Taking the Orange Pill: The Hive Way

Taking the “orange pill,” what does this meme mean? What does it mean to take the “orange pill”? What does it mean for a cub to take an orange pill? Specifically, what does taking an orange pill mean in the Hive sense of the phrase?

The word “orange”in the bitcoinmagazine.com article captures my attention. This is because just a week ago, I made an avatar to represent me in my crypto talk here on 3Speak. Most of the time, I am not in the mood to speak and not even that well-dressed to appear in front of the screen (publicly online). That’s why I thought using Mr. Orange as my representative is my best option.

And then before reading the above article, I tried to do prior research to identify the meaning of “orange-pilling opportunity”. Since I am not a native English speaker, most American idioms escape my understanding. So, I thought perhaps the term “orange” has a special connotation among native English speakers in the crypto space.

When I input “orange-pilling opportunity” into my search bar, I learned that the term “orange pill” is a meme taken from that scene in the film The Matrix referring to the choice of taking either the red pill or the blue pill. If I understand it correctly the orange pill is not for those who choose to stay in the artificial world but only relevant and applicable for those who already took the red pill. In this context, taking the orange pill would mean learning the basics of the world of Bitcoin and crypto. I now realized that I have been doing this for the last 22 months; I have been taking the orange pill for almost close to two years now.

After understanding the meaning of the term, I returned to reading the above article expecting to learn something new. After reading it, I realized that the writer is simply trying to issue a challenge to Bitcoin people to take the opportunity to talk about the basics of Bitcoin to their barbers and hair stylists. Coming from the beauty industry for four decades and being now a convinced advocate of Bitcoin, the writer is passionate about finding effective ways to introduce the basics of Bitcoin. He even advises that in sharing the fundamentals of Bitcoin with your barbers, try to be strategic with your approach by identifying their issues and the advantages that they can receive. He warns us not to overwhelm our hairdressers with excessive information. Instead, do it slowly and naturally. You will have another opportunity the next time you visit him or her for your haircut.

Now, what key takeaway can we learn from the above article, “Orange Pilling Your Barber or Stylist: A Short Cut to Hyperbitcoinization”?

One of the major complaints about Hive even within the community itself is the complexity of understanding the technology side of it. How can we apply the “orange pill” approach? I am still struggling to answer this question. I think the three insights that the writer mentioned serve as a good start. If we really want to see the desired network effect of Hive as a Web 3 platform, we need to come up with a basic understanding of Hive that we can use as a strategy to introduce the network to the people we know. Our target is not only barbers and hairdressers but everyone especially those who have issues with the existing system.

And so, let us cover the three suggested starting point:

Be Strategic

What are the issues most people face? Being unbanked is one. Being excluded from the financial system is another. The rising cost of living is a reality that most of our friends struggle with. The failure of the political class to deliver their promises is a worn-out narrative that many have already given up.

In what way Hive can address these issues? In Hive, we have an inclusive system that regardless of gender, faith, color, and nationality anyone can join. In Hive, anyone thinking about his or her future can now address that challenge by sticking with a long-term mindset in building his or her Hive business. In Hive, one has the opportunity to earn and invest a minuscule quantity of tokens and so the lack of capital is not a valid excuse anymore. In Hive, one can take now concrete action to change his financial future.

What we see demonstrated in the Borehole project in Ghana, in the businesses in Cumaná, Venezuela, and even the initial efforts to introduce Hive in some schools and universities are concrete examples that Hive is not just mere talk but meeting real needs and addressing real issues.

Start with the Basics

Visiting hive.io for the first time, if you are not into technology, you will find yourself overwhelmed by excessive information. Let us not do this with the first-timers. Let us start with the basics. Let us introduce to them the platform that they can understand. In my case, I find somee.social the most appropriate platform to introduce to my wife for it appears like Facebook. The only difference is the monetization aspect. If our friends are into creating short videos, let us introduce 3Speak to them. The point is to introduce our friend or anyone we have regular acquaintance with to the front end that would make sense to them the most.

Do It Slowly

I need this reminder for this practical step is the most difficult for me to follow. Being an educator, I want to be comprehensive as possible in my approach to any particular field. The setback is I bring this tendency into my conversation. The result is that my listeners are overwhelmed by too much information due to my excitement. I think I need to learn how to tame my passion. I want to see a different outcome. I need to refrain from talking about the complicated aspect of Hive and focus instead on simple things that people can understand.

I think I need to come up with a list of benefits of choosing Hive and demonstrate to them how to do an online transaction. Hopefully, their response will change not only because they will see Hive as very promising, but they will also come to the conclusion that if I can do it, they can do it also.

As I said this is just an initial step. The goal for anyone who wants to see the realization of the network effect of Hive as a Web 3 alternative is to come up with a basic understanding of the platform that we can use as a strategy to introduce the network to the people we know.

That’s all I can say about taking the orange pill, the Hive way!

Grace and peace!

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