Privacy protocols and tokens have been of quite a bit of interest to me for quite some time. This might become more and more of a important aspect of cryptocurrencies and blockchains as they evolve into the future. After all, it probably isn't a good idea to be broadcasting every single transaction openly on the internet.. and it is especially less cool if those transactions can be connected and linked back to your real-world identity. Of course, there are those who know how to go completely dark and have some incredibly op-sec when it comes to these things... however, a friend of mine oncetold me when he first introduced me to crypto, that it only takes one little slip up and you are unmasked. At the time, he was talking more about whether or not to declare crypto for taxation purposes... he recommend that you just do it. Otherwise anything that is undeclared would have to NEVER touch anything that could be linked to an identity, and that would include any other crypto wallets. Honestly, that would be just such a pain in the arse... and most of us will never be privacy ninjas anyway. So, just declare... pay the taxes and bask in the thought that you don't have to stress out all the time!

HOPR is one of these protocols that I have had an interest since they launched pretty quietly last year (or was it the year before?). It is more of a communication privacy protocol... however, one that could likely also be built out to include any sort of communication that is broadcast over the internet. It is a Swiss based team with academic roots that seems to be making some interesting slow and steady progress.... no hype, just building... my sort of project! Earlier in the project lifecycle, they had some pretty fun testnet tasks and a cryptography treasure hunt (that is cryptograghy and NOT cryptocurrency) that was pretty damn challenging! Those were serious tasks that rewarded the participants nicely in tokens and with first purchase of the HOPR tokens when they launched.

Recently, they announced (and it also just went live) a staking contract on xDAI. As I understand, these tokens were originally intended to reward stakers to nodes that were providing cover traffic.. but as that wasn't quite ready yet, they just removed the extra staking to cover nodes and just made it for stakers. xDAI is the sidechain of Ethereum which is the native home of the HOPR project... it is interesting that they chose to launch on a sidechain long before these things were well known, a testament to their forward vision and just general nerdiness... and it stopped many people just hopping onboard due to the slight extra technical hurdle.

Unfortunately for me, my HOPR tokens were a bit scattered all over the place. I had some on Ethereum from when the Balancer pool had gone live at the token launch, some on MXC which is in my opinion the best CEX to get early access to low cap tokens, some (w)xHOPR that was sitting waiting for me on a xDAI smart contract, and then I had some on xDAI itself as the native xHOPR. So, all of these pots of HOPR would need to be moved over to xDAI and unwrapped as required... Sigh, thankfully, a couple of weeks ago, the mainnet Ethereum gas fees were still pretty low! A lot of these tokens would have to be moved to my Ethereum hot wallet and take the trip over to xDAI from mainnet through the Omnibridge. Good old Omnibridge... I've been using you quite a bit to get around! However, I see that you are still waiting for that last token transfer that I sent that is being held up by Axie and Stoner Cats! Stupid cats...

Once the tokens were on the right chain and unwrapped, it was just a matter of a few quick transactions to have everything approved and staked. I love the sidechains and L2s... so fast and cheap! I especially like xDAI, as the gas fees are paid out in the stablecoin DAI, so it isn't a volatile asset that you are spending for transactions... if anyone is interested, you can look at your total current value of Ethereum gas fees that you have spend over time on Etherscan... if you were using the mainnet when Ethereum was cheap... you will throw up from seeing that number! Ah well... it was cheap at the time!

Something that is quite interesting that the HOPR team have done is that there will be multipliers for the various staking addresses. These are quite significant, and will have to do with length of holding time, community participation in the DAOs and various other things. These will be rewarded with NFTs and POAPs that can then be staked as well to give a nice bonus multiplier to your base staking rate! I love my Diamond HODL-er NFT! In fact, it is one of the better use cases that I've seen for NFTs... and I'm looking forward to seeing the NFT/POAP idea moving into practical fields rather than serving as an expensive invoice/URL marker.

So, welcome to a little intro to xDAI and HOPR. Privacy protocols are important but difficult projects... I tend to try and back these projects, HOPR is a good serious one. However, these protocols rely on a good deal of trust from the users... and their complete use-case relies on being impenetrable. That is a big call... and one slip means that the whole project can go down hard. I have a bit of faith in the academic credentials of the HOPR team, these protocols are nothing like the DeFi hype machines that are mostly cut-and-paste... privacy takes teams with real skill. I hope that HOPR is going to be a good one!

Handy Crypto Tools

Ledger Nano S/X: Keep your crypto safe and offline with the leading hardware wallet provider. Not your keys, not your crypto!
Binance: My first choice of centralised exchange, featuring a wide variety of crypto and savings products.
Kucoin: My second choice in exchanges, many tokens listed here that you can't get on Binance!
MXC: Listings of lots of interesting tokens that are usually only available on DEXs. Avoid high gas prices!
Coinbase: If you need a regulated and safe environment to trade, this is the first exchange for most newcomers!
Crypto.com: Mixed feelings, but they have the BEST looking VISA debit card in existence! Seriously, it is beautiful!
CoinList: Access to early investor and crowdsale of vetted and reserached projects.
Cointracking: Automated or manual tracking of crypto for accounting and taxation reports.