HOPR (HOPR)

Basics

• Based in: Switzerland
• Started in / Announced on: 2018
• Final Testnet release: 14-1-2021
• Mainnet release:

• From ICOdrops (22-6-2021):

"The HOPR protocol provides network-level and metadata privacy for every type of data exchange, while introducing the first-ever open incentivized mixnet, where users earn tokens for running nodes."

History

• From Messari (22-6-2021):

"While working as technical solution providers in the blockchain ecosystem since 2016, the HOPR founding team encountered the lack of a go-to solution for metadata private point-to-point data exchange solutions. The HOPR team aims to create a point-to-point messaging protocol that enables greater functionality than existing broadcasting solutions such as Ethereum's Whisper network.

Thus the HOPR team decided in 2018 to develop an incentivized mixnet infrastructure to improve on the privacy and economic incentives of existing of VPNs and privacy communication protocols like Tor. The first public demo of the network layer was presented at EthCC in early 2019 and subsequently followed with HOPR joining the Binance Fellowship program. Additionally, HOPR was initially funded using grants received from the Gitcoins second CLR round. In early 2020, HOPR was established as a Swiss-based association and closed a funding round led by Binance Labs."

Token

Launch

• From ICOdrops (22-6-2021):

"Pre-sale (Feb 21st-23rd): Goal: 500,000xDAI, Max Personal Cap: $800, Price: 0.05xDAI, DAO participants only

Balancer LBP (Feb 24th-27th): 30m HOPR for sale, Price: 0.3DAI"

Token Allocation

• From their blog (13-1-2021):

"HOPR has a total supply of 1 billion tokens, broken down into the following categories:

1. Treasury 25.5%
2. Cover Traffic 25%
3. Team & Advisors 18.5%
4. Pre-Sale 16.5%
5. Public Distribution 8.5%
6. Bounties 6%

Many of the token allocation categories are set to release gradually over a period of four years."

Utility

• The HOPR token has three main functions: pay, stake, and vote (13-1-2021).

Technology

• Whitepaper can be found [insert here].
• Code can be viewed here.
• From Binance Labs, an investor in HOPR (21-5-2021): "HOPR is open source today."

Implementations

• Built on: Ethereum and has code for Polkadot up on their Github (19-6-2020).

How it works

• From Binance Labs, an investor in HOPR (21-5-2021):

"HOPR relays messages from sender to recipient via intermediate hops that thereby provide privacy. Since running a relay node comes with non-zero costs (hardware, energy, traffic and sometimes also costs for legal services), we introduce incentivization for users to become a relay node and participate in the network. The message, funds, and responsibility to deliver a message ‘hops’ from one hop to the next downstream node. In technical terms, HOPR is a decentralized mixnet scheme with incentives for relay node operators."

Staking

• Should launch on 27-7-2021.
• From their blog (13-1-2021):

"The more HOPR tokens you lock up in your node as your stake, the more data you can relay and the more HOPR you can earn. These earnings will come partly through relaying user data (through the pay function, but also from relaying cover traffic, which accounts for 25% of the total supply (250 million HOPR, distributed over the first two years of the network).

Cover traffic is a crucial part of a decentralized mixnet, providing anonymity and unlinkability even at times when organic network usage is lower. By combining cover traffic with staking, HOPR takes two often arbitrary functions of decentralized networks and builds an incentive system where users are rewarded for holding HOPR tokens while also doing useful data relaying work for the network.

As a result HOPR staking is less passive than other staking programs. It’s not enough to just hold HOPR tokens: you have to run a node and contribute to the network to earn. This is better for overall network health and helps mitigate the problem of disinterested “whales”.

As you relay data, your node will accrue tickets that can be claimed for HOPR via our smart contract on the Ethereum blockchain."

Privacy Method

• From Binance Labs, an investor in HOPR (21-5-2021):

"HOPR is an incentivized, decentralized mixnet scheme. Using Chaumian 'onion' encryption, HOPR protects both the encrypted message as well as the metadata associated with the message, such as sender/receiver info, the size of the message, the IP address being used, etc.

HOPR is leveraging an onion-routing-based scheme, inspired by Chaumian mixnets such as The Onion Router (TOR). In HOPR, we are relaying a message from sender to recipient, via relay nodes which thereby provide privacy in addition to the more commonly seen end-to-end encryption. These relay nodes are also called “hops” - a typical message might get relayed via three hops before it reaches its recipient, therefore the name HOPR is describing what the protocol does at a lower level. It provides stronger anonymity guarantees than TOR through the SPHINX packet format "

Governance

DAO

• From CoinDesk (9-7-2020):

"Has plans to become a legally recognized decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) in Switzerland."

• From their blog (13-1-2021):

"Anyone who holds HOPR tokens will be able to vote on proposals that affect the HOPR network, including HOPR fees and other technical parameters. But that’s not all: anyone who holds HOPR tokens will also be able to apply for membership of the HOPR Association, a Swiss not-for-profit legal entity that allows HOPR to interact with the real world without exposing token holders to legal liability. It’s this crucial factor that separates HOPR from previous attempts at building a DAO. Association members can vote using their tokens on association-specific things such as how the association spends its money and who gets to be on the board of directors.

The precise rates at which cover traffic will be transmitted will partly be governed by network conditions, but will also be eligible for adjustment via the vote function."

• From Messari (22-6-2021):

"In cooperation with the Swiss Lawyers FRORIEP we created a new form of Decentralized Autonomous Organization (or DAO) that we call DecenGov, short for Decentralised Community-Enabling Governance. This model ensures the network is financially self-sustaining as well as fully under the control of its users."

Treasury

• Has 25.5% of the supply reserved for their treasury. From their blog (13-1-2021):

" The precise way HOPR tokens are allocated will be under the control of members of the HOPR Association, of which HOPR token holders will be eligible to apply for membership."

• However, according to Messari (22-6-2021):

"The HOPR Treasury is currently managed by the HOPR team [in a multisig]." It is mainly HOPR tokens and about 1 fifth is in stables.

Roadmap

• Can be found [Insert link here].
• From Binance Labs, an investor in HOPR (21-5-2021):

"During the 3-month Binance Labs Fellowship, we are working primarily on three milestones:

1. Private Key Infrastructure (PKI) that enhances the reliability of communication in the HOPR network.
2. Architecture for batch dispute resolution mechanism that allows for scalable dispute resolution (e.g., a connected node does not respond).
3. Documentation and testing that makes it easier for external contributors to test HOPR for their own purposes ."

• From Messari (22-6-2021):

1. "HOPR DAO Launch June 2021
2. HOPR Ecosystem Launch September 2021
3. Token Based Voting December 2021"

Audits

• Has 6% of the supply reserved for bounties (13-6-2021). Bug bounty program can be found here (22-6-2021).
• According to Messari it has two audits currently ongoing (22-6-2021). One from PwC Switzerland and one from Bokky.

Usage

• From CoinDesk (9-7-2020):

"The network is still in the testing phase, but a medical data use case has been explored involving data transmitted between a hospital and a cloud provider. Another useful avenue involves regulatory requirements such as General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and also things like the Financial Action Task Force’s “Travel Rule” requirement.

“HOPR is perfectly positioned to deal with GDPR and to facilitate the exchange between regulated custodians, and we have been talking to Switzerland’s OpenVASP about this,” Bürgel said."

Competition

• TOR
• From CoinDesk (9-7-2020):

"HOPR is not another on-chain privacy solution for blockchain transactions, explained HOPR co-founder Sebastian Bürgel, but a general network-layer protocol to allow users to exchange data privately, in the same vein as Tor (the onion router) or a virtual private network (VPN).

The idea to incentivize participants with tokens to enhance the privacy of a network is not entirely new; the Ethereum-based Orchid protocol does this, too.

Bürgel pointed out that VPNs have a history of leaking private data and also selling and monetizing that data, while Tor’s onion encryption doesn’t really do a good job of metadata privacy, and a particularly large data packet can be tracked going through the Tor network.

“HOPR packets all look the same,” said Bürgel. “There’s a lot of cryptography under the hood, but basically HOPR packets are indistinguishable from one another and we are also mixing packets, so that brings significantly more privacy than Tor could offer.”"

Team, Funding, Partnerships, etc.

Team

• Full team can be found here (22-6-2021).
• Dr. Sebastian Bürgel; co-founder and also a Binance Fellow (21-5-2021)

Funding

• From CoinDesk (9-7-2020):

"Binance Labs led a $1 million seed round in HOPR, which has also received funding from Focus Labs, Spark Digital Capital, Caballeros Capital and Synaitken. The seed round followed a fellowship award the startup received last year from BinanceX, the exchange’s early-stage developer platform."

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