Holo is a Cryptocurrency that powers the Holochain. Holochain provides a peer-to-peer (P2P) platform for developers to build decentralized applications (DApps) that aims to change the paradigm of data-centric blockchain to an agent-centric system.^[1]

Holo acts as a bridge between the distributed Holochain apps and the current centralized web. Holo brings access to distributed applications to the familiar web browser by creating an ecosystem and currency that enable distributed hosting services provided by peers.^[2]

Holo provides normal, everyday web users access to Decentralized applications (DApp) without needing to install additional software. This new form of hosting blends small consumer-grade devices with other hosting assets to provide an efficient, dynamic, and inclusive hosting ecosystem.^[3]

Founders of Holo

Arthur Brock (Co-Founder)
Holo comes from the word hologram or holographic. Holo was founded by Arthur Brock and Eric Harris-Braun, both of whom are experienced, contract coders. The two first started working on the project in December 2016 as a part of the MetaCurrency Project, a developer of tools ànd technology designed to power a future Peer Peer (P2P) economy. Holo was partially modeled after Ceptr, a cooperative Peer to Peer (P2P) framework for DApps that the two had previously worked on.^[2]

Brock has prior experience coding alternative currency systems as the founder of Geek Gene, a company that developed community-building tools, including more than 100 alternative currency solutions. He also co-founded social-enterprise incubator Emerging Leader Labs and founded open-source education "starter kit" Agile Learning Centers. In March 2019, Brock was named a fellow of the New Zealand-based Edmond Hillary Fellowship.

Harris-Braun started programming full-time in 1988 and is the founder of Glass Bead Software, a developer of peer-to-peer communication software, as well as co-founder of Emerging Leader Labs alongside Brock. In 2003, he co-founded Hàrris-Braun Enterprises, freelance software development and consulting firm. He has also served on the advisory board of the Schumacher Center For New Economics.^[1]

Team Members:

As an open-source project, Holochain is built by the collaborative work of many people in ways both large and small. However, in its current nascent phase, most of the support comes from Holo, a company building out the first large-scale use of Holochain: a network for distributed hosting of Holochain applications.^[1]

About Holo

Holo
How Holo Works
Holo is a Peer-to-peer distributed platform for hosting Decentralized applications (DApp) built using Holochain, a framework for developing DApps that does not require the use of Blockchain technology. The goal of Holo is to serve as a bridge between the broader internet and apps built using Holochain, offering an ecosystem and marketplace in which DApps are easily accessible, as they are hosted on the internet by Holo network participants.^[2]

The Holo network will be facilitated using a token called HoloFuel, which is actively being tested and will act as an accounting system to pay costs for their services. In 2018, the project minted an ERC20 token, HOT, also known as HoloToken as an "IOU" that will be redeemable for HoloFuel upon launch.^[3]

It acts as a bridge between the distributed Holochain apps and the current centralized web. Holo brings access to distributed applications to the familiar web browser by creating an ecosystem and currency that enable distributed hosting services provided by peers.^[1]

Holo does to web hosting what Airbnb did to hotels, anyone can become a host by turning their computer into a source of revenue, getting paid in HoloFuel for hosting distributed applications. The Holo software runs in the background, allocating spare storage and processing power to serve hApps to the legacy web. Hosts choose what hApps to serve, set their own hosting prices, and manage their own priorities.

As its flagship application built on Holochain, Holo’s purpose is to make hApps easily accessible to mainstream Internet users. These users might not be ready to install and experiment with next-gen Crypto software like Holochain, as most are not overly familiar with distributed web applications. However, by typing or clicking on a URL in a web browser, which IS familiar, users will be able to access hApps in the way in which they are already accustomed.^[1]

Holo runs on Holochain—a next-generation framework that is massively scalable, exponentially faster, far more energy efficient, and 10,000x cheaper than Blockchain   .

Holochain

Three Main Sub-System
Holo is a bridge to link our advanced Crypto technology, Holochain, and everyday users.^[1]

Holochain is a validating distributed hash table (DHT) where every node enforces validation rules on data against the signed chains where the data originated.^[3]

In other words, a holochain functions very much like a Blockchain without bottlenecks when it comes to enforcing validation rules, but is designed to be fully distributed through sharding so each node only needs to hold a portion of the data instead of a full copy of a global ledger. This makes it feasible to run Blockchain-like applications on devices as lightweight as mobile phones.^[1]

Holochain apps are versatile, resilient, scalable, and thousands of times more efficient than Blockchain (no token or mining required). The purpose of Holochain is to enable humans to interact with each other by mutual consent to a shared set of rules, without relying on any authority to dictate or unilaterally change those rules. Peer-to-peer interaction means users own and control their data, with no intermediary (e.g., Google, Facebook, Uber) collecting, selling, or losing it.^[1]

Data ownership also enables new frontiers of user agency, letting them do more with their data (imagine truly personal A.I., whose purpose is to serve them, rather than the corporation that created it). With the user at the center, composable and customizable applications become possible.^[3]

Blockchain turns everything into tokens, whereas currencies are optional in Holochain, working best where issuance takes place through the actions of peers (like ratings), or as double-entry accounting. Holochain combines ideas from BitTorrent and Git, along with cryptographic signatures, peer validation.^[2]

Holochain delivers on the dreams of making Decentralized computing easy and real. It provides the underlying cryptographic fabric to maintain data integrity across unlimited peers without requiring consensus Integrity without consensus means:

• immediate and efficient processing
• no Proof-of-work system
• no Proof-of-stake
• no energy wasted on mining
• no bottlenecks nor global delays

In fact, Holochain is so efficient that you can run over 50 full nodes on a cell phone or a $35 Raspberry Pi computer. Holochain even enables scalable Crypto-accounting to build new generations of asset-backed and value-stable cryptocurrencies.^[1]

Programmers can leverage our RAD tools (Rapid Application Development) to quickly build fully P2P web applications designed to operate on the scale of Twitter or Facebook with no centralized data Each user just brings their own device to share a small amount of computing and storage.centers or infrastructure. Each user just brings their own device to share a small amount of computing and storage.^[2]

Holochain meets the demands of people who want to:

• Own their own data
• Control their identity
• Connect applications to suit their needs
• Transact without centralized systems
• Build lighter, faster, cheaper applications

Holochain Architecture

Holochain has a shared DHT in which each piece of data is rooted in the signed hash chain of one or more parties. It is a validating DHT so data cannot propagate without first being validated by shared validation rules held by every node -- like every cell in a human body has a copy of the same DNA.^[1]

Each holochain has these THREE MAIN SUB-SYSTEMS.

Uses of Holochain

Holochain is designed to support and embody social coherence -- groups that want to collaborate or coordinate together according to a set of agreements that allow them to share data or other value in reliable ways.^[3]

Holochains are ideal for:

• Social Networks, Social Media & VRM: if a user wants to run a social network without a company like Facebook in the middle. They want to share, post, publish, or tweet to shared space, while automatically keeping a copy of these things on their own device.
• Supply Chains & Open Value Networks: if a user wants to have information that crosses the boundaries of companies, organizations, countries, which is collaboratively shared and managed, but not under the central control of any one of those organizations
• Cooperatives and New Commons: A user wants to create something which is truly held collectively and not by any particular individual. This is especially good for digital assets.
• P2P Platforms: Peer-to-peer applications where every person has similar capabilities, access, responsibilities, and value is produced collectively.
• Collective Intelligence: Governance, decision-making frameworks, feedback systems, ratings, currencies, annotations, or work flow systems.
• Collaborative Applications: Chats, Discussion Boards, Scheduling Apps, Wikis, Documentation, etc.
• Reputational, or Mutual Credit Cryptocurrencies: Currencies, where issuance can be accounted for by actions of peers (like ratings), or through double-entry accounting are well-suited for holochains. Fiat currencies where tokens are thought to exist independent of accountability by agents are more challenging to implement on holochains.

Overview of Holo Ecosystem

The Holo ecosystem relies on hosts that provide processing and storage for distributed applications while earning redeemable credits.^[1]

Hosts

Holo takes the hosting of sophisticated social applications out of centralized data centers to the edges of the Internet where our devices live. It makes self-scaling infrastructure a reality through peer-to-peer architecture, which automatically performs load-balancing and load-sharing across thousands of or even millions of peers.^[3]

Holo enables hosts to turn a consumer-grade mini-computer into a source of revenue, where they get paid for hosting distributed applications. Hosts choose what apps to serve, and set their own hosting prices and priorities.^[1]

Holo is where the crowd becomes the cloud.^[3]

Distributed Apps

Some of the most popular apps today are made in a way that already needs Holo. Using Holo would mean that Wiki wouldn't have to keep doing fundraising, or social apps like Twitter wouldn't have to struggle for a revenue model while pushing advertising to fund massive infrastructure. Imagine if the more popular an app became, the more hosting power it received from new users installing the app and sharing the load.^[2]

Credits

Hosts are paid in Holo's crypto-credits, called Holo fuel, which are efficiently designed to transact a high volume of micro-transactions. The value of hosting credits stay stabilized because they're backed by a valuable modern asset: computing power. As more hosts come online and share computing power, the network becomes more valuable, giving the credits more purchasing power in relation to the service they are designed to support.^[1]

Holo fuel functions by enabling the long-proven standardized practice of double-entry accounting with layers of cryptographic assurance on top of it. Both parties in a transaction sign the transaction to each other’s account chains, and these transactions are validated by peers on a shared DHT (distributed hash table).

Holo provides a crypto-accounting infrastructure audited and notarized by the network.^[1]

Payment Flow

A common payment flow might be as follows:

1. Application Provider purchases hosting (by buying credits from Holo). Their means of payment (dollars, euro, Ether, Bitcoin, etc.) remains held in a Reserve Account, which enables that account to transfer the credits to the App Provider’s account

2. Host generates signed service logs as they field requests and provide responses to people accessing the app through their web browsers.

3. Host submits a Proof-of-Service invoice to the App Provider when they accumulate a chunk of hosting in their log.

4. App Provider pays the Host in hosting credits after validating the Proof-of-Service.

5. Host might opt to cash out their hosting credits from the Reserve Account where the original payment was made. Cashing out will be in cryptocurrency initially: As we grow we will work with appropriate regulators to determine the best way to include national currency cash-out.

6. A Host can only cash out credits earned for hosting.^[3]

What Makes Holo Unique?

Holo is designed to act as a bridge between Holochain, which represents the world of crypto technology, and everyday users. The project highlights several innovations that it says will "enable a large shift in the landscape of crypto applications and currencies," including the ability to host Peer Peer (P2P) apps on the internet for mainstream users.

The Holo network relies on a series of hosts that provide storage and processing power for DApps built using Holochain. Hosts either install software on their computer that runs in the background and automatically allocates extra processing power to Holochain-based DApps, or they operate a dedicated machine such as a HoloPort. In exchange, hosts are paid in HoloFuel, a token that is specifically designed for Microtransaction. The design of HoloFuel is expected to allow the Holo network to process billions of simultaneous transactions.^[1]

The project's business plan centers on building a P2P ecosystem of hosts and applications, comparing its intended effect on app hosting to that of Uber and Airbnb on the taxi and hotel industries, respectively. Holo charges a fee on HoloFuel transactions, so its revenue model is directly tied to growing the number of applications and hosts on the network.^[3]

Comparing Blockchain and Holochain

The following chart offers a comparison between several aspects of Blockchain and Holochain in terms of approach, energy usage, volume, scalability, platform, and efficiency. This summary can help a developer or community determine whether Holochain or Blockchain is the right platform for their application. The efficiency and scalability of Holochain drive the benefits of energy use and transaction volume.^[1]

Holo Fuel

Holo fuel is not a Crypto -token or crypto coin, but a mutual credit accounting system where every transaction is countersigned on the local chains of both counterparties. This allows us to design the crypto credits to forge new patterns of social and market behaviors that have not previously been utilized for cryptocurrencies.

In particular, the team is optimizing Holo fuel to function as a medium of exchange currency, rather than a store of value currency. To build a thriving Crypto-economy, credits need to circulate rather than be retained as a speculative investment.

There are several important characteristics of Holo fuel:

● It is asset-backed.

● It does not use tokens or coins.

● Transactions are counter-signed by both parties.

This enables a currency supply that breathes, so it can be value-stable without being value-static. Holo fuel is a currency for purchasing computing (processing, bandwidth, and storage), and thus can be thought of as denominated in computing power.

Holo Network Security

The Holo network acts as a bridge between the centralized internet and Holochain, which does not rely on traditional Blockchain technology. As such, it does not rely on global consensus to secure its networks. Rather, each DApp has its own set of validation rules and a local hash chain on which it can store cryptographically signed records. When data is transmitted across multiple nodes, random peers act as validators, receiving data and verifying that it follows the correct rules. Validators use a gossip protocol to share good data among one another and warn of bad data or blacklist bad actors.^[2]

According to its development team, Holo is designed to be as decentralized as possible in order to reduce the risks associated with giving anyone entity too much power. The connection between hosts and applications is end-to-end encrypted, and Holo uses a globally distributed network of servers.^[3]

Exchanges that supports Holo (HOT)

HOT can be purchased on Cryptocurrency Exchanges such as Binance, Bitrue (exchange), Probit, and MXC.COM, among others. It can be traded on spot markets against fiat currencies such as the United States dollar and the Euro, cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH), and the Stablecoin Tether (USDT).^[1]