Over the past month, we've spoken with a lot of different members of the community. The INLEO proposal has been met with a lot of questions. Keeping an open dialogue with Hive users and prominent members of the community is something that we are very happy to do. As many know, I am big on feedback. I believe in having open feedback loops, deploying new ideas and iterating quickly toward the end goal.
Closed Source vs. Open Source
I have been pretty headstrong about INLEO remaining closed source in our early days. We've been building our tech stack for 6 years on Hive now which includes (but isn't limited to):
- INLEO UI
- LeoCache Backend
- LeoInfra Backend
- Onboarding Protocols
- LeoPolls (Stake-Weighted Polling Protocol on Hive)
- LeoMobile App (Previously Dapplr, whom we acquired and adapted for Threads)
- LeoMobile APIs & Backend
- LeoLightning
- LeoSigner
- LeoImages
- LeoAI
- etc. etc.
In short, INLEO has been building a massive tech stack on Hive for 6 years. This is no secret. We've been constantly innovating new features, ideas and implementations since we started building on Hive. There are numerous reasons to do many of the things we do in a closed source environment.
Open Sourcing INLEO?
That all being said, I am open to feedback and I do hear people when they give it to me. I have spoken with a lot of different people in the ecosystem from the largest whales on Hive to the smallest minnows. We have been brainstorming what INLEO can do better to be a better force for good on Hive.
Being that our goal is to onboard new users and investors to Hive which will ultimately drive up the price of HIVE (Market Cap), many have asked why we don't open source our onboarding tech.
Afterall, we're making a big ask to the DHF in this proposal. Our proposal is about marketing and onboarding new users from other ecosystems. "If your goal is to grow Hive and bring maximum value in the form of onboarding new users, wouldn't it be better if your onboarding tech was open source and easy-to-implement across all Hive UIs? Wouldn't it make the collaborative marketing campaigns 10x more effective since new users can be funneled into any UI and see the same seamless onboarding experience as INLEO?"
Someone asked me this question a few days ago during my various discussions and it struck a much different chord than previous discussions about open sourcing various things that INLEO builds for Hive.
As many in the community know, I am willing to try anything and innovate & adapt on the fly. While I do have some reservations, I believe that this path can bring a lot of good to Hive - especially in conjunction with our collaborative approach to marketing that we are proposing to the DHF.
In addition to the collaborations we're bringing to Hive with this proposal with ecosystems like Solana, Arbitrum, ChainLink, etc. we will now also be open sourcing all of INLEO's Hive Onboarding Protocols.
The onboarding protocols we've built create a seamless, easy-to-use onboarding flow that feels as easy as Web2 but creates a Hive account for each user. If you haven't tried them before, you can go to https://inleo.io/signup and experience them for yourself. I recommend trying the Keystore signup method, it allows you to make a Hive wallet, Dash wallet, BTC wallet, ETH wallet, ARB wallet, etc. all in one-click and it ties them all seamlessly together.
onboarding flow for Keystore signups. We have over 8 signup options and flows like this one for INLEO & Hive that we will be open sourcing
This brings a significant change to our proposal for the HIVE DHF along with a few other pieces of feedback we've taken in.
Our Proposal
Our proposal is currently 77% of the way to the funding line. We believe that strategic collaborations with other crypto ecosystems is a fantastic way to grow Hive. This has worked very well with the Dash ecosystem and we have all seen the results. Many new onboards and many of them are retained and sticking around. We believe that this original vision of the collaboration approach to growth combined with open sourcing the Onboarding protocols that we've spent immense time and resources building are a great value add to the Hive ecosystem and well worth our ask from the DHF.
The goal of onboarding is not just to get new users, but also to retain them. I believe that onboarding a whole community at once is a fantastic way to do that. There is a lot more stickiness when users come with peers that they are familiar with and share common interests.
We imagine the future looks a lot like this: partnerships with some of the largest ecosystems. Getting them involved on Hive through their favorite wallet method as a sign up option and then getting them interested in actually owning HIVE POWER over time. This has begun to work well with Dash and we believe that scaling it up - strategically and over a long period of time - is a great way for us to grow Hive.
In addition to the collaborations, we will now also be Open Sourcing our Onboarding technology for Hive:
This means that any UI will be able to tap into the signup protocols that we've built:
- Keystore signups (allows you to make a Hive wallet, Dash wallet, BTC wallet, ETH wallet, ARB wallet, etc. all in one-click and it ties them all seamlessly together)
- Signup with X (Hive Lite Account)
- Signup with Google (Hive Lite Account)
- Create a Hive Account (Old School Method but With X Verification)
- Metamask Wallet Signups
As part of our collaborations for 2025, we are also integrating:
- CTRL Wallet Signups
- Vultisig Wallet Signups
- Solana Wallet Signups
- Etc.
In addition to the signups themselves, our onboarding protocols solve another critical bottleneck for new users - Resource Credits.
We will also open source our Dynamic RC Delegation System that we've built to handle the growing need for RCs for new users on Hive.
Open Source is Not Enough.. We Will Also Make it Plug-and-Play:
Again, my goal is to bring maximum value to Hive. I think that open sourcing these code bases is not enough. The resources to both run these code bases and protocols can also get quite expensive. I have always paid for these resources out of my own pocket (server costs, maintenance, account creation credits on Hive, Resource Credits on Hive).
As part of this proposal, I will also share my resources for these things and allow other Hive UIs to tap into our APIs to onboard. This means that other UIs could use our onboarding signups / account creation credits / dynamic resource delegation system by simply plugging into the API. Free of charge to the UI. This makes it easy, seamless and free for Hive UIs to utilize both our onboarding protocols as well as the resources to create accounts and service them with RCs.
With this proposal, consider that all of these things are now included. While I've spent a lot of time and resources building these things and have been resistant to open sourcing them, I do believe that having a "Hive Standard" for onboarding new users from Web2 to Web3 can create prosperity for all Hive UIs.
Timeline to Open Source
I know that in the past, some projects have left the DHF hanging or waiting till the end to get Open Source tech released. INLEO will not do this. In good faith, we will Open Source our Onboarding Protocols and APIs within 60 days of this proposal being approved. That will still leave quite a bit of time left on our proposal but bear in mind that our proposal is STILL centered around the collaborations.
We want to make these collaborations with other ecosystems happen and we believe that getting the Open Source tech & APIs into the hands of other UIs as soon as possible will bring maximum benefit to Hive in the form of collaborative onboarding.
Additionally, the maintenance and other signup options will come throughout the course of the year. For example, the Solana wallet integrations happening when the Solana collab goes live, CTRL wallet Hive signup option, Vultisg wallet signup option, etc.
These future integrations will also be added to both our Open Source codebase as well as the Open APIs for other Hive UIs.
What Our Proposal is About
In short, our proposal is to replicate our incredibly successful Dash campaign with other ecosystems. We are now also including the Open Sourcing of all of our onboarding technology alongside the original promises of Collaborative Campaigns.
We are asking the Hive DHF for funds strictly to be used to market these integrations to our target audience.
Originally, we were going to do 1 campaign every month for the entirety of 2025. We understand that this is a pretty aggressive timeline and can appreciate the feedback we've seen that spreading this out might have advantages:
- More time between each campaign allows us to adjust for the next campaign. Seeing what works and what doesn't work. Ensuring that HIVE's best interest is always upheld
- Allowing more time for users to become accustomed to the platform before the next wave of new users comes in
- Allowing us as an ecosystem more time to successfully retain each user and ensure they are successful on Hive
- Ensuring that this path - onboarding through collaboration - is indeed the right path to take. Again, adjusting based on real-time feedback from the Hive community and ecosystem at large
With this feedback in mind, we are extending the timelime between each partnership. Instead of doing 1 new partnership each month, we will do 1 new partnership every 3 months. We will adjust accordingly and take in feedback from the Hive community.
What the Funding is For
Another key piece of feedback is "what is the funding for?". The funding is entirely for marketing and onboarding expenses directly related to collaborating with other ecosystems. None of this funding will be used for anything that isn't directly related to marketing. We will utilize the funds for onboarding & marketing the integrations with other ecosystems with the KPI of onboarding & retaining users.
We are asking for $695 per day for the duration of our proposal and the entire $695 per day will be allocated to marketing & onboarding our collaborative partnership integrations that utilize our open source onboarding protocols to Hive Blockchain accounts.
We anticipate spending ~$50k on each collaboration specifically for marketing expenses. It is very possible that a collaboration's marketing budget may cost more than $50k, we will pay the additional costs from our own pocket. Of course, all team and technology expenses are not covered in this DHF Proposal whatsoever. The funding from this proposal is strictly to be used on marketing expenses and nothing else.
We have already paid the resources and time that has come with multiple iterations of our onboarding protocols. We are willing to open source this and give it to the Hive ecosystem as part of this proposal. It's cost us quite a lot of money to develop this tech stack but instead of asking for money to "pay us back" for developing it, we are still asking for money to market it through these collaborations. My goal is still to drive maximum value to Hive by onboarding more users and investors to HIVE.
TLDR;
This proposal is a revised and updated version of the prior proposal we have released to the community for support. The core of the proposal remains the same: we will onboard new users to Hive using strategic collaborations with some of the largest ecosystems in the crypto industry. We will do so by creating their own "skin" on the INLEO UI (accessible via themes) and allowing their users to seamlessly create a Hive account using INLEO's Open Source onboarding technology. We have made a few key changes in response to feedback we've received from the Hive community:
- Open source our onboarding technology
- Give clarity on the purpose of funds from the DHF (strictly for marketing expenses on each collaboration)
- Scale the collaborations slower
Our mission has always been to grow the Hive blockchain and we believe that these strategic collaborations along with the marketing funds we are requesting will lead to that happening. By open sourcing our onboarding/sign-in tech, we can help other Hive UIs onboard more Hive accounts as well and usher in an era of new users on Hive.
We hope that these changes go even further beyond the feedback we've heard about the various bullet points above. Our aim has always been to grow Hive and add maximum value to the ecosystem. I hope that by not only Open Sourcing our Onboarding innovations but also creating seamless Plug-and-Play APIs for other Hive UIs in addition to our collaborations with other ecosystems, we are providing far more value to Hive than we are asking for in this proposal.
If you think that open sourcing our onboarding tech + doing these collaborations are worth it for the Hive blockchain, vote for our proposal: