Dan Larimer started BitShares in 2014. It was the first to use a Delegated Proof of Stake (DPOS) consensus protocol (which Hive currently uses). Then, Dan Larimer created the Steem blockchain.

Hive was previously known as the Steem blockchain. The most common interface with the Steem blockchain was Steemit.com, founded by Dan Larimer and Ned Scott. The Steem blockchain began with its block 1 on March 24, 2016. The first post came about a week later.

On March 20, 2020, a fork of the Steem chain was created. The fork was called “Hive.” This was the result of a takeover attempt by Justin Sun, the founder of Tron. Many on Steem then viewed the takeover as going against the ethos of decentralization. Thus, the new Hive chain was forked. See the “Sources” below for details.

Since many (likely most) of the former Steem users moved over to Hive, Hive users consider the “Steem days” to really be the same chain. That is, Hive is viewed by many as having been started in 2017, not at the fork of March of 2020.

• Decrypto.co article explaining why and how the fork drama took place: https://decrypt.co/38050/steem-steemit-tron-justin-sun-cryptocurrency-war
• An animation explaining how Hive began: https://hive.blog/hive-181335/@crrdlx/pkygxpzl
• Wikipedia article on Steemit: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steemit
• Hive history back to Steem days: https://peakd.com/hivebuzz/@hivebuzz/birthday-7