G’day Hutters!
It’s been a very busy period at the Hut34 Project. A time where we have been highly focussed on “doing rather than talking”, but now it’s time to take a quick breather to share our progress with you.
The Hut34 Platform
The Hut34 Platform is still in private beta, but continues to iterate rapidly. We’re never quite satisfied with our product; always looking to make it a bit bigger, faster and prettier before its full release! But as we continue on our nearly daily release cycle the words of LinkedIn founder, Reid Hoffman, continue to ring loudly...
“If you aren’t embarrassed by the first version of your product, you shipped too late.”
1.Connect — 2. Route — 3. Resolve —4. Monetise.
Solving these 4 problems is key to creating a successful data sharing and transactional network and economy.
1. Connect
Easy device connection is the first critical step to drive platform and network adoption. To that end we have continued to both test a range of bot platforms and IoT devices and gateways seeking to continully add these to the available suite of easy device integrations.
Connecting bots
We’ve connected more than a few bots across a range of bot building tools and continue to develop the initial integrations for bots built in Microsoft’s Bot Framework and Google’s Dialogueflow. For developers using alternate platforms we currently offer generic webhook connections but more bot integrations are in the pipeline.
So whether you have built a real-estate assistant, or sous-chef we want you to connect so you can start monetizing your service.
Connecting IoT devices
We’ve also tested a range of IoT devices like smartphones and Raspberry Pi’s with sensors, and have boxes of Arduino’s and ESP’s waiting to be connected! From this process we have added easy integration for a third party IoT gateway AllThingsTalk, allowing even simpler IoT device connection.
Matt has written some great posts covering his adventures connecting IoT devices the easy way and the hard way!
Next up we will be connecting more IoT sensors to the Hut and expect to see added integrations for PV solar, air quality, and perhaps a surf-cam to keep our office informed on conditions at Manly Beach. We encourage you to connect your IoT device!
2. Route and 3. Resolve
As more data flows through the network, our AI driven routing and resolution algorithms continue to learn and improve. Over time these will become a critical component of the network’s utility and success. Device queries need to reach the most appropriate device, and optimal query resolution needs to occur.
4. Monetise
Excitingly the platform is now transacting ENTRP on the ethereum mainnet and connected test devices can now transact and earn ENTRP for their data contributions
Incremental Decentralisation
Incremental decentralisation is a core concept worth touching on here. We believe this philosophy important to rapidly delivering a blockchain based product to the marketplace. The Hut Platform is not yet a fully decentralised network, using a philosophy of incremental decentralisation we are able to utilise the benefits of centralised web services, whilst concurrently adding the features of decentralised ethereum ecosystem as as they become commercially viable: Increasing speed to market and assisting us to overcome some of the current technology blockers to our long term vision for a completely decentralised data monetisation network.
0x and HutX
“nanos gigantum humeris insidentes” — Standing on the shoulders of giants.
Those following our telegram and twitter will know we are strong supporters of the 0x Protocol and the team building it. We have been fortunate to have had an ongoing dialogue with Jacob and Tom from team 0x. Their protocol facilitates the exchange of ethereum based tokens in a trustless way providing the building blocks for exchange in a range of assets — and we believe this can include data transactions.
Building upon their foundational work, HutX is envisaged to be an open, permissionless protocol allowing for the exchange and trading of data, information and knowledge on the Ethereum blockchain. It will allow decentralized data exchanges to exist, so that anyone can create their own version of the Hut 34 Platform. We want to see data exchanges, ranking and routing nodes, nodes that act as supercolliders for experts — human and AI alike.
Lots of exciting stuff to come on this in the months ahead.
The Hut 34 Wallet
To say we are excited about the prospects for the Hut34 Wallet would be an understatement. The response thus far from users and corporates alike has been phenomenal.
In essence the Hut 34 Wallet is an ERC-20 compatible wallet utilising Google’s security credential schemas. It removes end users need to manage their private keys and keystores, which are a huge friction point for wider crypto adoption.
With a single click, users can access their ethereum wallet and tokens via their Google credentials: We let Google handle the OAuth so you can benefit form the extensive security features they provide — another case of the Hut- “nanos gigantum humeris insidentes.”
The wallet is currently in beta, but continues to iterate rapidly. Features such as a developer API, inbuilt 0x token conversion facility, and DEX connectivity are all in the pipeline. All will drive significant wallet adoption plus a greater awareness and participation in Hut34 and ENTRP ecosystem.
Checkout our previous writeup on the wallet here.
Expanding the Team
We’ve welcomed some new members to the Hut 34 team to help us achieve our vision.
Matt Szwec is an engineer and developer with expertise in IOT, ML, AI. David Nabb is a front end web developer. Both guys will be working hard to deliver rapid platform iterations and the release of HutX. Shelton Fernando is an avid Hutter, assisting with managing and growing the Hut34 community.
We’re excited by the enthusiasm, energy and skill these guys bring to the mix.
An additional two further developers are in the pipleine to drive more product deliverables for the Platform, HutX and the Hut34 Wallet. More to come on these later.
Finally we recognise the need to keep increasing market awareness of the project, our vision, and the products we are building, we are actively searching for a strong and competent marketer to join our team — so if you know someone who may be interested please don’t hesitate introduce them to us!
ENTRP token liquidity
As mentioned in previous writings, ENTRP token liquidity is a critical part of the product roadmap. Utility token markets needs to be liquid to allow product users to rapidly, and cost effectively, enter and exit the ecosystem, and to accurately price the data they are contributing or utilising.
Driving growth in user connections and network traffic are the key metrics that we intend to focus on to increase genuine token liquidity to a more acceptable level.
ENTRP tokens can be purchased on the following exchanges
Where possible we will always avoid paying exchange fees for ENTRP token listings, unless there is a very clear business case for doing so. The majority of fees charged by centralised exchanges are in our view quite unreasonable and a poor poor use of project funds. Instead , our consistent positionhas been that project funds should be used for the primary purpose of executing the Hut’s articulated vision; any argument that imporoved token liquidity results from listing tokens on either a large number of exchanges and/or paying for listings is tenuous at best.
*We do not support or endorse Radar Relay, ForkDelta, XS2, EasyTrade, TokenJar, Token.store or 0x. They have not given us any benefit for facilitating the listing. We are not responsible for their services or any other liquidity platform, including if they default. We will not be liable in any circumstances for the acts, omissions or statements, or any losses that may arise from your use of it. Listing (or de-listing) by third party market providers can occur without our involvement. Whether or not we facilitate a listing or later withdraw our support, you use any liquidity platform, market or exchange (whatever they call themselves) entirely at your own risk. Please check their terms and consider your risks before agreeing to them.
Corporate and Partnerships
As we are building out our tech we have actively engaged in a range of higher level corporate discussions. Our work on solving IoT data monetisation, the problems that many bots face, and friction points in general crypto adoption have generated some real corporate buzz. Its an exciting phase and we intend to acclerate in this space.
We are excited to be participating in IoT Impact 2018, run by the IoT Alliance Australia (IOTAA), and we are exploring memberships with the Australian Digital Commerce Association (ADCA) and the Enterprise Ethereum Alliance.
Further we are exploring some exciting commerical partnerships and JV’s, for the platform and wallet. These transactions can often have a long lead time andbe subject to a range of commercial constraints, so well let you know more about these as soon as we can.
Moving Forward….
Over the coming months our focus will be on;
- Continuing to rapidly iterate the Hut34 Platform, it’s features and capabilities.
- Drive Hut34 network connections(and traffic) for both data producers and consumers: Bots and IoT devices.
- Explore and solidify corporate partnerships in the bot and IoT space.
- Initial implementation of the HutX protocol; moving us incrementally towards full Hut34 Network decentralisation.
- Iterate the Hut34 Wallet features to further accelerate user aquisition and and corporate partnerships.
- Deploy token incentive schemes to assist with achievement of above mentioned goals.
- Shout louder!!
As always, we thank you for your support. Please be sure to join the conversation in Telegram, follow us on twitter and ENTRP tokens can be purchased at these exchanges.
Onwards and Hutwards
