what is hive?

What is Hive? Own what you make online.

Hive, also called the Hive network or Hive chain, is a free, open place where the things you post, the communities you build, and the money you earn stay yours, not a platform’s.

Create a free account Visit hive.io

Not to be confused with HIVE Digital Technologies (the bitcoin-mining company), Hive.com (the project-management app), or other things called Hive.

What Hive actually is

Hive is a place online for posting, chatting, building, and getting paid that isn’t owned or controlled by a single company. No one can delete your account, take a cut you didn’t agree to, or change the rules on you overnight. It has been running since March 2020.

A typical online platform compared with Hive
Typical platform Hive
Who controls your account? The company You do
Can it be shut down? Any time, for any reason No one has that power
Who sets the rules? The company The people who use it, by vote
Sending money Fees and waiting Free, in about three seconds

Communities & blogging

Write, post, and build a community that’s actually yours

People use Hive the way they’d use any social platform: they write posts, share photos and videos, comment, and gather in communities around shared interests, from photography and cooking to travel, music, and gaming.

The difference is who’s in charge. There’s no company-owned algorithm deciding who gets seen or paid. When readers upvote your posts, you earn rewards, and tips from readers arrive straight in your own account.

You use Hive through apps like PeakD and Ecency, which look and feel like a blog or a social feed. Because they all read from the same shared network, your account, your followers, and everything you’ve posted come with you from one app to the next.

Worth knowing: an app can choose not to show something on its own site, but it can’t delete your account or your posts from Hive itself. That permanence cuts both ways: what you publish stays public, so post as if it’s forever.

Payments & sending value

Send money like a text message

On Hive, you can send money to anyone, anywhere in the world, and it arrives in about three seconds. There’s no bank in the middle, no waiting for business days, and no fee taken off the top.

  • Tip a creator whose post you enjoyed, even if it’s just a few cents.
  • Pay someone across the world without a transfer service or currency paperwork.
  • Move your own money whenever you like, without asking anyone’s permission.

You can send HIVE, Hive’s own currency, or Hive Dollars, which are designed to stay worth about one US dollar. Moving money between Hive and a regular bank account usually goes through a cryptocurrency exchange.

More of what people build on Hive

Savings

Keep Hive Dollars in a savings balance that earns interest. The community votes on the rate, and withdrawals take three days, which gives you time to react if someone ever gets into your account.

Gaming

In games like Splinterlands, the cards and items you earn are really yours: you can keep them, sell them, or trade them with other players.

Nobody’s in charge

No company or CEO runs Hive. The people who use it vote on who keeps it running and how its shared development fund is spent. Under the hood it’s a blockchain (the FAQ explains what that means), but you don’t need to know that to use it.

HIVE price right now

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Data from CoinGecko. Prices move a lot; this isn’t financial advice.

Frequently asked questions

Is it Hive, the Hive blockchain, the Hive network, or the Hive chain?

They all mean the same thing. Hive is the short name, and the Hive blockchain, the Hive network, and the Hive chain are longer ways people describe the same public network, and this page uses them interchangeably.

What is Hive, technically?

Hive, also called the Hive blockchain or Hive chain, is a public blockchain: a shared record of accounts, posts, and payments kept in sync by many independent computers instead of one company’s servers. It launched in March 2020 and has two currencies, HIVE and the Hive Backed Dollar (HBD), which is designed to stay worth about one US dollar. Transactions confirm in about three seconds with no fees, and the network is run by block producers called witnesses, who are elected by people who hold HIVE.

Is Hive the same as Hive.com or HIVE Digital Technologies?

No. Hive.com is a project-management app, and HIVE Digital Technologies is a bitcoin-mining and data-centre company whose shares trade under the ticker HIVE; neither is connected to the Hive network, and buying HIVE Digital shares is not buying the HIVE currency. Hive Social, the Hive smart-home brand, Apache Hive, Hive AI, and Hive OS are unrelated too; they just share the name.

Is Hive a scam?

No. Hive is open-source software that has run in public since March 2020; anyone can read its code and check every transaction, and it was never sold to investors in a fundraising sale. That doesn’t make HIVE a safe investment, because its price swings a lot, and scammers do target Hive users, so never enter your Hive keys on a site you don’t trust.

How do I actually get started?

Create a free account with Ecency using an email address, or with InLeo using a Google or X account; signup.hive.io lists every option. You’ll be given a set of keys: save them somewhere safe, because there is no “forgot password” button. Then log in to an app like Ecency or PeakD and write a short post introducing yourself.

How is this different from a bank or a normal social media platform?

A bank or a social platform holds your account for you, which means it can also freeze, restrict, or close it. On Hive, your account is controlled only by keys you hold, so no one can shut it down or move your money. The flip side is that no one can reset your password or reverse a payment you sent by mistake.

What happened between Hive and Steem?

Hive began as a copy of an older network called Steem. In early 2020, after the company Steemit Inc. was bought by Tron founder Justin Sun, customer funds held on exchanges were used to vote in new operators for the network; much of the community objected and launched Hive in March 2020, carrying over existing accounts, posts, and balances (except those of Steemit Inc. and accounts that backed the takeover). The two networks have run separately ever since.

Other things called Hive

Lots of unrelated products share the name. None of these are connected to the Hive network this page explains.

HIVE Digital Technologies
A Canadian company listed on the Nasdaq under the ticker HIVE that mines bitcoin and runs data centres. It was called HIVE Blockchain Technologies until 2023. Its shares are not the HIVE currency.
Hive.com
Project-management and team collaboration software.
Hive Social
A social media app that drew attention in 2022 as an alternative to Twitter.
Hive (smart home)
A UK brand of smart thermostats and home energy products, owned by Centrica, the parent company of British Gas.
Apache Hive
Open-source data-warehouse software for analysing large data sets.
Hive AI
An AI company whose tools detect harmful content and deepfakes.
Hive OS (Hiveon)
Software for running cryptocurrency mining machines.