We began an integration of blockchain tech as part of the Hydrogen platform during the summer of 2017. Our main consideration was how the Hydrogen API ecosystem, being fundamentally private, can be enhanced by a public blockchain layer. As we laid out our plans to accomplish that, we also realized that our proposed private-public hybrid model can and should be used to enhance systems of all kinds. We are excited to announce Hydro as an open technology suite, with its ongoing implementation in Hydrogen serving as a point of immediate adoption.

Design Principles

We are building Hydro on the Ethereum infrastructure, although we remain platform agnostic. We intend to leverage the thousands of developers globally that are working to make underlying blockchain technology faster, stronger, and more efficient. Hydro focuses on developing product-oriented capabilities, largely centered around smart contract functionality.

Our main design philosophy is that of augmenting off-chain systems rather than outright replacing them. We do not believe that all economic activity will or should move on-chain. Rather, distributed ledger technology can serve to enhance those underlying, fundamentally private systems in specific ways. Hydro is laser-focused on making that a reality and synergizing with the current environment, in order to facilitate real-world adoption of blockchain tech in a meaningful way and introduce the benefits of decentralization, immutability, and transparency.

What Sets Hydro Apart?

Hydro is architected as an independent parallel layer, and its value comes from various interactions between the private and public layers. This means an underlying private system does not need to change in any fundamental way or create any costly new architecture — allowing even large institutions to rapidly adopt blockchain technology beyond the proof-of-concept phase.

Additionally, Hydro is implemented natively into the Hydrogen API ecosystem, offering immediate and direct access to Hydro capabilities. Hydrogen can power many kinds of platforms and applications across the financial services sphere (investing, savings, insurance, financial wellness, etc.) and the company works with a range of clients, from individual developers up to large financial enterprises.

Raindrop

The first Hydro release deals with something that is core to all systems — authentication and security. It was conceived to provide additional protection for sensitive data that is increasingly at risk of breach. In the proposed framework, dubbed Raindrop, on-chain operations performed via smart contract can validate access to private, off-chain systems. This validation layer complements standard private authentication and authorization protocols, such as Google Authenticator and OAuth 2.0, by acting as an additional public factor that must be satisfied before system access is granted. The worldwide developer community, through the decentralized and transparent consensus mechanisms of the blockchain, can now offer greater protection to billions of pieces of sensitive data from bad actors. It is two-factor authentication, performed publicly!

The Raindrop authentication process involves 4 entities: an Accessor trying to gain access, a System that denies or grants access, the Hydro module (off-chain), and a Hydro smart contract (on-chain). An example of a System is a REST API, while an example of an Accessor is an API developer. The diagram below depicts how these entities interact during part of the process.

Please see the white paper and website for more detailed information about how Raindrop works. Also, here is an animated video our blockchain team put together -

Airdrop Dynamics

50% of all Hydro — 11,111,111,111 — for the atomic number 1 of Hydrogen, willdistributed to the developers who successfully sign up during the rollout period described above. None are for sale.

The first 25,000 developers who SIGN UP will be distributed a minimum of 222,222 Hydro at the end of the period. They must have a valid email and GitHub account qualify. They can use Hydro to begin developing awesome applications that immediately leverage the power of a blockchain.

Happy developing from the Project Hydro team!

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