the Independent Decentralised SUBSTACK ... powered by HIVE

Some in our HIVE community like to think HIVE can be, or shall become, a kinda Reddit.

For a few months, I have been a subscriber to Substack. Pulled in by a podcast duo I've been following for some years already. Two guys I respect for different reasons. Two guys who are serial entrepreneurs. Two guys who try to do things differently. Two guys who want to change the world. Two guys who are on the cutting edge of technology. Two guys who focus on bringing all their knowledge to the general public through, amongst others, Podcasts, TV show appearances, lectures and their Substack channels. Two guys who give a platform to authors through their book publishing company.

The One ¹ is a technology enthusiast, an accessible communicator. He co-founded several businesses in the past, including a Spotify for magazines - Blendle - and a platform to bring science to the general public - University of the Netherlands.

The Other ² is a thoughtful, purposeful and curious thinker with a strong focus on conscious life choices. He was the co-founder of the best digital newspaper my country has, De Correspondent; An advertisement free, independent digital newspaper.

I just finished listening to their last weeks (podcast) in which these guys gave a fantastic idea for HIVE. Nope, not that they are thinking of HIVE. That's yours truly.

That is what both said. We - the world minus the US - need to become more independent from the US. Therefor we shall not promote a US homegrown service; we shall advocate for a 'clone' of said service under European law.

Whatever they said, I say:

Though Substack is around for kinda like 8 years or so, it is gaining traction, not only in my country (the Netherlands), but worldwide.

In the last few months, I have noticed an influx of new Substack channels launched, not only by Dutch TV show hosts and journalists (newspaper/magazines), but also by writers, technologists, opinion makers and many more. Last week, an ex-daily TV show host who was immensely popular for 15 years, launched his own Substack channel. Every single weekday, he posts a top 3 to 5 list. Topics can be anything. Thus far, 8 lists have been posted in the categories of lifestyle, family, comedy, music, poems, and events with his own mother. All brought with a touch of humour.

Anyway: It isn't about this Dutch ex-TV show host, nor about The One and the Other.

It is about the idea of launching a similar service to Substack using the HIVE blockchain as the backend, the database. The more independent from the US it can't get. The more independent from any nation it can't get.

Usually, I go deep into the service, the possibilities, the features, the business case and whatnot, before I openly talk about it. But this time, I simply follow my gut feeling, triggered by these two guys I respect so much.

I am not an expert Substack user, hence I can't just push out all the features it has. But the core of Substack is a platform with a subscription model, facilitating newsletters, both unpaid and paid ones. It has email and other notification types. It has a bunch of social media features such as like, follow, re-stack, share. I suppose, we have much - if not all - the features. We just need a frontend - in various formats - to create such a service.

Call it something like:

more serious

Ah, well, I'm not the marketing guy who can come up with flashy names. Am sure we have people in our community being mucho better with this.

Obviously, I checked Substack's main website. To get a bit of a flavour what Substack is, the...

• ...about page: https://substack.com/about

...and six articles...

• Newsweek
• New York Magazine
• The New York Times
• CNBC
• Vogue Business
• The Guardian