As I was doing my rounds the other day — including checking my Hive-Engine wallet and holdings — I was rather sad to see that the once high flying Proof of Brain (POB) token had dropped to the neighborhood of $0.05. It's the first time I recall having seen that, at least that I am aware of... and even the first time I had seen it below ten cents.

I write this as a POB holder with over 2,400 tokens staked who's starting to "wonder,"... and also because we had some funds just become available (470-ish Hive) that would enable an additional purchase, making a nice overall stake.

But now I find myself wondering what's to stop this long slide down a hill that seems to have been happening for a very long time, now... back since POB briefly traded for more than $1.00.

What causes the wheels to fall off... and can you even put them back ON? Furthermore, have the wheels fallen off — as seems to be true for SO many projects — or are we merely looking at the typical oscillations of the cryptosphere?

What Is The PLAN?

Now, I'm no expert, but it seems the POB "tribe" was founded on this idea of issuing a similar number of tokens to Bitcoin, and a slow token growth like Bitcoin... and the only way you can get tokens is through curation/posting/engagement. There are no airdrops, no pre-mine, no "Ninja" mine, no "whales" starting with a disproportionately huge share, etc.

From where I am sitting, those are some fine and good principles, and that certainly sounds like a worthy experiment... at least on the surface.

But principles are not the same thing as a plan. They are just principles. And if you just have some principles but no executable and deliverable plan, where does that take you?

An Analogy, If You Please

It all feels a bit like someone building an amazing shopping mall, and all the spaces for stores will have high ceilings and excellent lighting, and they will all have equal access for shoppers... and the mall is located perfectly at the intersection of two busy highways and...

That's all great, but where are your tenants? Who are you trying to attract? How many leases have you signed? What are you doing to actually attract shoppers? What is the focus of your tenant mix? What is your development timeline? What's your marketing plan?

In other words, your "exceptional" mall doesn't amount to a hill of beans, absent an actual operating plan.

Similarly, building a token and attendant community isn't just a "one shot and we're done" thing.

In Contrast, LeoFinance...

LeoFinance was the first "tribe" (that I KNOW of) in the Hive Ecosystem that took off and actually had a token valued higher than Hive for a spell... just like POB once did.

Although the LEO token isn't where it once was, the big difference here is that with LeoFinance, there's a plan; there's a focus; there's ongoing development; there's ongoing communication; there are new products; there are announcements and updates... and it pretty much never stops.

From an investor perspective, it's very clear that there's a plan being executed. Even though the LEO token has come far off its highs, there are still "developments in the works" to indicate that there's future potential being unlocked and built.

Now we can argue till we're blue in the face over the "Centralized vs. Decentralized" issue, but that's not really my prime concern here.

JUST An "Experiment?"

On the other hand, if Proof of Brain is purely "an experiment," it's definitely doing a bang-up job of demonstrating how human greed ultimately seems able bring everything to its knees.

If you have spent much time around applied economics and marketing, it's pretty much a given that a market structure in which most people have a great reason to SELL (I want free money!) and nobody really has much of a reason to BUY (What's the potential for future appreciation?) tends to be a one-way ride to the basement.

Or, at least, a one-way ride to "Penny Stock Land" where a tiny handful of remaining die-hard "heavy hitters" try to implement short term market manipulations for personal gain... thereby having entirely defeated the whole purpose of equitable distribution that was set forth in the FIRST place!

But Bitcoin Doesn't Have a "PLAN!"

In the strictest interpretation, that may be true... to a degree.

But — to use another retail analogy — saying "We're just like Amazon, only better!" doesn't make you Amazon. It just makes you an underfunded copy trying to work against an almost insurmountable "First Mover Advantage."

If you brought Bitcoin to market today, I doubt very much would happen. People would look at it and decide there are 100 better projects out there. However, Bitcoin gets a "hall pass" for more or less inventing crypto. Copies don't.

Meaning, once again, "That's nice, but what's the PLAN?"

Maybe I Missed Something?

Of course, I'm entirely open to the possibility that I am missing some critical part of the picture.

I recognize that the seemingly "absentee founder" of POB may be playing a role here, too.

These are just some impressions I am sharing, and since there seems to be a fair amount of overlap between LEO holders and POB holders, I found myself curious as to whether any of the clever Lions of Leo might have some insight... even if that insight is "put your money into CUB, instead!"

Just trying not to be too impulsive here, just because it seems like POB tokens are "on sale."

Thanks for stopping by!

=^..^=

CuratorCat 24-NOV-2021

Posted Using LeoFinance ^Beta