PROPOSAL: The HOPR Community should invest into a HOPR product company

Dear HOPR token holders,

I’m writing on behalf of Swiss-based HOPR rise holding AG (in incorporation) with a proposal to invest in the future of the HOPR ecosystem.

What follows is a brief explanation of the proposal and investment terms. The HOPR Association will separately provide their endorsement of this proposal and elaborate on the rationale behind it.

Proposal

Transfer 900k DAI + 37m HOPR to the Swiss-based HOPR rise holding AG (in incorporation) in exchange for its equity at a 50% discount compared to a future investment round. This equity will be transferred to a newly incorporated HOPR Community Trust within three months and will be managed by HOPR token holders.

Pool Details

The 900k DAI + 37m HOPR should be taken from the Uniswap HOPR-DAI 0.3% pool on Ethereum mainnet. This is around half of the pool. The Uniswap HOPR-ETH 0.01% pool on Ethereum mainnet (TVL $230k) and the HOPR-xDAI 0.3% pool on Swapr on Gnosis Chain (TVL $430k) would remain untouched.

Rationale

The rationale for this is threefold:

  • Provide exclusive early-stage investment in future products built on top of the HOPR protocol
  • Reduce the size of the main HOPR liquidity pool for a sustainable ecosystem
  • Prepare for upcoming HOPR governance upgrades

Investment Terms

HOPR rise holding AG is a Swiss-based holding company, separate from the HOPR Association. Its mandate is to fund the development of the HOPR ecosystem and centrally manage the operational entities, particularly products built on top of the HOPR protocol.

If this proposal passes, the funds will pass to the HOPR rise holding AG. Separately, a BVI-based trust will be established to implement governance decisions from HOPR token holders related to the assets governed by the current HOPR DAO. Once this is done, no later than three months from this proposal passing, equity will be transferred from HOPR rise holding AG to HOPR Community Trust to be managed by HOPR token holders.

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Dear community,

Most of you will know me, but in case you don’t I’m Sebastian Bürgel, HOPR founder. This post is to provide some context and endorsement for the proposal from the newly established HOPR rise holding company. I hope you’ll support this proposal and the exciting opportunity it represents for HOPR token holders, the HOPR ecosystem and web3 governance in general: it’s very rare for decentralized entities to be able to engage in these kinds of investment activities.

First of all, the proposal is genuine and endorsed by the HOPR Association. For legal reasons it’s important that it doesn’t come from the HOPR founders or the HOPR Association. We’re currently engaged in an overhaul of the HOPR governance and a big part of it is the creation of separate legal entities with specific purposes, rather than trying to lump everything under the vague heading of “DAO”.

For those interested, I’d recommend reading this great post from web3 lawyer Gabriel Shapiro.

For my part, I’ll focus on providing some context for this proposal and why we think it’s a great opportunity for HOPR token holders

#Investment in HOPR Ecosystem
If you’ve been following HOPR’s progress over the past few months, you’ll know that the network is bigger and more stable than ever and we’re starting to see real products that use HOPR, most notably RPCh.

With RPCh, the HOPR ecosystem has its first paying clients and with the imminent switch of the network from mHOPR to wxHOPR, HOPR will have its first protocol revenue. Having sustainable protocol revenue is a huge deal in crypto. We have huge goals for RPCh but even in its early stages, this revenue will place us in the top 100 crypto projects by revenue - among projects such as TheGraph or Zerion.

This is a huge deal for investors, and RPCh already has a lot of interest. And RPCh is just the first of many products to launch on top of HOPR.

HOPR token holders benefit from these products indirectly: these products use the HOPR mixnet, so node runners earn tokens for relaying the data they need. And as more products and users need HOPR tokens, the benefits should also feed back to HOPR token holders.

However, we think it also makes sense for HOPR token holders to be able to benefit directly from these products, and at the very earliest stages. This investment represents the kind of opportunity usually reserved for VCs and other similar players. In the new exciting world of web3, we think it makes sense for these opportunities to be open to an entire community and not just the privileged few.

Liquidity Management

This also intertwines closely with another issue which we’ve been dealing with throughout these governance experiments: the launch of the HOPR token raised a lot of money, and it’s clear that it could be managed more efficiently.

The HOPR token has some of the deepest liquidity in crypto, absolutely enormous given the HOPR market cap. This has upsides and downsides, but the result is that the price is extremely resistant to change. It also means that there’s a lot of money that’s doing basically nothing.

We discussed this at length during our fifth governance experiment, where we looked into automated liquidity management from external providers. Those trials are ongoing, but it’s also clear that these services make the issue worse, not better: efficiently managing our liquidity frees up even more funds!

Having unused money is a great problem to have, but in the current landscape there are limitations on how this money can be used. Investing in the future of the HOPR ecosystem is an exciting option which we feel makes a lot of sense.

New Governance

Finally, we’ve been planning huge upgrades to our governance behind the scenes. You’ll be hearing a lot more about this over the upcoming weeks, but the tl;dr is that hopefully this will be the last (or last but one) governance experiment and HOPR governance will evolve to its final form: something much more decentralized, much more autonomous, and much more organized.

There’s a lot of legal admin to take care of before we can proceed, but this proposal will help to get things in the right place for the new system.

This is a lot to take in, so we’ll definitely be checking in regularly to support the discussion. We’ll also be hosting a Twitter Space on Tuesday May 9th at 4pm CEST, as these were very successful in the past.

63 Likes

Good setup - I like it, another underlying value for the HOPR token and preparing the HOPR Uniswap pool for lift-off, this is great!

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very good idea :slight_smile:

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I support this proposal I think that is a good idea :bulb:

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I support this proposal. I liked it. I hope it will effect hopr price

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I find this proposal quite intriguing, and I appreciate the forward-thinking approach to investing in the future of the HOPR ecosystem. However, I do have a few questions that need to be addressed to better understand the implications and potential benefits of this proposal.

  1. What are the main objectives of the proposal to transfer funds to Swiss-based HOPR rise holding AG?
  2. How will the HOPR Association’s endorsement support the proposal?
  3. Why is it important for the HOPR Community Trust to be managed by HOPR token holders?
  4. How does this proposal impact the various liquidity pools, such as the Uniswap HOPR-DAI 0.3% pool, Uniswap HOPR-ETH 0.01% pool, and HOPR-xDAI 0.3% pool on Swapr?
  5. What are the potential benefits of reducing the size of the main HOPR liquidity pool?
  6. How does this proposal plan to prepare for upcoming HOPR governance upgrades?
  7. In what ways might exclusive early-stage investment in future products built on top of the HOPR protocol benefit the HOPR ecosystem?
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I’m quite excited about this proposal.

But I have some questions:

  1. Is there more information available for
    “Swiss-based HOPR rise holding AG”?

  2. QUOTE:
    For legal reasons it’s important that it doesn’t come from the HOPR founders or the HOPR Association.

Who is in charge of “HOPR rise holding AG”? Does a board of directors exist yet?

10 Likes

As always, thank you HOPR, the ideas / proposal are always well thought through, nicely described and of serious matter!

I like the proposal. Especially the idea of somehow centralizing (I know, bad expression in Web3 context) skills & responsibility around business development in the organization. In this case, I guess it makes sense to establish a new entity because of regulatory reasons as well. Also the technicalities where to get the liquidity are good and the post relating to new governance is interesting.

My only input is actually, that the “Rise Holding AG” should think of different “rising”-strategies. In the medium post, it sounds like HOPR would fund most of the products. However, I would speak for most of the projects/ products only being partially funded. Reasons for it are manifold

  • mitigating risks
  • increasing investment flexibility
  • building relationships
  • effective portfolio management

But, most importantly in the case of the HOPR ecosystem: Incentivization
Funding only part of a project can align the incentivation of the project owner with the Rising Holding AG. The project owner is more incentivized to achieve the milestones necessary to secure additional funding, which can help to ensure that the project stays on track and meets its goals, esp. when the goals are aligned properly to HOPR ecosystem growth strategy.

PS: also look out that majority in Rising Holding AG is secured, also with future/ potentially several funding rounds…

17 Likes

Thanks for the proposal.

It would be nice to have some graphical representation of all the entities (HOPR rise holding AG, HOPR Association, HOPR Community Trust, HOPR Dao, HOPR token holders, ???) their relationships, holdings, mandates etc. for a better overview and what kind of transactions are proposed in the proposal.

Solarmonk

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I find the idea very interesting, but I think we are missing many details for a decision. From my point of view it is a decision we should consider very well, because we give a very big part of our liquidity to HOPR rise holding AG.

  1. What plans does HOPR rise holding AG have with the liquidity? Are there already partners or are there already talks with possible partners?

  2. who is behind HOPR rise holding AG?

  3. what percentage of HOPR rise holding AG will HOPR DAO hold?

  4. since these are investments, what is the estimated return on investment?

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I have been following Hopr for a while now and I agree that the project has been moving forward. The hopr nodes have been more stable and Rpch has been improved. I think any idea that can help continue the progress of the project should be supported. Tuning out the noise now and focusing on building in my opinion is the way to go especially in todays market and where the market looks like it’s heading.
I also think its a no brainer to invest in what is currently being built especially since it will generate revenue for the project. Investing now for the what looks like a great future for Hopr makes sense to me!

5 Likes

This proposal presents an interesting opportunity for the growth and development of the HOPR ecosystem, and I can see the potential it holds for advancing the project. Nevertheless, there are four crucial questions that I would like to raise to gain a deeper understanding of the potential risks and rewards associated with this proposal.

  1. Given the 50% equity discount compared to a future investment round, how has the proposed valuation for HOPR rise holding AG been determined, and what factors have been taken into account to ensure a fair valuation for both parties involved?
  2. What measures will be in place to ensure the HOPR Community Trust’s management by HOPR token holders is both transparent and resistant to potential manipulation or collusion among a select few?
  3. As the HOPR Association will provide their endorsement and elaborate on the rationale behind the proposal, what guarantees or contingencies are in place to protect the interests of HOPR token holders should the proposal not meet its intended objectives or if unforeseen challenges arise?
  4. How does the proposal plan to address the potential market impact on HOPR token value and liquidity, considering the significant transfer of funds from the Uniswap HOPR-DAI 0.3% pool?
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Kinda sad to know this might be the last. These discussions are pretty fun but looking forward to hearing how the new governance will work. Thanks for allowing us to have these discussions, voting and letting our inputs be heard!

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I agree. They are fun, and also help to keep token holder involved.
I think HOPR association will still hold to the idea of it. On medium, they write that the core process will stay the same (Propose, Discuss, Sign, Vote).

However, will be key that community/forum manager will translate feedback effectively and bring it to the team.

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great initiative, you have my full support

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great initiative, thanks for the opportunity

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Thank you for sharing your proposal. It’s encouraging to see the team’s dedication to transparency and community involvement, as well as the progress made in various areas. I have a few questions regarding the details:

  1. I am curious about the role that HOPR rise holding AG plays in the HOPR ecosystem. It is unclear to me what its mandate is and how it is different from that of the HOPR Association. Is it a way to mitigate legal risks or whether there are other motivations at play?

  2. What governance upgrades are you preparing for, and how will they impact HOPR token holders?

I appreciate the opportunity for discussion and the upcoming Twitter Space event. Keep up the good work!

5 Likes

The proposal appears to be driven by the HOPR Association, with limited input or involvement from the wider HOPR community. Here are my comments:

  • Lack of clarity on how the HOPR Community Trust will be managed by HOPR token holders. Could you please provide more info on this?
  • Uncertainty on how the exclusive early-stage investment will benefit the HOPR ecosystem. Do you have a development roadmap that can be shared with HOPR Community?
  • Could you provide more information on the future investment round and how it will be affected by the proposed 50% discount?
  • The proposal suggests that investing in the HOPR ecosystem is a great opportunity, but does not provide a comprehensive analysis of the risks associated with such investments. I have no doubts that HOPR founders are professionals. Is it possible that the DAO will contribute to the decision-making of this Community Trust?
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