Hop Protocol (HOP)

Hop is a protocol for sending tokens across rollups and their shared layer-1 network in a quick and trustless manner. It is a multi-chain bridge connecting Ethereum to various scaling solutions like Arbitrum, Optimism, Polygon, and xDAI (13-10-2021).

Basics

• Started in / Announced on: 29-1-2021
• Based in:
• Mainnet release: says (23-3-2021) it will go live in April. Hoptimism went live (25-8-2021).
• From their whitepaper (29-1-2021):

"A protocol for sending tokens across rollups and their shared layer-1 network in a quick and trustless manner. Rollups have the potential to scale the Ethereum network, but each rollup creates a siloed environment for its applications. Moving assets between rollups and the layer-1 network is slow and expensive, diminishing the savings users gain by using the rollup. The Hop protocol allows assets to be moved directly from rollup to rollup, providing cost savings and enabling cross-rollup composability of applications."

Audits & Exploits

• Bug bounty program can be found [insert here].
• From their blog (23-3-2021): "The Hop contracts are currently being audited"

Technology

• Whitepaper can be found here 27-1-2021.
• Code can be viewed [insert here].
• Built on: Ethereum, xdai, Polygon and Arbitrum (29-3-2021).

How it works

• From Our Network (13-11-2021):

"Hop uses hTokens (hETH, hUSDC, etc.) which are essentially IOU's backed by collateral on L1 which can instantly be transferred between networks with the help of Hop Bonders. The AMM's are used to convert hTokens into canonical tokens like USDC or ETH in the final step of every transfer."

• Another thread that goes into the trust assumptions of Hop can be read here (28-2-2022), essentially claiming you do not have to trust the protocol. This due to that users could in theory make the swaps themselves with the code without interference (just not a smooth UI).

Interoperability

• From Yield Farmer (25-8-2021):

"Hop just unveiled the first “fast bridge” for moving funds between Ethereum and Optimism. Remember, a big previous concern about ORU L2s was that their withdrawal periods were going to take ~7 days. Notably, then, this new Hop resource lets users “transfer assets in and out of Optimism in minutes.”

Their Other Projects

DEX

• Hop cross-EVMchain AMM exchange to go live in April with xdai, Polygon and Arbitrum (29-3-2021).

• From Our Network (18-12-2021):

"Hop Exchange is a cross-L2 bridging protocol. The project uses “bonders” (essentially LPs) to front liquidity on a cross-chain AMM for trading fees; L2 canonical tokens are exchanged for Hop Bridge Tokens, which can be swapped for the underlying asset on L1 or a different L2 token. It supports Ethereum mainnet, Polygon, xDai, Optimism, and Arbitrum."

Roadmap

• Can be found [Insert link here].

Usage

• From Our Network (18-12-2021):

"Total Hop users recently grew to 35k+. The exchange saw ~$23m in volume over the past week and over $300m total since its launch in late June. Hop TVL is now tracking around $120m across multiple chains. Polygon and Optimism TVL are around $11.5m; Optimism’s TVL exploded over the past few months, along with Polygon whose TVL passed its previous ATH in October. xDai saw some traction as well with 7D volume jumping ~2x, but TVL still trails behind major L2s."

• From Our Network (13-11-2021):

"Hop passed the $100M in TVL milestone. Close to 70% of the funds are locked in Curve-like AMM pools which Hop deploys on each scaling solution it supports. The remainder is staked by “Bonders,” which are essentially market-makers underwriting transfers and fronting the liquidity at the destination chain when a user sends tokens between networks."

Team, Funding, Partners

Team

• Full team can be found [here].

Partners

• From EthHub (1-3-2022):

"Lyra partnered up with Hop Protocol"

(:

Knowledge empowers us all and will help us get closer to the decentralised world we all want to live in!

Making these free wiki pages is fun but takes a lot of effort and time.

If you have enjoyed reading, tips are appreciated :) This will help us to keep expanding this archive of information.

ETH tip address: 0x83460bE5F218b1520B69D702cE60A1DE37dD8E31

Also check out CoinTr.ee for more content.