While the cryptocurrency markets and underlying technologies are developing, we are in the middle of what might look from the outside a teenager phase. The market is impulsive and easily manipulated, Pump and Dumps groups are still active, and qualitative news and analyses are hard to find.

These are the problem the cryptocurrency news itself, but another significant issue is less often discussed: the crypto discussion essentially happens on old, data-hungry and trading platforms such as Facebook, Reddit, Telegram and of course here on Medium. It comes with several issues, some of which connected with the problems mentioned before:

Virality is disconnected from quality | The most popular contents are not the qualitative ones (Facebook is a perfect example of this), but the most engaging ones. Scams or other fake trade training can spread if people share them (they do).

The most popular contents are not the qualitative ones (Facebook is a perfect example of this), but the most engaging ones. Scams or other fake trade training can spread if people share them (they do). Users forgo ownership of their data | Users have no control over their identity on the platform. They don’t know how their data is used precisely, and even if they delete their account, they have no guarantees that their data will no be used anymore for advertising purposes.

Users have no control over their identity on the platform. They don’t know how their data is used precisely, and even if they delete their account, they have no guarantees that their data will no be used anymore for advertising purposes. The platforms’ business model is unsustainable |To keep developing their profit, the platforms have only have a few options, all equally as damaging for the user: such as increasing the amount of ad, gathering more/more precise data, or selling the data to more people. Essentially, the more the platform develops its revenue streams, the more the user data is exposed.

Note: I won’t address the issues of traditional social networks in this article. It’s still a critical dimension to understand the pertinence of Hilo’s approach to the problem.

The good news is that a couple of months ago I wrote two articles on this topic. The first one address the consequences for the user and the second one details the impact on the whole society, and the loss of political and individual power that comes with the loss of ownership over our data.

HILO, A SOCIAL CRYPTO NETWORK

Someone that has been active in the crypto markets for a while will use countless of different services to track its assets and keep himself/herself informed will instantly see the value of a single service for all.

For less experienced users, the project can be hard to apprehend because nothing equivalent is currently live. If you consider the services currently available, Hilo is bit like a 4-in-1, with the added value provided by the synergies:

Blockfolio | Personal crypto portfolio tracker,

CoinMarketCap | Coin Discovery,

CryptoPanic | Crypto news syndicator and market sentiment,

Steemit | Decentralized Reddit-like (content syndication).

We’ll go through the main features provided by the platform to portray an accurate depiction of the whole.

PORTFOLIO TRACKING

The portfolio tracking feature is the easiest to comprehend. The user can connect wallets or exchange accounts to keep track of its assets and transactions. Each user will be able to connect up to two exchange/wallet account for free, and more will be available by paying a HILO fee.