The goal of our Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign has been to build Holo and catalyze a global ecosystem of distributed applications that help us better sense and coordinate in our world in many different domains. Getting there has many stages, some visible and others invisible.
Since our Indiegogo launch a year ago tomorrow we have made progress on many of our goals which you can read more about in a companion blog post. And we think we have a solid foundation that will lead us forward with strength.
HoloPort Certification News
We wanted to get HoloPorts shipped to all of our backers by the end of 2018 so that the whole cycle from campaign launch to delivery was complete within the year. However, we’ve had a few recent challenges related to testing and verifying certificates (FCC, CE, VCCI, IC, etc) to cover all our hardware products in the many countries they are headed. That said, we think they’ll feel like hiccups in a few months time.
Challenges
During testing, the certification houses found EMC (Electromagnetic Compatibility) issues on the HoloPorts related to the Ethernet connector component. There was also some interference on both HoloPorts and the Nano from the PSU (Power Supply Units) pairings which we mentioned a few weeks ago.
Solutions
Fortunately, we’ve found fixes for both the EMC and PSU issues. We have worked closely with both the motherboard manufacturers and the PSU manufacturers to resolve all the issues. Part of the solution set included adjusting some of the components on the motherboard for the HoloPort and HoloPort+. Both PSUs have now been optimised to reduce any interference regardless of the country in which they’re operating.
All the HoloPorts have been tested at length for over six weeks to ensure that they’ll meet certifications for all global markets we are shipping to. During that testing process, we’ve made various minor adjustments to meet requirements and those adjustments and retests have taken some time. However, the main body of this testing is now complete and all the primary long lead time components are now moving into mass production, with full assembly following.
Golden Samples
A few “golden sample” prototypes are on their way to us for what should be a final round of internal testing. These are the same units that the certification houses now have that should pass their testing, as well.
Accomplishments in Holo and Holochain Development
Holochain Rebuilt in Rust
The Holochain core team has recently updated Holochain to Rust. You can read much more about the development of Holochain in our weekly Dev Pulse and Rust in this preview. There are several major reasons why this important work has been done but at a high level you should know:
- Rust gives hApp (Holochain App) programmers low-level control, reliable performance, memory safety, and the ability for apps to be written in MANY languages.
- Rust compiles down to WASM (WebAssembly) in a fully efficient way such that the necessary files are small enough to support true peer-to-peer app communication and distributed computing on even the smallest of devices.
Holo moving into full development
Holo is built on Holochain and with the latest release of Holochain, our dev teams are now working in a steady cadence to create regular releases of the Holo distributed cloud platform in the coming months.
Milestones on the Holo Roadmap in 2019
- Holo Closed Alpha Testnet (available only to Alpha / Beta backers)
- HoloPorts Shipped to all IGG backers
- Holo Open Alpha Testnet (available to all purchasers of HoloPorts in the IGG)
- Holo Full Feature Testnet (this will be the release with a Testnet of Holo fuel)
- Holo Beta Mainnet
There will be more details in the near future about each of these milestones that we will arrive at in the new year. As you may have noticed we have significantly increased our updates in all of our channels, and we will continue to provide regular progress updates to all of you in the community.
FYI we are hosting a 2018 year in review AMA on Wednesday, December 5th at 7pm UTC (2pm EST) featuring Art Brock, Mary Camacho, and Matthew Schutte. You can watch it here on YouTube.
Where we are with Indiegogo Perk Fulfillment
Two of three online Holochain Dev Camp options have been completed with 66 unique participants, and some people attending both. The perk items for all Dev Camper backers have begun shipping and the third Dev Camp for our backers will be in January after which we’ll have fulfilled all those perks.
The majority of both internal and certification testing is now complete for HoloPorts and Nanos and all of the components are now in mass production. Following this, they will move into the assembly process. All Indiegogo backers have been mailed their sticker items. Keep your eye on your mailbox!
Still to come with Perks
- Early in the new year we’ll be announcing the Holo Closed Testnet for our Alpha / Beta testers and in the coming weeks we will be contacting them all to get some feedback and prepare for that testing cycle.
- As we take the last steps to complete the HoloPort suite manufacturing process, we’ll continue to keep you up-to-date on our roadmap, with regards to both the hardware as well as the software portions of our journey.
- We haven’t forgotten about all of our non-HoloPort, non-Dev Camp backers! Given the nature of your consultative perks, we’ve thought it best to get farther down the road on the development of Holo and Holochain before fulfilling. We’ll be reaching out shortly. If you have any questions don’t hesitate to reach out to help@holo.host.
New Holo Website + IGG Backers Holding Prototypes
Give our updated holo.host website a look! There will be more pages and content being added over the next few weeks, but we’re really excited to share what we already have. Plus, we were fortunate to get a HoloPort prototype in the hands of several actual Indiegogo backers’ hands! We’re looking forward to seeing photos of many more of you holding your HoloPorts very soon.
As always, the entire Holo team extends our gratitude to you and all the founding Holonauts for your incredible support.
— The Holo team
