HOPR

What is HOPR and what does it do?

The "Tor of Web3", HOPR is aprotocol that obscures all metadata, including IP addresses, on the transportlayer of the internet. It allows users to run a node, stake HOPR tokens andearn rewards while providing privacy for Web 3 services, such as medtech,crypto and decentralized energy.

WHAT PROBLEM DOES HOPR SOLVE?

Decentralized approaches to digitalservices, finance and data transfer will usher in a new era of freedom,fairness and user choice. But without transport level privacy web3 is actuallyless private than Web 2.0, because exposed metadata can be used to disrupt,exploit and censor users and services, even behind a VPN.

WHAT IS HOPR'S SOLUTION?

HOPR’s decentralized, incentivizedmixnet obscures all metadata, including IP addresses, making it impossible totell anything about who is communicating and what data they’re sending. HOPRcalls this obscured traffic cover traffic.

Cover traffic can be best explainedusing an example.

1. First, picture a single car with     tinted windows driving down an empty road. You don't know who’s inside,     but you can see where it came from and where it’s going.
2. Now picture a road with many     different cars. Tracking a single car is harder, but still possible if you     spend enough attention.
3. Finally, picture all cars on the     road being the same care model. Now it is virtually impossible to know     where a specific car came from, where it's going, and what's inside.

Cover traffic gets you completeprivacy as you navigate, or "browse", the roads and highways ofinternet.

WHAT MAKES HOPR DIFFERENT COMPARED TO THE NEXT BEST ALTERNATIVES?

Unlike other mixnets such as TOR, HOPRusers are rewarded for relaying data. Previously it was assumed that you can’thave incentives and full privacy at the same time: privacy requires anonymity,but with anonymity comes a lot of opportunities to try and cheat the system.HOPR’s payment layer solves this problem with proof of relay.

Proof of relay is HOPR’s majorinnovation over previous mixnets. Previously, there was nothing to ensure noderunners forwarded data, which prevented incentivization and hence scaling. Withproof of relay, node runners are only rewarded once they have provablycompleted their relay task. Crucially, this is achieved without compromisingthe privacy of the mixnet or the individual node runners.

WHAT ARE HOPR'S USE CASES?

• MEDTECH: Sensitive medical data     needs the highest level of privacy. Even when encrypted, metadata from     sensors and health apps can expose information which must legally be kept     private. HOPR makes all data and metadata indistinguishable!
• CRYPTO: Current DeFi and other     crypto services regularly expose the user’s IP address and other metadata     – even if no transaction occurs. This metadata could be stored, used to     link addresses and reveal real world identities.
• DECENTRALIZED ENERGY: To     avoid malicious price manipulation in decentralized energy markets, buyers     and energy suppliers need to ensure they’re transferring the correct     amount of energy for the right price. This can only be solved with a     metadata-private network like HOPR.

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