Two projects, one big idea: CEOs join forces and reveal all in live AMA

Two crypto projects that are joining forces to deliver a permanent solution for privacy and efficient payments have revealed their ambitious roadmap in a live Cointelegraph broadcast.

Hathor is a scalable blockchain that allows users to build their own digital assets in less than a minute. The network can achieve upwards of 200 transactions per second — and it’s been billed as a fun, accessible environment where anyone can create a token without needing a technical understanding of things like gas, ERC-20 and Solidity.

As previously reported by Cointelegraph, HOPR was launched in response to increasing concerns over online data privacy and has been backed with a $1 million investment from Binance Labs. Anyone can build on this protocol, which is designed to keep any exchange of data private. According to executives, standard end-to-end encryption fails to offer adequate levels of privacy — and actually results in important metadata being leaked.

Setting out the rationale behind the partnership, HOPR’s CEO and co-founder Dr. Sebastian Bürgel told the ask-me-anything session that Ethereum’s slow pace and high gas fees had been limiting the project’s potential — and Hathor alleviates these concerns.

Hathor’s CEO Yan Martins added: “When we first got in touch with HOPR through some mutual connections, I very much liked their idea of being completely decentralized from day one, which is something that we very much care about … All of the infrastructure that we have is using HOPR technology — that is something that will make us much stronger, and I really believe HOPR is making something significant in the space.”

An exclusive reveal

One of the highlights of the AMA saw Hathor unveil its “highly dynamic” roadmap for 2021. The first quarter will focus on infrastructure and tools — and toward the end of March, a grants program will launch in order to encourage development on the network. Several new features and initial product launches are planned in Q2 — with nano contracts set to add programmability to custom tokens.

As Q3 commences, nano contracts are set to become available for anyone to play around with, and Hathor’s attention will turn to side-DAGs — an important piece of architecture that will allow the network to scale for the future. Cross-chain interoperability will also emerge, alongside support for non-fungible tokens. And in Q4 and beyond, the project expects side-DAGs to start interacting with the main chain… and to start exploring the “great potential” that can be found in enterprise blockchain solutions and security tokens.

“The main goal for this year is definitely getting adoption … right now, we are in a really different state to 2017 as we have corporations and enterprises get into this game and see the value in blockchain,” Martins explained.

HTR is merge mineable with Bitcoin, and Hathor says it has been on mainnet for one year with strong processing power. The network plans to treble its hashing rate in the first half of 2021, and is currently negotiating with a major data center in Central Asia.

Data privacy: A huge trend for 2021

HOPR — which allows anyone to run a dedicated hardware node from the comfort of their own home — says that its focus on championing a decentralized community to take care of governance will be solidified by the launch of a project-wide DAO in Q2. A sale of HOPR tokens is currently under way, and all token holders will be able to vote in the first-ever general assembly of the HOPR Association when it takes place toward the end of 2021.

Listings for HTR tokens are also a priority. Talks with several of the world’s biggest crypto exchanges are currently ongoing.

Both CEOs are optimistic for the opportunities that lie ahead, with Martins concluding: “It’s the Year of the Ox — or as the crypto world is saying, the Year of the Bull, so let’s make it count.”