RE: Splinterlands DHF Proposal

Having been on this blockchain for nearly 7 years, and playing Splinterlands for nearly 6 years, I have had interactions with many of you, and no doubt opinions of me cover the entire spectrum.

I think most would agree, at the very least, I am passionate about the things I believe in.

I found Steem/Hive in September 2017 and fell in love with the potential of this blockchain for businesses and games to build on. A love I still have, and to this day 98% of my crypto experiences involve HIVE.

When SteemMonsters/Splinterlands came along, I fell in love with the concept and the nostalgic MTG feel it had to me.

As the game started gaining traction, I thought the flood gates would open with other businesses and games coming to HIVE to build. Some did, but I still couldn't believe that there wasn't more.

Splinterlands continued to grow, and then caught a comet, and found itself bigger, shining brighter and at a speed that no one thought possible.

Almost overnight, a couple of tech savvy gamers with a cool gaming idea, @aggroed and @yabapmatt , went from running a small 5 person team working on a passion project to running a serious business with over a 100 person team.

The reality is that would be a tough situation for a seasoned CEO, with a business background, who has experience running medium to large companies to be able to manage all of the internal and external relationships, as well as maintaining a long-term vision in a successful way.

Of course there were going to be some big mistakes made. I am confident that @yabapmatt has learned a lot from that roller coaster and has been hard at work at bringing the game and the long-term vision in-line with a sustainable and successful approach.

There is no doubt that Splinterlands is one of the best ongoing advertisements for what the HIVE blockchain is capable of handling, in terms of users and actions, to other potential businesses and gaming companies looking to build.

Splinterlands has also onboarded tens of thousands of players and hundreds of thousands of accounts onto the blockchain over the years, and have even created a process for a new player to not have to even know anything about HIVE or blockchains to start playing, which is important for lowering the barrier of entry into the game (and blockchain) and improving the New Player Experience.

I do agree with what some people have said that Splinterlands players should also understand the importance of being a part of the HIVE ecosystem and powering up HIVE to help secure and support the chain. It is to this point why I have written this.

I think it would go a long way with garnering more support and traction for this proposal, and also show a planned, good-faith effort from Splinterlands, if @yabapmatt would earmark 5% to 10% of this proposals funds to be used for efforts to educate players and facilitate transitioning players' views to understanding the importance of also being a part of the decentralized HIVE community and ecosystem.

Thanks for your time and consideration,
Gank