On Friday 10th September, hi co-founder Sean Rach sat down with Decentralized Club for an Ask-Me-Anything session on their Telegram page with a community of over 30,000 people.
The audience asked several interesting questions that Sean Rach had the pleasure of answering. If you missed the event and would like to know more, you can find highlights of the interview below, and the full transcript here.
Twitter Questions
[May]
Q1. hi recently announced that it reached 1 million users in the first 100 days of the launch of your private beta version. That’s an incredible success! Based on this exponential growth you’ve had, how many active users on your platform do you expect to have by the end of 2021?
Twitter Username: @iracundito
[Sean]
Thanks, @iracundito! We are also excited about our initial growth and hope we can count on your support to continue to invite friends to join hi.
Our internal target is to shoot for at least 10 M members in the first year.
With the community’s support, we can shoot past this on our way to improving the lives of 1 Billion members!
[May]
Q2. You have a core team strength of just four members. Do you think this number is capable enough to handle the day-to-day task of overseeing the Hi project and blockchain and the many demands that come with it?
Twitter Username: @theyasflower
[Sean]
Thanks, @theyasflower for the question and this feedback.
Our team is not just the four people shown on the website currently – may be time for a bit of an update!
In fact, as we close this week our team is roughly 80 people.
With the tech team – app and blockchain devs and engineers, KYC/AML team members, product development, QA, HR, Finance, Creative, and Marketing.
We are aggressively hiring and have been blessed to have found so many passionate and committed team members.
We have posting for roles on our hi.com.
[May]
Q3. Hi, Gabriel here, I have been following the project for a few months. My question is about the hi Protocol (hiP) which promises to deliver zero transaction fees. That’s a really tempting promise and I would like to know how you guys would do it and how would this work. Thank you.
Twitter Username: @gabriel_dot_com
[Sean]
Hi @Gabriel_dot_com, for more on our thinking behind the hi Protocol (hiP) check out our whitepaper (posted above)
We like to push the edge. Unlike Ethereum, where gas fees are incurred by all users of blockchain, transactions will be free for a majority of end-users of applications built on hiP.
By staking hi Dollars, authorized members may access the distributed computing resources provided by nodes and execute smart contract functions on the network.
While the smart contract may charge fees or require a token stake from end-users, they are not required to pay additional transaction fees to the network.
For the network to be commercially viable, block producers will be compensated from a pool of hi Dollars that is derived from token inflation.
Hope we didn’t lose anyone there but more information will be coming as we develop the hiP over the next year.
Website Questions
[May]
Q1. You say hi is priced at a substantial discount as it is based on market cap per holder. How is this different from other coins/tokens? Is this a substantially different pricing method and does this mean the price will remain lower because of this? (God I hope not!)
Hi nickname: Tomc878
Telegram Username: @Tomc878
[Sean]
Hi TomC, while we don’t comment on the price of the hi Dollar, I can tell you that we are early in our development (as we discussed with regards to the Roadmap).
We do feel the “network” of members is valuable and this MCPH metric from our website (www.hi.com/dollars) makes the point that many tokens are not held by many (limiting utility).
With our vision to reach 1B+ members this value will be seen over time.
[May]
Q2. According to hi’s roadmap, hi estimates the development of debit and credit cards. What requirements must a customer meet to access both the debit and credit card? What reach would each of these cards have?
Telegram Username: @Lestmarisv13
[Sean]
Hi @Lestmarisv13, we are planning to offer a virtual debit card in due course.
Please note, (and based on my personal experience) the development of fiat services is quite complicated and much slower than crypto services.
That said, typically, members will need to share proof of address in addition to their identity verification.
In terms of reach, the process is slow as each jurisdiction requires a separate program.
Obviously, the EU/EEA offers many markets in one program.
After that, there are a number of regulatory requirements for each market.
This space has been developing significantly in recent years and we hope to offer them as soon as possible.
But, we are designing a utility in our platform that is not dependent on a method and form of payment that may not last this decade.
I personally don’t really want another card… I am happy to have it on my phone 😅😁
[May]
Q3. I was reading an article where they compared the work done by HI with what the famous Robin Hood did. In fact, the article called you “The Robin Hood of Crypto”. Exactly why does this comparison arise? Do you “take from the rich to give to the poor”?
Thank you!
Telegram Username: @shitosan
[Sean]
Hi @Shitosan, though you are not wrong in questioning the author’s reference, I see it more as a reference to Robinhood, the stock trading platform,
that lowered stock trading fees to zero and thus opened the market to many more people.
The challenge is that to offer their services at zero commission, they sold their customers’ data – their order flow – to subsidize their operations.👎
We have a different approach – as seen in the opening video – based on our membership token.
By buying hi Dollars, you get access to tiered levels of service. And if you no longer want to use the services, you have the option to sell your tokens.
We are not motivated to extract profits – we are motivated to build and grow membership value.
As a member, you will benefit from no added fees (covering costs due to partner requirements) and no markups.
Not quite taking from the rich… but hopefully making a much fairer alternative to the current system.
For everyone…
Live Questions
[Nhairy]
Why do you consider that the emergence of blockchain technology is a momentous moment in the history of humanity, what is the impact of blockchain on society and how do the transparency and efficiency of the Internet and inclusive financial services influence a better society for all?
[Sean]
The impact has yet to be seen. With up to 200M people having crypto now, we are only at the equivalent of 1999-2000 in comparison to the internet. Our banking and finance system has evolved over centuries to become nearly solely focused on profit and extraction vs transparency and fairness. This is beginning to change.
[Femi Oyinloye]
Where can I find tutorials or detailed guides for all the hi functionalities?
Is your service available in all markets?
[Sean]
Please visit hi.com as well as our YouTube page: https://www.youtube.com/hiofficialYT for these.
But hopefully, we have done our job and it will be simple enough to use without instructions. If not, please give us feedback so that we can improve.
[Algrsan]
I am a professional vulnerability finder on the web, do you think Your system is secure enough from hackers? Does your project have a program that rewards individual vulnerability detection of the system?
[Sean]
Thanks for this. One thing we need to take live is our white hat program. We do have security researchers working for and with us but we all know that we must always be vigilant.
[Queen]
Why is it impossible to get the HI dollars I have earned out?? Why do I have to send money in to get it out??
[Sean]
Hi, the rewards that are earned are locked for one year and then released. Those that purchase HI with a 1 or 4-year lockup have a daily, proportional release.
We feel that the value of HI will increase as we build out our platform and attract more users. You are early. Invite more friends and enjoy!
[Crypto Flower]
You explain that your first service is the world’s first universal cross-ecosystem mobile financial services and mobile payments platform. But why did you decide to start with a product like this? What other products do you plan to develop after this product is consolidated?
[Sean]
We think this is the key to driving real mass adoption. No one really wants to download another app… so make it already on 3.8 Billion smartphones thru chat apps. Onboarding is done in 2 secs.
Next, we already offer a WebApp web.hi.com and later this month we will release our first version of mobile apps (allowing richer features and advanced graphical interface).
[Algrsan]
Explain your plans on global expansion, is it only the market you are focusing All the time, And you focus on building or developing and getting customers and users, or partnerships?
[Sean]
We treat compliance as a core competence and while we would like to be open to all, we have to respect the various rules/regulations/sanctions, etc. Currently, we have 1.3 Million users from over 160 countries. As we develop, we will obtain the required licenses or partners as necessary to reach as many people as possible.
Some of these questions have been asked above or can be found on hi.com or in our whitepaper. Will try to answer more.
[Junior Ferreira]
Honestly wanting to reach the one billion members in the hi ecosystem is a brutal figure, but how are they working
Day by day go on the way to those billion members, have they implemented or will implement any ambassador program worldwide or what mass marketing plan will they be executing and finally they already have planned according to their analysis so that approximate date they could be reaching this goal?
[Sean]
This is just the beginning. We know that Word of Mouth is the most effective way to drive awareness and trial. We explicitly would rather reward our members to invite friends than give more money to Mark Z or Google.
We have a few things cooking but if every member referred just one member a day for 10 days… we would be past 10Million users…. 10M leads to 100M and so on.