Beginner's guide to utlizing the HIVE ecosystem alongside Splinterlands
Hello from Dinero Juegos!
This is going to be a quick overview of a few great resources you can utilize along your Splinterlands journey.
If you don't play, there are still some good resources related to the hive blockchain.
Term cheat sheet:
HIVE - Native currency of basically everything we're talking about here. The backbone of the ecosystem. No transaction fees!
HBD - Hive Dollar. A stablecoin that can be exchanged out, staked, earned and used for various things.
HP - Hive Power. Exchanged for HIVE at a 1:1 ratio via "powering up". Has many uses; generally speaking how much of this you hold is what determines how much you can do every day on the blockchain.
RC - Resource credits. Not a currency as but a measurement of how much available HP there is to use. More HP = More RC. The more RC, the more you can post, swap, upvote etc...
SPS - One of the primary currencies in Splinterlands. Currently being distributed through an airdrop. DEC - Dark Energy Crystal. A token earned from playing Splinterlands.
SPT - A token used for various engagement on Splintertalk.
SWAP.HIVE - An exchange token traded for HIVE at a 1:1 ratio. Primarily used for trading.
Splinterlands...
At the end of the day, there's 2 things you're going to be pulling out of your Splinterlands game.
That's DEC and SPS.
DEC earning is pretty straightforward, you'll be getting that from winning fights, selling or renting out cards, or from prizes. So very direct methods of earning.
SPS is much different. Generally speaking, you'll be getting all your SPS 2 ways. That's through airdrop points, and through staking. Much more passive earning than DEC.
I won't get into the specifics on how to optimize your DEC or SPS earnings within playing the game, as there are many guides on that and I'll likely make one specifically dedicated towards that later. This guide will be more centered around ways you can utilize your extra or spare DEC/SPS to it's full potential, as well as earn money elsewhere in the hive system.
Getting started with HIVE...
Whether you're aware of it or not, you already have a Hive wallet and account. If you haven't already, you can request your account keys so you can start utilizing everything and have that stored away safely. DO NOT share your private keys, master password etc...
Arguably the most useful and important of all of these will be the Hive Keychain Extension. This is a browser-based wallet extension, similar to Metamask but for Hive. On this, you can manage different tokens, view balances, transfer assets and more. You can also use this to sign into various websites much quicker, as well as interact with the in-game market without having to put in your master password or seed every time.
Once you have your keys and the hive keychain is installed, you're ready to start!
The meta market....
Peakmonsters.
You could make a whole guide on how to fully utilize this site. (Or really any of these sites) This is a must-have for any Splinterlands regular. Even if you're not always using it to rent, buy or sell - It is a quick, effective and accurate resource for what is considered a "good deal" at the time.
Not only can you see (and sort by) things such as Collection Power / DEC cost ratios, but also rent out bulk cards, renew rentals, buy/sell cards, and even use a recent auto-rental system. If you're going to stop anywhere on this post, stop here. Because Peakmonsters will save you time and money. Another benefit is renting there uses significantly less Hive Power than manually. I highly recommend utilizing this tool and looking around the website.
Making friends...
One cool thing that comes with the system that makes up HBD, HP and SPT is that community engagement is somewhat monetized. I say that meaning that you're able to earn tokens, primarily the 3 mentioned above, by using just a couple websites.
Keep in mind, you'll use some RC when posting, and you have limited upvoting and downvoting power. So if you plan on renting cards out that day, do that first to make sure you don't run out of RC!
With the Hive blockchain comes some cool benefits - a lot of these websites all use the same account, and earnings go to the same wallet. Since your Hive wallet is your keychain login, your splinterlands account, your deposit address etc... You are able to easily login and engage seamlessly with blog, news, community and topic-based websites.
The main one you'll want to look at is hive.blog. Every other reputable Hive-based blog that connects to your hive wallet will in oversimplified terms; be a different version of this site. On this, you can even find the community pages for Splinterlands, my page Dinero Juegos, exchanges like Tribaldex and more. So search around and find the topics you like. You can post under any community you've subscribed to.
If you get upvotes, that generally translates into some form of earnings, be that thru HP, SPT etc... To earn SPT and engage in strictly personal splinterlands blogging, you can visit splinterlands.io. It works about the same as hive.blog but you can also use SPT to promote posts, and a few other small differences. Being active here, making meaningful posts and reading official posts will earn you extra money in the long run as well as help you learn even more!
It's hard to go over every single method of earning with this method, and the rates depend on several factors. You could end up making more money blogging than playing the game in the end, or it could simply be a fun way to earn some change.
Now you're gaming, posting and saving.
But how do you trade some of these tokens, and are there other ways to earn with them aside from simply holding?
Of course!
Enter Hive-Engine, Tribaldex and beeswap. (Of course, there are other options too) All of these, more of less, work similar to any other decentralized exchange. The first one we'll look at is hive engine.
As you can see, the hive engine has a lot of great options for trading. Any SPS or DEC you transfer from Splinterlands into the Hive Engine will appear here. I personally use this one for almost all my trades on the hive blockchain. It has trading, not just swapping, so you can put in a custom price for something and let it sit there if desired. Do keep in mind it supports SWAP.HIVE and not the standard HIVE, there's really no difference between the 2, other than SWAP.HIVE cannot be converted directly to HP.
You can swap between the 2 for a very low fee on beeswap, which brings me to another one of the websites. I have not explored all the options of beeswap, however it has a very quick and handy page for switching out your HIVE and SWAP.HIVE. (https://beeswap.dcity.io/convert) Beeswap is yet another tool to manage and convert assets.
Now here come the bonus earnings: While Liquidity pools and staking have their own risks, they also have some great benefits such as getting a % annual return, LP rewards and more. In splintertalk.io, you can go to the wallet tab, and easily stake your SPT there, or "power up" similarly to with HIVE. This way your SPT savings can earn you more, as well as increase your power across the platform. The big tie-in comes with being able to invest beyond staking SPS. A beginner oversight is assuming that the only way to earn more from Splinterlands (aside from battles/quests) is by holding your DEC. For each DEC you hold, you get 1 airdrop point. For every 4 SPT you hold, you also get 1 point. So even holding SPT that you earn on Splintertalk will actually get you more SPS in the long run. What could you do with that DEC without losing airdrop points?
It's finally time for Tribaldex. Which offers several pools in which you can invest your Splinterlands and hive-based assets. Here are a few pools I use. So normally, you'd earn DEC, which you hold, and earn SPS with, and then you can stake that SPS and get a decent annual return. Here, you're able to do add this DEC to a liquidity pool, which ideally earns you more than you would just holding it anyways.
Another benefit is that you actually earn 2 airdrop points per DEC put in these pools. I can't speak for all pools, but I do know Tribaldex is an eligible one for airdrop points. (More info on the DEC pools here: https://leofinance.io/@luizeba/how-to-double-your-splinterlands-sps-airdrops-with-liquidity-pools)
So here it clicks together. You're earning a lot of DEC, and a decent amount of SPS; with a handful of HBD, HP, SPT and maybe others along the way. Rather than selling it all and just holding DEC, or limiting yourself to simply the game; you are able to broaden the ways you can invest, earn more and interact with this whole ecosystem in a beneficial way. Earnings can vary for everyone, but I can say you're certainly better off in more ways than one by engaging with more than just Splinterlands, or hive.blog, or any of these websites independently.
Takeaway...
Earnings can vary for everyone, but I can say you're probably better off in more ways than one by engaging with more than just Splinterlands, or hive.blog, or any of these websites independently.
The Hive keychain makes it very easy to interact with almost everything on the Hive blockchain.
Peakmonsters is extremely useful.
Engaging in hive.blog, splintertalk.io and similar sites does more than allow you to earn extra. You will also learn a lot along the way, and maybe even make some new friends! One of the great benefits of HIVE, and really crypto in general, is having options and resources. Utilization is key!
This is by all means an incomplete list. It's to help get you started with some good recommendations. These are simply sources I use and I recommend. Don't just limit yourself to playing the game, get out there and save yourself some time, make more money and engage in the very community that you put so much time into.
Feel free to check out my Splinterlands guild community page: https://hive.blog/created/hive-183741
Comment with your favorite sites or experiences!
Thank you for reading. I hope this helps someone! ~BananoFarmer
Note: While I personally have used and will likely continue to use the resources posted in here; please do your own research prior to using. In a space like this, the more you know the better!
Sources/Links:
https://beeswap.dcity.io/convert
This is really thorough and well thought out. I wish it existed when I first joined the community!
Thanks for reading! Glad you liked it, it took longer than expected and I was up way too late writing it haha. I hope to be able to keep upping the quality on my posts and getting more in depth on most of these later on.
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