As a testament to the fact that "the bear market is for building," the cryptocurrency exchange Bitfinex, Tether (USDT), and Hypercore recently announced the launch of Holepunch, a completely encrypted platform for creating peer-to-peer apps. The trio began the project by releasing Keet, an encrypted program enabling instantaneous audio and video conversations, text chat, and file sharing. The announcement states that partners intend to grant ownership over data while dismantling technological monopolies using Holepunch. https://twitter.com/Tether_to/status/1551511706685292545
Tether and Bitfinex Funds Used to Create Holepunch
The Holepunch platform was developed using funding from Tether and Bitfinex. The new initiative's chief strategy officer will be Paolo Ardoino, the chief technical officer of Tether and Bitfinex. By the end of 2022, Holepunch will transition from being a closed source protocol used in its alpha or pre-release stages to an open source protocol. Holepunch will switch to an internal payments API powered by the Lightning Network and Abandon Blockchain technology. Developers creating Holepunch-based products will be able to set USDT as the default currency for micropayments. The startup has not yet revealed whether it supports other cryptocurrencies or stablecoins. The alliance will concentrate its efforts on particular metaverse-related issues, such as developing protocols, transferable identities, gateways across virtual worlds, mapping, and indexing, as well as defining standards for nonfungible tokens (NFTs).