Binance Telegram AMA Session with the Holo Team Summary
There were so many excellent questions! We were able to answer many, but could not get to all of them due to time. Hopefully, many more will be answered in one of our live AMAs.
The questions ranged from why Holochain apps are different, to adoption, to wallets, to partnerships, to real world examples. Many people wanted to know what you can expect from the project in 2019! We covered so many topics during this AMA on the Binance English Channel! If you missed it, you can catch up with this summary.
Before diving in, we want to thank Binance for organizing this AMA, as well as our community for their participation! We look forward to sharing development and ecosystem updates with you regularly and answering your questions during our next AMA.
Also, a big thanks to Darc for hosting, coordinating, and organizing. We are grateful to have had the opportunity to engage with the wonderful Binance Community on Telegram. Thank you to our community admins TVG and Brooks for helping answer questions. Thank you, @TVG_HOLO, @HoloIslandNews, and @holochainnews for the excellent, live AMA coverage and minute-by-minute AMA Tweets.
The following is a summary of the Q&A. Please note that some editing has occurred in order to improve readability and clarity.
Summary of the AMA:
- Team and Project Intros
- Questions and Answers
Team Intros
Mary Camacho, Executive Director
As a member of the leadership team, Mary strives for organizational alignment and focus across Holo, supporting people and teams in achieving results. Mary works directly with legal and regulatory, as well as with the HoloFuel team and finance to ensure a sustainable foundation for the project and the company.
David Atkinson, Commercial Director
David is one of the core masterminds at Holo. He loves to help people and businesses that are driven by purpose and a deep understanding and love for what they do. He is a member of the leadership team and focuses on business, community, and ecosystem growth — all of which have been integral to Holochain and Holo’s immense achievements.
Amanda DHT, Communications & Community Manager
Amanda is focused on communications and expanding the capacity of the Holochain Ecosystem by cultivating and growing the base of developers, hApps, community leaders, and supporters, as well as international and online communities.
Moritz Bierling, Chief Catalyst
Moritz plays a vital role in supporting internal and external projects for Holo and the entire Holochain ecosystem. He was the very first IGG supporter and helped fundraise $20 million during the Holo ICO. Moritz now focuses on building a rigorous case for Holochain in a series of light papers.
Project Intro
What is Holochain?
Holochain is a powerful, flexible approach to distributed networks. Building on Holochain means you only need to choose one framework for building public or private distributed networks and applications.
Questions and Answers
1. Why is Holochain different for institutions, enterprise and startups?
You can build scalable public networks with collaborative and open ecosystems. Native interoperability means that apps can build on top of each other, forming new partnerships and solving new problems. You can customise network parameters such as privacy, governance, consensus, and redundancy/sharding to fit application needs — like a private network. This means that on Holochain there is no trade-off between the scalability and customizability of private networks and the collaborative spirit of public ones.
What you call blockchains, we call apps. What you call apps, we do too. Holochain apps are configurable.
Holochain is a software framework (pattern for designing dApps + software libraries + CLI tools + macros), library, and toolkit — not a singular deployed platform. hApp DNA ensures application rules are abstract from the protocol layer. Our network-of-networks approach ensures that both application rules and governance are confined to the application and its users.
Holochain apps are evolvable.
Bridging allows identity and data sharing across Holochain hApps. hApps have a native API for integrating to other systems. We treat features as separate hApps and deploy piecemeal. We provide built-in tools for upgrading or modifying hApps, as well as to integrate and build on top of existing hApps. This allows you to easily form new partnerships and rich collaborative ecosystems, or to evolve existing solutions to create value.
Holochain apps are secure.
Data immutability via hash chain ensures the reliability and tamper resistance of all data and cryptographic signing. Countersigning ensures data and transaction authorship. We natively support GDPR through agent, self-sovereign data ownership. Each hApp is its own network and access can be restricted as required via the DNA validations. This provides a flexible framework for increasing participation security. Application rules enable nodes to automatically identify bad behavior and a range of actions can be taken based on severity. Security membranes allow flexibility around controlling access to shared data. Crucially, users can continue to work whilst offline or partitioned.
Holochain apps are scalable.
Capacity scales linearly with Holochain users as each node contributes useful computing power. Users can utilize their single agency across all hApps on all their devices and enable data flow between them. Mainstream users can use a web browser with no reduced functionality. Local data lives on the device for distributed processing and analytics. Performance scaling with number of users is close to linear — there’s no network size threshold. hApps can be designed to provide consistent, local performance and reduce network latency sensitivity.
Learn more about Holochain Apps: https://medium.com/h-o-l-o/why-are-holochain-applications-different-and-what-does-that-mean-for-me-924cd18b6321
2. Why is Holochain a good choice for developers?
Holochain hApps are developer-friendly.
You can prototype hApps in <15 minutes using out-of-the-box developer tools. Holo hosting allows native cloud user experience, and if needed, access to a web browser. Roll out features piecemeal as separate, interconnected hApps with built-in tools for upgrading or modifying hApps.
Holochain apps are designed for your benefit, not ours.
Holochain has no native currency. Holochain apps are free to run as long as all users are using Holochain. Holochain is free and open source. We extract no costs (like gas), have no mining, and no centralizing structures in our network (like staking or masternodes). Holochain is a pure, peer-to-peer application framework that allows for a network of networks to be created organically and fast.
We have a vibrant ecosystem built on openness and evolvability.
A vibrant and rapidly growing community (see community credits):
We are extending open source to the age of big data.
Holochain is 100% open source. Users control their own identity and data. Our CAL License prevents data-based, walled gardens.
If you are a developer, we encourage you to connect to our community on the Holochain Mattermost Chat Server — email help@holo.host to request an invite — and join the App Dev Channel. You can also start by completing the Quick Start Guide to get going on your first application.
3. What’s the purpose of a HoloPort?
Imagine being part of the internet in the 1990s — or mining bitcoin in 2010. HoloPorts are the first way for you to bring the Holochain-powered, decentralized internet to every web user.
HoloPorts are hardware devices that run nixOS, Holochain, and the Holo hosting application. You simply plug them into your network, register, set your preferences, and begin hosting. Every time you serve a request through your HoloPort you are rewarded with a microtransaction in HoloFuel.
All you have to do is connect your HoloPort to the network and choose what apps you want to host.
There are three HoloPorts available: HoloPort, HoloPort +, and HoloPort Nano. Buy a HoloPort and become a host through the official HoloPort Store! You can still host even if you don’t have a HoloPort. In the future it will be possible to install the Holo hosting app on a computer or Raspberry Pi.
4. Why HOT and Why did you call it an Ethical ICO?
You’ve already heard why Holochain is a great solution and how Holo is a bridge from where crypto is today to where it can be in the future. This is the promise that so many people were believing during the last few years as token prices rose to incredible heights. The problem is that those gains in 2017 — and their subsequent losses in 2018 — were all based on a confidence that was not backed by enough real value. With HOT — which will be convertible into HoloFuel — we did not oversell in our ICO.
We raised an amount that was directly tied to the pre-sold capacity of our network at that time, based on the Indiegogo sales of HoloPorts, and used the low end benchmarks for the transaction processing of Holochain. That’s why we called it an ‘ethical ICO.’ https://medium.com/h-o-l-o/ethical-ico/home
What that means is that we were purposefully conservative in our beginning so that we could be responsible for growth.
Holo and HOT are good bets because Holochain and Holo are on-ramps to the real and functional use of distributed tech, and because they are built to grow and evolve. As technologies, they meet people where they are — Holochain is flexible and anti-fragile — and Holo allows for the benefits of distributed apps and computing to reach the web users of today.
I bet on projects that solve real problems and meet expressed needs for a market. In traditional startups, it happens via a vetting process with early investors. Here, it happens with the people who plan to use our platform, as well as those who see an ability to exchange the currency that will flow through our platform. We can’t tell you to buy or that you should, and we certainly won’t promise how that would go.
So we are going to keep showing you what we are building — giving updates about the tech and the community every week in a variety of ways. We will also continue to get out in the community at Hackathons, DevCamps, and Intensives to support people building on the tech.
(We are, and continue to be, one of the most active crypto projects on GitHub — and this metric is ONLY measuring Holochain and does not include the other 50 active repos we have for Holo Host.) https://www.cryptomiso.com/
We believe in building tech that people want and will use — not hyping a tech with big names or paying people to say they will use something for a project that may never happen. Holochain is a from-the-ground upswelling, so watch the activity levels. I’d bet on people getting what they need and want.
5. What can you expect to see from us in 2019?
We see Holochain available for download, full of developer-enabling materials, and ready for people to build distributed and Holo hosted applications.
We see HoloPorts delivered to everyone who pre-purchased, as well as new ones being ordered and delivered across the globe.
We see the Holo Network with HoloPort nodes around the world connected, tested, validated, and functional.
We see many institutions, enterprises, and startups designing distributed solutions, applications, and businesses on Holochain and beginning to host those solutions on Holo.
We see communities of people taking up the development and use of hApps to solve their content and collaboration needs.
We are enabling technology for people — tech that will be used for them to control their identities and data. How are you going to use Holo and Holochain?
Moritz: Moritz “Mau-ri-zi-o-oooo” Bierling, [18 Apr 2019 16:40:49]:
When creating new things, you can’t only rely on technology; you have to build up the social side as well. 😄
We’re very happy with the way our community members have been showing up and taking on leadership roles.
6. How do people use HoloFuel?
HoloFuel is specifically designed for micro-transactions.
HoloFuel can be earned by Hosts, but redeemed via our reserves.
People can build apps that use HoloFuel. It will be spendable in a variety of apps and online marketplaces. First and foremost, it will be used to pay for the hosting of distributed Holochain apps on the Holo network.
7. When is the swap and how will that work initially?
Remember that HoloTokens (HOT) act as temporary, transferable receipts that can be redeemed for Holo fuel when Holo is launched. We will be launching Holo, Holochain, and HoloFuel when the Alpha period is complete and our reviews and testing indicate it is of the quality required to transition to Live Beta.
The HOT Reserve will allow anyone to purchase HoloFuel for HOT. Hosts who earn HoloFuel can also use the HOT Reserve to redeem HoloFuel for any HOT available on the Reserve.
Others — non-Hosts or Hosts who have additional, non-earned HoloFuel they wish to convert to HOT — will be able to make use of any public HoloFuel exchanges that are available.
8. Will there be a wallet for storing HoloFuel? Will the team consider cooperating with companies that specialize in hardware wallets — ledger nano for example?
As a Holochain application, the HoloFuel app will have a user interface. This interface could be considered a wallet. The first version of Holofuel will be secured in the same way as any other Holochain application — by using our key management infrastructure (DPKI / DeepKey).
Hardware wallet integration is an open question, both in terms of core Holochain security and as a potential add-on for select transaction types. Generally speaking, current hardware wallets are not designed to function in the same way as signing onto Holochain. At some point it may be possible to use something like a smart card for doing your crypto signing so that the key never leaves the card, however, Holochain needs your keys more readily available for all network communications. In addition, no current wallets are compatible with LibSodium (the hardened crypto library that Holochain employs).
https://medium.com/h-o-l-o/a-tour-of-Holos-initial-apps-45b00f7e9054
9. If HOT and HoloFuel exist at the same time, does this double the circulating supply?
No; every unit of HoloFuel created from HOT requires removing a unit of HOT from circulation and vice-versa, so the combined supply of HOT and HoloFuel is the same until other sources of HoloFuel are launched. One way to think about HOT is as wrapped-HoloFuel, similar to wrapped BTC on the Ethereum blockchain, where each token is backed by 1 BTC.
10. What does Holo mean?
It comes from Holographic, Holonic, and Holarchic.
11. I found a very interesting use case solving energy-related issues. I am sure you must have a few other use cases solving other similar issues?
Holochain is amazing for supply chains, energy, distributed energy, IOT, smart sensors, space, etc. There’s lots more in links above. https://medium.com/h-o-l-o/why-are-holochain-applications-different-and-what-does-that-mean-for-me-924cd18b6321
12. Can the HoloPort be competitive in the long run in countries with high electricity prices, such as those in Europe where costs are ten times higher than the United States? Or will those countries be driven out as HoloFuel stabilizes around the lowest fixed cost providers?
Because demand will come from all over and we are fully distributed, we expect demand to be met locally, so Ports should be just as effective in Europe as in Asia, etc.
13. Is there a deal with Mozilla Firefox?
We do have a relationship with Mozilla and other companies, but we don’t play the “partnerships for pumping” game.
14. Regarding the aforementioned identity verification, are you going to develop it yourself or do you support projects already in process such as “Selkey” (KEY)?
We (Holo/Holochain) do not intend to get into the identity verification business. The intention is to certify third-party vendors who will sign off on various levels of verification.
15. In order to drive developer’s network effect, some projects have mechanisms by which, for example, Eth dApps can be ported to their ecosystems with no effort (e.g. Thunder) and its attributes are greatly improved. Does Holo have a way to easily port Eth dApps to the Holoworld? If not, how do you plan to drive developer’s network effects (apart from traditional methods such as Hackathons, rewards, etc.)
We’re approaching this question by building strong developer resources, helping bring network developers together, and supporting them in porting their centralized solutions over to decentralized patterns.
16. With the three token system and hardware — is it going to be easy for enterprises to adopt Holo?
Enterprises can simply build on Holochain. Holo takes Holochain apps and makes them available to any web user; hosts support this by offering distributed hosting. Institutions or enterprises only need Holochain if they don’t need to interact with web users.
17. What guarantees security on the Holo network and prevents different nodes from being dishonest?
Every entry pushed to the DHT is validated by many, many nodes and is not under the control of the node that pushed the entry. All of the DNA’s rules are verified by these “DHT Validators” and any entry that violates these rules is flagged. The node that signed the commit is basically incriminated by their own digital signature. Other nodes would not to have dealings with this faulty or fraudulent node and the rule-violating commit would not propagate to the network.
18. Does Holo have plans to partner with large companies?
There are lots of enterprise and institution opportunities. Building on Holochain is fast, cheap, secure, scalable, and solutions are efficient. We see massive opportunities here.
19. If my seed in DeepKey gets lost, how do I recover it? How do you solve this problem, which is typical of blockchains?
Similar to other blockchains, you need to make sure to backup your seeds (mnemonics). Something that makes Holochain DPKI unique, however, is the ability to do MofN trust networks for recovery. If you *do* lose your key and have set up a trust network, they can reset your keys on your behalf.
20. Can you please explain how and where HoloFuel could be traded into FIAT after we earn it with hosting? Do you expect it to be a stable currency?
We eventually plan to have FIAT reserve accounts for Holo Hosts to redeem earned HoloFuel. We also expect HoloFuel to eventually be on exchanges.
21. What is the Commons Engine?
It’s a consulting organization for commons — reg agriculture, food, energy projects — including community currency design.
22. Can you please give a real life example of an hApp being used?
A great example is the Junto platform: https://holo.host/project/junto/
23. Any future cooperation with Binance?
We love Binance and are very appreciative of their support for the ecosystem.
24. Will it be possible to convert earned HoloFuel to BTC in the future?
When we initially launch, earned HoloFuel will be redeemable for HOT on the first reserve. You could then convert HOT on Binance. 🙂 We may eventually provide direct reserves to other crypto.
25. Is the project the same as you imagined and designed in the beginning? What were the toughest struggles that you faced?
Great question! I’m sure the others will jump in. Yes, sort of. We’ve been thinking, planning, and imaging this world for more than 10 years.
26. Why should people use HoloPorts?
It’s plug and play hosting — imagine mining and all you need is a hosting box to earn HoloFuel — and it’s distributed, so anyone can participate.
27. What critical problems with a worldwide impact are hApps either solving or planning to solve?
Supply chains, disaster recovery, distributed energy, IOT (e.g. sensors), offline chains, GDPR
28. What motivates Holochain to go ahead and take on the competition with others who are doing the same work?
We are motivated by a deep passion to build tech that will change the world.
29. I have been with Holochain from the ICO. I think that Holochain is lacking strong partnerships — is this a concern?
We are focusing on the highest leverage points, which at the moment are building a strong technology, helping developers build capacity, and enticing community and business leaders to play with our solutions.
30. Who are your competitors?
Anyone who is trying to build a pure, distributed, p2p internet powered by an asset-backed dynamic supply currency and hosting network is our competition.
31. Can we access the network without the internet?
Yes
32. When swap begins, will the token supply be doubled?
No; every unit of HoloFuel created from HOT requires removing a unit of HOT from circulation and vice-versa, so the combined supply of HOT and HoloFuel is the same until other sources of HoloFuel are launched. One way to think about HOT is as wrapped-HoloFuel, similar to wrapped BTC on the Ethereum blockchain, where each token is backed by 1 BTC.
33. What kind of market is the main target?
All apps that want to be decentralized — our focus is on coordination and collaboration (e.g. comms, productivity, messaging, supply chain, IOT, and many more).
34. Will it be possible to convert earned HoloFuel to BTC in the future?
When we initially launch, earned HoloFuel will be redeemable for HOT on the first reserve. Then, you could convert HOT on Binance. 🙂 Eventually, we may provide direct reserves to other crypto.
35. If data is held by the owner, how is going to be secure?
Yes, all data is secured through encryption.
36. What is Holochain’s security model?
Short Answer: Holochain is designed to make fit-for-purpose distributed applications where you can scale the cost to meet the need. Each agent is responsible for their own source chain, committing actions to it, and publishing those actions to a random selection of peers in a global data store (the DHT). Those peers then validate that the data is correct and the agent has not attempted to tamper with their chain.
Please consult this post for details about the Holochain security model. https://telegra.ph/Holochain-Security-Model-10-26
37. Why should people use HoloPorts?
It’s plug and play hosting — imagine mining and all you need is a hosting box to earn HoloFuel — and it’s distributed, so anyone can participate. HoloPorts allow people to earn HoloFuel by hosting distributed apps that allow regular web users access with the same sort of account — meaning the user still controls their own identity and data.
38. Is this really going to change the world?
We believe so, but it takes some deep diving down the rabbit hole to become convinced yourself. 😉
39. Easy to learn: Great apps are those that have a clear user in mind. If there is the will for people to manage against corruption, Holochain could be a great distributed architecture for building such an app. I would recommend starting with our online resources.
40. Can you please name three centralized “apps” be ported to Holo?
Great question — we are more interested in transporting centralized apps into decentralized apps (blockchain apps to Holochain is a subset). We are currently working on examples of this. The power of Holochain is reimagining all centralized apps in a decentralized environment.
Comments about the AMA:
“That was a great AMA with lots of useful info. A lot of people were confused on how HOT tokens and HoloFuel will exist. Glad they cleared it up!”
“That AMA was great.”
“Great job, Holo Team, on the AMA today!”
“What a great AMA — congrats to the team.”
If you are curious to learn more, connect with us on Telegram and engage with our community!
