Binance Labs Leads Strategic $1 Million Investment Round in HOPR
At HOPR we have a vision. A vision for the future. A vision where the public is in control of their online reality and privacy. It’s this vision that we are building to help usher in Web3, where the world’s largest companies can no longer profit off of the data they take from you in exchange for using their “services.”
The team we have assembled is top-notch and we’ll introduce them in future posts — so be sure to follow us here on Medium, as well as on Telegram, Twitter, Reddit, or LinkedIn. We’re just getting started.
We’re very excited to announce this strategic seed investment round that is part of our product roadmap ahead of our network launch, that is integral in our decentralized future where node-runners are incentivized in protecting everyone’s metadata from point A to point B all the way to Z. This is something that has never been done before and it’s part of a much larger movement of giving power back to the people.
As a Swiss association, we believe in the values of quality, trustworthiness, and neutrality. That’s why we operate as a Decentralized Community-Enabling Governance (decenGov), where the interests of the larger population precedes any interests of our own and attention-seeking founders.
The investment from Binance Labs and from our group of top-tier investors allows us to have the freedom to create the product, platform, and tools that puts you in the driver seat of your future (Web3) internet experience. Please read more below for details.
BINANCE LABS LEADS STRATEGIC $1 MILLION INVESTMENT ROUND IN HOPR, THE FIRST-EVER OPEN INCENTIVIZED PRIVACY AND DATA PROTECTION PLATFORM
The Swiss Company is Building a Free, Open Source Network-Level Blockchain Protocol that Protects Metadata Privacy for Every Type of Data Exchange
July 9, 2020, Zurich, Switzerland — HOPR, a Web3 data privacy-protecting pioneer, and Binance, the world’s leading blockchain and cryptocurrency infrastructure provider, today announced that Binance Labs is leading the strategic $1 million investment round for HOPR ahead of the company’s token sale. This is Binance Labs’ first investment of the year, who leads the investment round which includes Focus Labs, Spark Digital Capital, Caballeros Capital, AU21 Capital, and Synaitken. HOPR provides tools and frameworks for the Web3 ecosystem, a decentralized internet, ensuring everyone has control of their privacy, data, and identity as they navigate online.
“As Web 2.0 showed that companies and corporations are in control of a user’s information and data, the team at HOPR has shown us how their decentralized network achieves privacy guarantees on the metadata level and gives power back to the people,” said Gin Chao, Binance Strategy Officer. “We’re very excited to lead this investment round in HOPR, and support a talented and experienced team of developers, cryptographers, and scientists, led by Dr. Sebastian Bürgel, one of the leading decentralized application architects.”
The date of the HOPR token sale will be announced at a later date. The strategic seed investment round will allow the team to further recruit top team members while continuing to develop their new technology. The HOPR protocol provides network-level and metadata privacy for every kind of data exchange, while introducing the first-ever open incentivized mixnet, where anyone can earn tokens for running nodes. A mixnet protects vulnerable metadata by routing via multiple intermediate relays hops that mix traffic. HOPR’s incentivized mixnets is possible with the advent of blockchains with on-chain capabilities to run advanced layer-2 scaling solutions.
“The movement to decentralize finance, data and the web needs a new privacy foundation. With HOPR we’re building a layer-0 privacy infrastructure for Web3 that makes it safe and secure to transmit information,” said Dr. Sebastian Bürgel, Co-Founder of HOPR. “We’re honored to have such a tremendous group of investors, led by Binance Labs, who has been at the forefront of empowering and spreading decentralized technologies that challenge even the biggest global incumbents.”
The HOPR privacy network relies on a globally distributed network of mix nodes. To support and rapidly grow the community running this network, HOPR will release a plug-and-earn mix node on a mini PC. Open incentivization allows anyone to run a HOPR node, stake and get rewarded with HOPR tokens while providing privacy for Web3. To be added to the “Defenders of Privacy” node runners waitlist, find out more here: https://www.hoprnet.org/node
About HOPR
HOPR provides the tools and framework for the Web3 ecosystem, ensuring everyone has control of their privacy, data, and identity as they navigate online. The HOPR protocol introduces the first-ever open incentivized mixnet, where anyone can earn tokens for staking and running nodes. Dr. Sebastian Bürgel, who helped draft the DLT (Distributed Ledger Technology) Law in Switzerland, leads a diverse HOPR team which includes award-winning blockchain hackers and Silicon Valley tech veterans.
HOPR combines the traditional association as a proven legal entity in Swiss jurisdiction with the tenets of a Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAO) which results in a Decentralized Community-Enabling Governance (DecenGov). HOPR has its main office in Zurich, Switzerland.
About Binance Labs
Binance Labs identifies, invests, and empowers viable blockchain entrepreneurs, startups, and communities, providing financing to industry projects that help grow the larger blockchain ecosystem. Binance Labs is committed to supporting fast-executing teams who positively impact the crypto space. For more information, visit https://labs.binance.com/.
You can read the above press release in Chinese, Korean, and Japanese as well.
Everyone can (and should) run a node. You will ensure that all metadata exchanged between parties is always hidden and protected. You will also earn HOPR tokens, that, in a way, is similar to staking: https://hoprnet.org/node You can find out all about HOPR, how we operate, and what we believe in here or find out about the founders came together here.
It’s an honor to be your next generation data privacy and protection platform.
Sincerely,
Kevin Leu and The HOPR Team
Head of Marketing
