they believe will strengthen the ecosystem. That structure creates both opportunity and responsibility. It enables innovation to come from many independent teams, but it also requires clear communication and accountability so stakeholders understand how resources are being used. From the meeting summary and discussion in the comments, several key themes emerge. Transparency Is Becoming a Core Expectation One of the strongest signals from the discussion is that transparency is becoming a normal expectation for projects receiving DHF funding. Development teams have begun sharing more detailed information about their operational structure, including team size, development costs, and infrastructure expenses. For example, it was mentioned that a large portion of development funding often goes toward developer salaries, while infrastructure costs represent a smaller but necessary portion of the overall budget. Publishing this information matters because the DHF represents community capital . Stakeholders voting on proposals want to understand how funds translate into progress, maintenance, and long term value creation for the network. Transparency also helps eliminate speculation. When numbers, workflows, and development priorities are shared openly, it allows the community to evaluate projects based on real information rather than assumptions. Ultimately, transparency builds trust. And trust is one of the most important assets any decentralized ecosystem can have. AI Is Reshaping Development Productivity Another major theme discussed in the meeting is the impact of artificial intelligence on software development. Across the entire technology sector, AI assisted coding tools are dramatically increasing productivity. Developers are now able to prototype features faster, debug code more efficiently, and accelerate documentation and testing processes. Some developers in the discussion suggested productivity gains of multiple times compared with traditional workflows. This shift could significantly influence how future development proposals are structured. If teams can build features faster with smaller groups of highly skilled developers using AI tools, development budgets may eventually become more efficient while still delivering larger improvements to the ecosystem. However, productivity increases do not eliminate the complexity of maintaining large systems. Blockchain infrastructure, front end applications, APIs, and node services still require careful design, monitoring, and long term maintenance. AI may accelerate development, but experienced developers remain essential to ensure stability and security. Testing Remains One of the Hardest Problems While development speed continues to improve, testing remains one of the most challenging aspects of building applications. Automated testing frameworks already exist for many parts of the development process. Unit tests, integration tests, and end to end tests can run automatically and detect problems early. However, mobile testing still presents unique challenges. Different device models, operating system versions, and hardware configurations make it difficult to guarantee consistent behavior across all environments. Even with emulators and testing tools, real world devices can behave differently. This is why many development teams still rely on extensive manual testing alongside automated systems. Improving testing infrastructure across the ecosystem could significantly reduce friction for developers and help accelerate release cycles. Marketing Has Historically Lagged Behind Development One of the most consistent points raised during the discussion is that Hive's technology has often progressed faster than its marketing. The ecosystem has built powerful tools including social platforms, decentralized finance tools, and second layer token economies. Yet much of that progress remains relatively unknown outside the existing community. Marketing is not simply about promotion. It is about communicating the value of the ecosystem to new users, developers, and investors. Without consistent communication, even meaningful technical achievements can go unnoticed. Some participants suggested that improved documentation, automated progress reporting, and community driven communication could help bridge this gap. As the ecosystem matures, coordinated efforts to highlight development milestones could significantly expand awareness. Improving Onboarding for New Users Another important idea discussed was improving the onboarding experience for new users. For many newcomers, Hive can initially feel complex. The ecosystem includes multiple applications, tokens, communities, and tools that may be unfamiliar to someone encountering blockchain technology for the first time. Creating guided onboarding paths could help new users learn the platform gradually. One possible approach is structured tasks that introduce publishing, engagement, token rewards, and community participation step by step. Curated feeds highlighting new user content could also encourage experienced members to support and mentor newcomers. If executed well, this type of onboarding system could improve both user retention and long term community growth. A Sign of Maturing Collaboration Perhaps the most encouraging aspect of the discussion is the fact that multiple development teams participated in the conversation together. Historically, many Hive projects operated independently with limited coordination. While independence allows creativity, collaboration allows shared infrastructure, shared knowledge, and more efficient progress. Open conversations between projects like PeakD, Ecency, and other contributors demonstrate a growing willingness to coordinate efforts. Coordination does not mean centralization. Instead, it strengthens the ecosystem by allowing independent teams to align around common goals. When developers communicate openly with each other and with the community, the entire network benefits. Looking Forward The Hive ecosystem continues to evolve through cycles of experimentation, discussion, and improvement. Debates about funding efficiency, transparency, development productivity, and marketing are not signs of weakness. They are signs of a system that is actively trying to refine itself. What matters most is that these conversations are happening publicly and constructively. If transparency continues improving, if development productivity continues increasing through new tools, and if marketing begins to better communicate what is being built, Hive will be well positioned for stronger growth in the future. Hive has always been driven by its community. And when the community participates actively in shaping the direction of the ecosystem, the result is a stronger, more resilient network for everyone involved.

@hivebuzz: Congratulations @starkerz! Your post has been a top performer on the Hive blockchain and you have been rewarded with this rare badge You can view your badges on your board and compare yourself to others in the Ranking If you no longer want to receive notifications, reply to this comment with the word STOP