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Show HN: Hyperledger – Open Payments Protocol

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Re: Show HN: Hyperledger – Open Payments Protocol

#21

Post by danoprey »

poseid wrote: post #17

nicely done! I like the easy overview on creating accounts and making transfers. i am wondering, when everything is free and open-source here, how is the business model?

Thanks a lot!

As the other commenter noted, our only plan to directly monetise the project is via a commercially supported premium consensus pool. However, long term we do plan to set up a commercial entity to build on top of hyperledger (in the same way that anyone could) to offer various related services. This are all in far too early stages to share just yet though, I'm afraid!

Re: Show HN: Hyperledger – Open Payments Protocol

#22

Post by danoprey »

drcode wrote: post #18

Haven't looked into the product yet, but I have to say the web page itself is one of the most beautiful I've seen, from a pure aesthetic standpoint- No dumb animation, uncluttered, distinctive, consistent theming with appropriate use of color, full use of available viewport space, thumbs up to the designer!

Wow. Well thank you for putting a huge smile on my face. Very kind comment and extremely appreciated. Thought it would make a nice change from all the flat design sites out there. I hope your experience with everything else is as good!

Re: Show HN: Hyperledger – Open Payments Protocol

#23

Post by danoprey »

qatrix wrote: post #16

I think it will be very useful for start-ups for who are hard and too much job to develop payment system. Maybe try it in the further:)

Thanks a lot. Payment networks can be extremely complicated so we all benefit by working on the same underlying layer, as long as it is truly open. Please do and let us know how you get along!

Re: Show HN: Hyperledger – Open Payments Protocol

#24

Post by fiatjaf »

haarts wrote: post #20

How does it compare with Open Transactions ( http://opentransactions.org )?

I've tried, but never came to understand Open Transactions, but I understood this without even reading. If they are similar, OT made a really poor job explaining itself.

Re: Show HN: Hyperledger – Open Payments Protocol

#25

Post by feichtinger »

haarts wrote: post #20

How does it compare with Open Transactions ( http://opentransactions.org )?

Open Transactions is definitely a similar project and has some really sophisticated financial features. However, our aim is a little different; we want to focus on one thing -- ledgers -- and ensure that it's as simple and easy-to-use as possible, but with a high level of trust because the service is replicated by a number of different parties.

Re: Show HN: Hyperledger – Open Payments Protocol

#26

Post by tonetheman »

danoprey wrote: post #7
tonetheman wrote: post #4

Seriously I am too stupid to even know what this is... even after I read the FAQ. :(

Haha. Perhaps we need to update our intro then, as I highly doubt that's true! Essentially, hyperledger is a decentralised set of servers (owned and operated by lots of different people). Each server has the same collection of ledgers, accounts and balances, as each other, i.e., they have consensus over who owns what. When there is a transaction between accounts, the client that controls the account notifies one serv…

I did finally get that it was like a distributed setup for a ledger. Thanks for the extra explanation!

Re: Show HN: Hyperledger – Open Payments Protocol

#27

Post by mrb »

danoprey wrote: post #13
abc123xyz wrote: post #10

Is this Ripple in disguise? Who are the people behind this project??

There are lots of similarities but also some very key differences. The main one being that there is no native currency like XRP, so there is no risk of a similar situation to the current fiasco arising. hyperledger is designed to be far more light weight and flexible than Ripple, meaning that instead of just being a conduit to trade other assets, hyperledger allows organisations to also issue their own assets, which…

"there is no risk of a similar situation to the current fiasco arising"

Actually there is. The Ripple fiasco arised because the creator (jed) owned a large amount of XRP, and decided to sell large quantities of it, hence crashing the market. In hyperledger, organisations can issue their own assets, therefore can own a large quantity, therefore can crash the market by selling a lot.

Hyperledger as a platform is technically independent of and will survive such market crashes, but this is kind of irrelevant since the currencies/assets it enables the creation of are exactly vulnerable to all the same flaws that XRP is vulnerable to. Ultimately the users of hyperledger don't care about the platform, but care about the value, fungibility, liquidity of the currencies/assets.

Furthermore, it seems to me hyperledger is not decentralized at all. IIUC the issuance of the currencies/assets is 100% controlled by the rules defined by the organisations that created these currencies/assets, so who would guarantee me for example that organisation X is not going to issue 100 billion more units of currency Y tomorrow?

Re: Show HN: Hyperledger – Open Payments Protocol

#29

Post by feichtinger »

mrb wrote: post #27
danoprey wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are lots of similarities but also some very key differences. The main one being that there is no native currency like XRP, so there is no risk of a similar situation to the current fiasco arising. hyperledger is designed to be far more light weight and flexible than Ripple, meaning that instead of just being a conduit to trade other assets, hyperledger allows organisations to also issue their own assets, which…

"there is no risk of a similar situation to the current fiasco arising" Actually there is. The Ripple fiasco arised because the creator (jed) owned a large amount of XRP, and decided to sell large quantities of it, hence crashing the market. In hyperledger, organisations can issue their own assets, therefore can own a large quantity, therefore can crash the market by selling a lot. Hyperledger as a platform is techni…

Hi mrb,

That's a great point, but at this stage I do think there's a critical distinction between something that's inherent to the platform and something that sits on top of it. Right now we're really focusing only on building the platform and ensuring that it's eventually widely used and trusted.

We have some thoughts about systems for building trust in issuing parties, but that's a long way off!

There are some non-currency assets which can be recorded on hyperledger which don't necessarily have the same concerns. For example, stocks in a company, airline miles, or phone credit.

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