At 7:00 p.m. on February 23, 2021, Jimmi, chief analyst of BlockArk, had a conversation with Dr. Sebastian Bürgel, the founder of HOPR protocol, in the Uniswap Chinese community on "HOPR protocol, the next generation privacy messaging protocol, how to protect metadata privacy and security" Theme AMA event, this live broadcast event is supported by BlockArk, ChainNews, Odaily, Block Beats, Encryption Pavilion media support, the content of live sharing is organized as follows:
Before the event begins, let me briefly introduce BlockArk. BlockArk is an investment bank and marketing agency in the encrypted asset industry. It manages ArkStream Capital, a primary and secondary fund focused on cryptocurrency. BlockArk integrates investment, branding, market growth, and strategic consulting, and is committed to promoting the growth of Web3.0 unicorns.
Before the event begins, let me briefly introduce BlockArk. BlockArk is an investment bank and marketing agency in the encrypted asset industry. It manages ArkStream Capital, a primary and secondary fund focused on cryptocurrency. BlockArk integrates investment, branding, market growth, and strategic consulting, and is committed to promoting the growth of Web3.0 unicorns.
The theme of today's AMA is "How the Next Generation Privacy Messaging Protocol HOPR Protocol Escorts the Privacy and Security of Metadata", and the guest is Dr. Sebastian, the founder of HOPR.
Today's AMA event is divided into two stages. The first stage is the theme question and answer. I will ask 10 prepared questions in the form of one question and one answer. After 10 questions, it will enter the second stage, free question and answer. Group friends can freely ask guests questions, and guests are free to choose 4-5 questions to answer. The small partners who are selected will share 50U worth of HOPR token rewards together.
Hi Dr. Sebastian, can you briefly introduce your team and project before we start?
Hello Dr. Sebastian, can you briefly introduce your team and project before starting?
Sebastian：Hi thanks for having me here, we're a team of 14 people based in Switzerland working on the privacy project HOPR.
Hi, thank you for having me here, we are a team of 14 based in Switzerland working on the privacy project HOPR.
Jimmi：Thanks to Dr. Sebastian’s introduction, Let's start!
Thanks to Dr. Sebastian for the introduction, our AMA question session has officially started!
Jimmi：The first question! Please briefly describe the HOPR protocol. For example, what can HOPR do? What is metadata? What is the significance of metadata privacy protection? What is the background to HOPR’s founding?
The first question, please briefly describe what HOPR Protocol is, and under what background was it born? what can it do metadata what? What is the significance of metadata privacy protection?
Sebastian：The HOPR protocol allows users to run nodes which form a peer-to-peer privacy network. Data can be sent through the network without exposing the metadata — information like who sent and received the data, when it was sent, and how much and what kind of data was involved. This is vital, because metadata can be used by malicious actors in all kinds of attacks, from hacks to unwanted user profiling.
HOPR is a protocol that allows users to run peer-to-peer private network nodes, which can send data over the network without exposing metadata. Metadata can be described as the object that sends and receives data, the time when data is sent, the amount of data sent, the address where data is sent, and so on. Protecting metadata is critical because metadata can be used by malicious actors in various cyberattacks, such as hacking or user profile attacks.
HOPR was founded in Switzerland in Spring 2020, we attracted Binance as lead investor in our seed round after having been granted a Binance Fellowship already in 2019.
In the spring of 2020, HOPR was established in Switzerland. In 2019, it received a scholarship from Binance, and Binance was also the main investor in the seed round of HOPR.
Jimmi：Very nice answer, Metadata is data used to describe data, most user have been ignoring its value, so their privacy has been leaked, so it makes huge sense to protect metadata privacy .
Great answer, so metadata is the data used to describe data, but most users ignore its value, which leads to the leakage of their own private information. So HOPR is very meaningful in protecting the privacy of metadata.
Jimmi：Next question.Please briefly describe the technical architecture of the HOPR, including the messaging and payment layers. Compared with privacy chat apps such as Telegram and Signal, what does the protocol layer solve?
The second question, please briefly explain the technical architecture of HOPR Protocol, what functions do the message layer and payment layer perform? Compared with the privacy chat apps we are familiar with such as Telegram and Signal, what problems does the protocol layer solve?
Sebastian：The messaging layer handles data transmission throughout the HOPR network. Data packets “hop” through the network, being mixed at each stage. The HOPR proof-of-relay mechanism ensures that data reaches its destination without anyone knowing the identity of the sender and receiver or the full route the data took.
The messaging layer is responsible for handling data transmission throughout the HOPR network. Packets "hop" through the network to mix at each messaging stage, and HOPR's proof-of-relay mechanism ensures that data reaches its destination without anyone else knowing the identity of the sender and receiver or the full path the data took.
Node runners are rewarded in HOPR tokens for relaying data. This is handled by the payment layer. The payment and messaging layers are deliberately kept separate to ensure that payments can’t be linked to individual messages. This is a common way that metadata is leaked via blockchains, and by severing this link we ensure that HOPR can provide privacy without being a privacy token.
Users passing data through running nodes will be rewarded with HOPR tokens, which are handled by the payment layer. The intentional separation of the payment layer and the messaging layer is to ensure that payments are not linked to a single piece of information, as this is a common way for metadata to leak through the blockchain. By distinguishing between the messaging layer and the payment layer, we allow HOPR to provide privacy without being a privacy coin.
Telegram and Signal focus on end-to-end encryption, which is an important part of data privacy, but does little to protect metadata. Metadata exposes your privacy, even if the content of your message is protected.
Telegram and Signal
Telegram and Signal focus on end-to-end encryption, which is an important part of data privacy protection, but does little to protect metadata. For example, even if the user's email content is protected when using email, metadata will expose the user's privacy, such as sending time, address, content size, etc.
HOPR isn’t just limited to chat. The messaging layers can handle any kind of data, not just what we’d normally consider “messages” in everyday usage.
The messaging layer can handle any type of data, not just the "messages" that we usually use on a day-to-day basis.
Jimmi：Good answer, The third question is what is the difference between the HOPR protocol and other privacy messaging protocols? Does it only provide privacy for metadata?
Great answer, how is HOPR different from other private messaging protocols? Is it privacy protection only for metadata?
Sebastian：There are several privacy-preserving messaging protocols but they usually focus on some specific layer or application. For example, Matrix is a fantastic protocol that is used in many real-time communication networks. But with HOPR we are providing a foundation on top of which other protocols can operate with network-level privacy. In this way HOPR is complementary to a lot of protocols like Matrix but HOPR also provides network-level privacy for blockchain application for truly private transactions — on-chain and off-chain, that’s why we call it a layer 0 protocol.
There are many privacy messaging protocols that usually focus on some specific layer or application. For example, Matrix is a great protocol that is used in many real-time communication networks. However, HOPR could provide the foundation for other protocols to operate with network-level privacy. In this way, HOPR can create many protocols similar to Matrix, and HOPR also provides network-level privacy for blockchain applications, providing real on-chain or off-chain private transactions, which is why we call HOPR a layer 0 protocol.
Jimmi：We believe the HOPR protocol will be integrated into many DApps and DeFi products in the future as the protocol layer for data privacy transmission. Next question, How will these DApps interact with the HOPR protocol?
We believe that HOPR Protocol, the protocol layer for data privacy transmission, will be integrated into many DApps and DeFi products in the future. The next question is how these DApps will cooperate with HOPR Protocol in the future?
Sebastian：I hope to see integration into Ethereum (and other chains’) wallets, nodes and hosted services. In that way your wallet would send transactions through HOPR to an Ethereum full node or a service provider like Infura or Alchemy without giving them access to information that they should not have in the first place. In a privacy-respecting DeFi world, nobody should know your IP address and know that you, e.g., just sent money to a DEX.
I want to integrate with wallets, nodes and escrow services on Ethereum and other public chains. In this way, the user's wallet will be able to send transactions to full nodes on Ethereum or node service providers such as Infura and Alchemy through HOPR, and will not give them permission to access user information that they should not have. In the privacy-respecting DeFi world, no one will know the user's IP address, for example, no one will know that a user sent digital assets to a certain exchange on a certain day.
Jimmi：Thanks for your clear answer! HOPR received grant support from the Web 3 Foundation in 2019, and gained a lot of attention in the Polkadot ecosystem. On the other hand, you definitely hope that more developers can join you and build a product based on the HOPR protocol. Will it help the developer community and the non-developer community? Do you have plans to cooperate with more developers or the Polkadot project? What are your plans for the next parachain slot auction?
Thanks for the clear explanation! At the community level, we saw that HOPR received Grant support from the Web 3 Foundation in 2019 and gained a lot of attention in the Polkadot ecological community. On the other hand, you definitely hope that more developers can join you and build products based on the HOPR protocol. Do you have plans to cooperate with more developers or the Polkadot project? What are your plans for the next parachain slot auction?
Sebastian：HOPR did receive a grant to build a payment layer implementation of HOPR for the Polkadot ecosystem in Substrate. We appreciate the efforts of Polkadot and are actively exploring more scalable chains than mainnet Ethereum. That’s why we also ran testnets on other side chains such as xDAI, Matic, Binance Smart Chain and Ropsten.
HOPR did receive a grant from the Web 3.0 Grant, and built the Polkadot ecosystem's payment layer of HOPR based on Substrate. We appreciate the efforts of Polkadot, and we are actively exploring other scalable networks besides the Ethereum mainnet. This is why we are also running testnets on other sidechains such as xDAI, Matic, Binance Smart Chain, and Ropsten.
We plan to support the developer community with APIs, SDKs and developer documentation and tooling and are also looking forward to the first apps that are useful to non-developers.
We plan to support the developer community with APIs, SDKs, developer documentation and tools, and will also launch the first applications that will be useful to non-developers.
Our initial launch will be on Ethereum and maybe other EVM chains first before we explore other chains like Polkadot and therefore we will not participate in the next parachain slot auction.
Our initial launch will be on Ethereum and other EVM chains before exploring other chains like Polkadot, so we will not be participating in the next parachain slot auction.
Jimmi：Very nice answer, the next question is how can users participate in the HOPR ecosystem? What are the benefits for HOPR token holders, and how can they get more tokens?
The explanation is very good. The next question is how can users participate in the HOPR ecosystem? How can token holders earn more?
Sebastian：Users can participate in the HOPR network by running a HOPR node. It’s easy to run a node on almost any device, and we also have a plug-and-play hardware node available. Users can stake HOPR tokens to receive more HOPR tokens as a reward for relaying data.
Users can participate in the HOPR network by running a HOPR node. Users can run nodes on any device, and we also provide plug-and-play hardware nodes. Users can receive more HOPR tokens as a reward for transferring data by staking HOPR tokens.
Once the HOPR protocol is feature complete, the development team will switch to working on an API which will allow people to build dApps on top of HOPR.
Once the functionality of the HOPR protocol is complete, the development team will move on to an API that enables users to build Dapps on top of HOPR.
Jimmi：Good answer, Next question is related to HOPR token. Does the HOPR token have any functions besides being used for node rewards? For example, is HOPR also a governance token? How will the HOPR token sustain its value in the long run?
The answer is very clear. The next question is about the token economy. Besides being used for node rewards, is the token HOPR also a governance token? Does it have any other functions? What is the logic of the long-term price increase of HOPR?
Sebastian：The HOPR token has three main uses: Users can pay with HOPR tokens to send data through the HOPR network privately and securely.
The HOPR token has three main uses: Users can pay with the HOPR token to send data privately and securely through the HOPR network.
Node runners can stake HOPR tokens in their nodes to be rewarded for relaying data. Node runners receive fees in HOPR for the data they help to relay, including a large number of tokens distributed in the form of cover traffic - arbitrary data which helps boost metadata privacy for everyone in the network by obscuring usage levels.
Node operators can stake HOPR tokens in nodes to get rewards for transferring data. Node operators help transfer large amounts of data in the form of masked traffic, masking usage levels, thereby increasing metadata privacy for everyone on the network.
Finally, the HOPR token gives users voting power in the HOPR Association DAO, launching at the end of 2021.
Finally, the HOPR token will give community members voting rights in the HOPR DAO, which will launch in late 2021.
As metadata privacy becomes increasingly important, the demand for technology like HOPR is only going to increase. Billions of gigabytes of data are sent every hour, and this figure is only going to grow. This represents an enormous market for HOPR in the medium and long term.
As metadata privacy becomes more important, the need for technologies like HOPR will only increase. Billions of gigabytes of data are currently being sent every hour, and this number will only continue to grow. In the medium and long term, HOPR still has a huge market.
Jimmi：Very nice answer, we also believe the point that metadata privacy will become more important than ever before. Next is the eighth question: According to the roadmap, the HOPR DAO will be launched in the second quarter of this year. Can you explain HOPR’s plan for transitioning to DAO governance? What authority does the current HOPR Genesis DAO hold?
Great answer, and we also believe that metadata privacy will become more and more important in the future. Next is the eighth question. I saw on the Roadmap that HOPR DAO will be released in the second quarter of this year. Can you explain the DAO governance plan of HOPR Protocol for us in detail? What is the scope of governance authority of the current HOPR Genesis DAO?
Sebastian：The HOPR Genesis DAO was given full control over the distribution of the 85m tokens in the public allocation fund. This was the sole function of the Genesis DAO, and it performed it admirably. It’s currently uncertain whether the Genesis DAO will be called upon to make new decisions.
HOPR Genesis DAO has full control over the distribution of 85 million tokens in the public sale process. This is currently the only function of Genesis DAO. It is currently uncertain whether the Genesis DAO will make a new decision.
The full HOPR Association DAO will be launching later in the year, in time for our first mandated annual general meeting. This will be a full-blown DAO with tokenized voting for all HOPR token holders. Unlike other projects where token holders are limited to technical decisions like adjusting parameters, we plan to tokenize almost every aspect of HOPR governance. For example, token holders will be able to vote on the constitution of the HOPR board.
The full HOPR DAO will be launched in the second half of this year, when our first annual community member meeting will also be held. This will be a full-fledged DAO with tokenized voting for all HOPR token holders. Unlike other projects where token holders are limited to technical decisions such as tweaking parameters of governance, we plan to tokenize nearly every aspect of HOPR governance. For example, token holders will be able to vote on the composition of the HOPR committee.
Jimmi：The next question is the one of which investors are most concerned about, We noticed that the HOPR Genesis DAO voted to hold a public token distribution starting on February 21st. The entire process is divided into three stages. Can you tell us more about them?
Next is one of the most concerned issues for investors. I noticed that according to the HOPR Genesis DAO voting, the token public offering plan will start on the 21st of this month. The entire public offering process is divided into 3 stages. Can you explain this in detail? three stages? What are the benefits of this arrangement?
Sebastian：Certainly. The three phases of the HOPR public launch are designed to balance rewarding our loyal community, finding a price for the HOPR token and establishing long-term liquidity.
certainly! The purpose of the three-stage HOPR public offering is to reward our early community members, and also to establish price discovery and provide long-term liquidity for the HOPR token.
In Phase 1, Genesis DAO members were able to buy an equal share of 50 million HOPR tokens (16,000 each).
In Phase 1, Genesis DAO members will be able to purchase 50 million HOPR tokens equally (16,000 per address).
In Phase 2, 30 million HOPR tokens will be placed in a Balancer Liquidity Bootstrapping Pool, balanced against the capital raised in Phase 1. This is the first time the HOPR token will be publicly available and will serve as a price-finding exercise. Phase 2 runs from February 24th to February 27th.
In Phase 2, 30 million HOPR tokens will be placed in the Balancer liquidity pool, in balance with the funds raised in Phase 1. This is the first public offering of HOPR tokens, and it is also a price discovery for HOPR tokens. The second phase lasts from February 24th to February 27th.
Finally, in Phase 3 the DAI and HOPR in the LBP at the end of Phase 2 will be transferred to a Uniswap pool, along with 5 million HOPR tokens provided as liquidity mining incentives.
Finally, in Phase 3, LBP’s DAI and HOPR will be transferred to the Uniswap pool at the end of Phase 2, while 5 million HOPR tokens will be provided as rewards for liquidity mining.
Jimmi：Very clear answer. Next is the final question of stage one. The most recent HOPR testnet, Titlis, was launched on January 19th, the first time the messaging and payment layers were tested simultaneously. Can you briefly describe the performance of the testnet? Did it meet your expectations?
The answer is very clear. Next is the last question. I learned from your medium that Titlis, the last testnet before the HOPR Protocol mainnet launch, was launched on January 19th, and both the message layer and the payment layer were running at the same time. , It has been running for a whole month so far, can you briefly talk about the performance of the data obtained from the test network? Did it meet your expectations?
Sebastian：Our testnets have all been a great success, and Titlis was no exception. We had over 1,000 participants and were able to conduct some great load testing on the network, including seeing how certain features like automatic route finding and channel opening behave at scale, something which we’re unable to do internally.
Our testnets have all been hugely successful, and Titlis is no exception. We have over 1,000 participants and are doing some great load testing on the network, running certain features like automatic route lookup and channel opening at scale that our in-house team alone couldn't do.
The dev team have used this data to finalise our HOPR Jungfrau release, which is due to go live before the end of the month.
The development team will use this data to finalize our HOPR Jungfrau version, which will be released by the end of this month.
Jimmi：Thanks to the Dr.Sebastian for his wonderful sharing. Our first stage of the theme Q&A comes to an end, and then we enter the free Q&A stage. Group friends can freely ask questions to guests, and guests are free to choose 4-5 questions to answer. The small partners who are selected for the question will share a reward of 50U worth of HOPR tokens. Then our freedom issue now begins.
Thanks to Dr. Sebastian for his wonderful sharing, our first phase of Q&A has come to an end, and then we will enter the free Q&A phase. Group friends can freely ask guests questions, and guests are free to choose 4-5 questions to answer. The small partners who are selected will share 50U worth of HOPR token rewards together. Then our free question session begins now:
【Free question and answer session】
Q: Is the principle of metadata privacy protection the same as that of tonardo? Can anonymous transactions be realized by HOPR?
Is the principle of metadata privacy the same as that of tonardo, and can anonymous transactions be realized?
Sebastian：There are several on-chain privacy projects such as Tornado Cash, Zcash and many others. So far, they are all lacking a network-level privacy solution for full-stack privacy. Privacy is only really meaningful if it is seen holistically and thus HOPR is complementary to all these on-chain solutions and in an ideal world you would broadcast your Tornado tranasactions through HOPR.
There are several on-chain privacy projects such as Tornado Cash, Zcash, and others. So far, they all lack a network-level privacy solution for a full-stack. On the whole, complete privacy is really meaningful, so HOPR is a complement to all these on-chain solutions, and ideally, users should pass Tornado transactions through HOPR.
Q: When and how does hopr node mining run? Will the members of Genesis Dao become nodes?
When and how will the mining of the HOPR node be run, and will the members of Genesis Dao become nodes?
Sebastian：HOPR node runners will not actually run a miner but a relayer - they are relaying traffic on the HOPR network and are rewarded for that in HOPR tokens. The HOPR network will launch next week after token distribution finished. But cover traffic incentives (similar to staking rewards) will only be active in 2-3 months so that we can have a smooth soft-launch of the protocol.
Anyone who has HOPR tokens is encouraged to run a HOPR node.
HOPR node runners don't actually run mining but relayers - they route traffic on the HOPR network and are rewarded in HOPR tokens for doing so. After the token distribution is complete, the HOPR network will launch next week. But the incentives (similar to staking rewards) will go into effect in 2-3 months so that we can have a smooth soft launch of the protocol. We encourage everyone with HOPR tokens to run a HOPR node.
Q: Because your tilt test network has the most comprehensive data and the longest test time, using the BSC network, will it be integrated into the BSC public chain first?
Because your tilt test network has the most comprehensive data and the longest test time, it uses the BSC network, so will it be integrated into the BSC public chain first?
Sebastian：After HOPR has crashed the Binance Smart Chain endpoint we will not launch on BSC but will actually work on the xDAI chain for launch. But mid term we hope that the gas fees on Ethereum will go back to much lower levels (for example with Layer 2 solutions such as Optimism) and we will be able to run HOPR on main net Ethereum.
After HOPR crashes the Binance Smart Chain endpoint, we will not be launching on BSC, we will actually be launching on the xDAI chain. But in the medium term, we hope that gas fees on Ethereum will go back to lower levels (e.g. with layer 2 solutions like Optimism), and we hope to be able to run HOPR on main Ethereum.
Q: How is the initial ratio of LBP determined? Is it the first phase of the fundraising xDAI and 30 million HOPR?
How is the initial ratio of LBP determined? Is it using the first stage of fundraising xDAI and 30 million HOPR?
Sebastian：The initial price on LBP is determined by the LBP mechanism: All xDAI raised in the public presale is converted into DAI and then together with all available HOPR token (30'000'000) the starting price is determined by the maximal weights (96:4) which leads to a starting price of $1.9 on LBP. However, it is important to understand that the starting price has no meaning for an actual market price. We do not recommend anyone to buy the starting price. Wait for LBP price to get lower and if nobody buys then the price should be at reasonable levels within 12-24 hours after start. That is the way how a price finding starts and that is why we think Balancer LBP is the best way to launch a token in early 2021 (year of the `0x` :)
The initial price of LBP is determined by the LBP mechanism: all xDAI raised in the public pre-sale will be converted into DAI, and then together with all available HOPR tokens (30'000'000) the starting price is determined by the maximum weight (96: 4) This results in a starting price of $1.9 for LBP. However, it is important to understand that the starting price has no meaning for the actual market price. We do not recommend anyone to buy starting. Wait for the LBP price to drop, if no one buys then the price should be at a reasonable level within 12-24 hours of starting. This is how the price is discovered, which is why we think Balancer LBP is the best way to issue tokens in early 2021 (`0x year: ).
Q: Do I still have a chance to become a member of genesis Dao?
Is there still a chance to become a member of genesis Dao now?
Sebastian：Unfortunately you cannot become a member of the Genesis DAO anymore. The Genesis DAO is available to eveyone who participated in the HOPR testnets - a total amount of 3344 people, over 90% of them participated in the this presale, so this was a huge success that we really did not expect and we are looking forward to the next phase of the HOPR token launch on Balancer LBP that is open to everybody.
Unfortunately you can no longer be a member of Genesis. GenesisDAO is available to everyone who participates in the HOPR testnet - a total of 3344 people, more than 90% of them participated in this pre-sale, so this is a huge success, we really did not expect it, and we look forward to the next Phase HOPR token launch LBP is open to everyone.
Sebastian：Thank you for hosting us here, we're looking forward to see you all on LBP & Uniswap very soon :-)
Thanks for hosting us here, we look forward to seeing you soon at LBP & Uniswap :-)
Jimmi：Great, the AMA is over today，thanks to Dr.Sebastian's sharing.
Ok, today’s AMA is over here. Thanks again for Dr. Sebastianfor’s wonderful sharing. The extra winners can privately chat with the registration information of sumi@BlockArk Assistant. Thank you for your active participation!
You can also pay attention to HOPR's official website and community for more information
HOPR official website:hoprnet.org
HOPR Community Telegram:http://t.me/hoprnet
HOPR WeChat public account: HOPR
