Recently I got to speak with Sergio “Chinoman10” Rebelo about Hermes Protocol - an RDX Works Grant winning, multichain messaging protocol. This is something I definitely underestimated in terms of both the importance of this messaging protocol and the types of innovations it will involve and enable in Web3. And of course, Sergio was a delight to listen to, marking yet another instance of the thought leaders and builders in Web3, and especially the Radixsphere, being true entrepreneurs, innovators and dreamers.
To start, if you’re just getting your wings wet in the world of Radix, Sergio recommends you check out the RadFi video series from RDX Works. Per his words, this is a great resource to learn what Radix is about, how it’s building for the future of DeFi, and what makes it radically different. Then, you’re ready to dive into the ecosystem and start learning what’s great about Hermes Protocol itself.
So you’re hooked on Radix, but how do the events in the Radix ecosystem stay top of mind, or reach you through the channels that matter most to you, or are actually going to grab your attention when needed? For example, what happens when:
- Your listed NFT sells,
- You’re staked to a validator node and it goes down or changes its commission structure, or
- You’re borrowing and want to stay ahead of potential liquidation of your collateral.
Right now, for the majority of on chain events you need to manually go and check, and this is where Hermes Protocol hopes to step up, starting by networking with projects so that builders know what Hermes offers: a new way to stay in touch with users while protecting their privacy in a way that’s only possible with Web3.
To further the focus on founders, Hermes Protocol has created a founders group on Telegram for founders to help each other, develop business partnerships, share legal advice, discuss tokenomics and more. While this is a welcoming group, Sergio made clear the intent is to keep it a closed group as they seek to build an environment with controlled conversations and no spam.
Finally, before we dive in, Hermes Protocol is multichain, and does have some functionality with Terra right now, but for the foreseeable future the focus is to build on Radix and make a profitable business model before expanding. Sergio also sees the future as needing a multichain protocol, unless Radix manages to displace even Bitcoin and account for 90%+ of the market. (I’m certain there’s some readers in this subreddit who would like ot have a word about the likelihood of a Top 1 outcome for Radix, but we’ll defer for now :) )
So Hermes Protocol.
As a quick FYI, no, this is not associated with the famed Radix community member, HermesRadvocado, although the team is aware of this Hermes and have noticed him on Twitter. The name originates from Hermes, the Greek god of messaging. Hermes Protocol enables business to user, DLT to user, and user to user messaging, so this name is an appropriate fit. Additionally, in mid 2021, many projects building on Terra were using names from Greek mythology, with projects such as Minerva and Apollo. This made Hermes a great name for what is essentially an online mail service, but in Web3 fashion and plugged into services like Discord and Telegram too, but without the need for people to write their own bots (Hermes Protocol does it for you), nor even needing to go to external websites to set up etc. One, seamless experience. Nice. Also, this is my speculation, not Sergio’s, but with this revolution of no-code low-code Web3 tools I firmly believe we’ll eventually see the NYTimes or some mainstream media talking about some octogenarian building their own dApp with 0 coding needed. I don’t care if I have to wait to be that octogenarian - it’s going to happen.
To wrap my head around the full impact of what Sergio described as “messaging with super powers,” I asked if Hermes Protocol could read data from an oracle on one chain, then dictate action on another chain. Sergio was very clear that Hermes is not intended to be an oracle project, but did explain that it will be possible (on the user’s end and by the user’s choice, not anything that Hermes will natively feature) to use a Hermes Message as a trigger for actions in another application (such as If This Then That or Zappier.) The key distinction is that Hermes Protocol doesn’t want to get into automatically doing anything for the user - too much and too many types of risk, and at the end of the day isn’t necessary for what they intend to build.
- “Hermes just informs, doesn’t execute. Want to be in the business of informing people, in real time, really fast, so users can take action but we’re not going to do actions for people.”
However, Serrgio did say they can automate some actions, but are just going to leave that as a tease for now. (Is anyone else dying with this wait till Babylon when we get to see all the shinies that people are building?)
Something really unique about the approach the team has taken with their building is that they started out with the intent that the service must be free, and then went on to design from there. People need basic understanding of what’s happening on ledger, whether it’s about posting or selling an NFT, or price alerts etc. At the end of the day if Web3 is going to onboard people’s parents and the broader world, then it can’t be expected for them to pay Netflix style subscriptions to things like critical messaging services. This type of vision for the future of Web3 was present throughout Sergio’s thoughts he shared with me.
Hermes Protocol’s vision for the future is so strong that not only will it be free, but they hope the protocol will actually pay users to be active in the community. However, these plans are a bit of a ways off in terms of making a product that appeals to both users and business. In the shorter term, the protocol hopes that it can build something a bit more feasible, and this is where they realized that the protocol enables businesses to connect with users in a way that is entirely on the user’s terms and they can leverage that functionality to grow.
This type of functionality is key. Right now a business can try to communicate via mediums like Telegram or Discord, but Telegram gets crowded the more channels you join and Discord limits the number of servers you can join. Meanwhile, inviting anyone to direct messages risks diluting your most important channels, and is likely to just result in mutes anyways. Even if a business gets you to follow them, there’s no guarantee that what they send will be seen.
Hermes Protocol solves this as all you need to do is share a wallet address. And it doesn’t even need to be the one with lots of funds in it - you can stay anonymous, and when you do want to unsubscribe or stop receiving messages, the business knows nothing about you so the flow of information (or opt out) is entirely within the user’s control, whether it’s an ‘unsubscribe,’ or pause, ore any other interaction that would have necessitated a bloated and annoying experience created by a company . No more “why are you leaving” forms and such. This sounds disadvantageous to the business, but actually helps as they can have direct contact with specific people, without needing to know who they are.
The major takeaway, and key to Hermes success, is that if you allow the protocol to message you in places like your Discord direct messages, then it is necessary to maintain trust. If they lose trust they’re not doing a good job, and their goal is to be even more trustworthy than email.
Necessary for this trust requires Hermes to be transparent so users know exactly what they’re getting and how, but Sergio also hopes that the protocol is so successful that it seamlessly integrates into dApps and websites in a way that many people may not even notice they’re using Hermes Protocol. However, they hope they’re not shady and when someone is questioned about Hermes and gets directed to the protocol then they will recognize the icons etc. from when they’ve opted into messages from around the web.
While building out all of this, Hermes seeks to be THE Platform where most of the people on Radix all want to use Hermes and it aggregates users across apps like Ociswap, Caviar and Foton. Hermes needs all the potential users possible. They also hope to be multichain in the future so that they can benefit from the flywheel effect of drawing people into the network. The team knows how to build this, has the tech, and wants to build it…. After focusing on profitability right now.
Closing out our chat, Sergio shared some of the most bullish optimism for what people need to build towards if we’re going to have the Web3/DeFi future we all dream about.
“We all want to do crazy things that weren’t possible before…. The simplest explanation is programmable money.”
Per Sergio, we want our data to be self sovereign, and we want control over our financial lives. Many of the things being built in crypto such as staking, liquidity provisioning, or money streaming all would have made TradFi’s heads explode, or as Sergio said, they’d ask “How the fuck are we going to implement this?!?!”
Further, we have a long way to go. A future where even our parents using DeFi shouldn’t mean they’re having sleepless nights about seed phrases or losing their life savings while making a transaction. A more hopeful future is where people can participate for fun. People have had fun playing Monopoly with fake money for ages - what’s stopping a future where anyone can hop in and ONLY think about “hey, I bought this cool NFT, and now I’m part of a fun community, and I’m just going to enjoy participating.” That’s the future that we need to build towards, not to one that is insecure, opaque and scary. Oh, and maybe that fun NFT community currency can be converted to buy a hot dog or some nice perks in the ‘real world.’
The tipping point is going to be when the “normies,” who have 0 understanding of tech or finance, find themselves seamlessly using these tools simply because it’s enabling an experience that they enjoy. This includes people intuitively understanding the concept of tokenization.
And to get these “normies,” we don’t need the super complex systems some people are building for the future. We need experiences like what Hermes Protocol can deliver, where interacting with and following dApps and tokens is so seamless you don’t even know there’s a protocol dedicated to making it happen.
And there is a use case for these “normies.” Web2 communication is broken - people are inundated with messages and it’s controlled by companies, not users. However, with Hermes Protocol, you know the messaging service is always going to respect your decisions 100%. And, much like other developers in the Radix ecosystem, and RDX Works included, there is a laser focus on user experience, and Hermes is a key piece of this.
Finally, regarding their experience with the RDX Works Grant program. Sergio said that the “vibe” is indescribable, and that they’re helping the project focus while lending insights ranging from marketing to legal. It’s unbelievable advice and networking, and Sergio recommends that if you have an idea that is really innovative or leveraging the Radix way of doing things, then you should definitely apply. You may not get in if you’re just pushing your own clone of Uniswap V1, or something simple or non-innovative like that, but don’t let anything hinder your ability to dream or try out. The RDX Works team is fully dedicated to making the grant winner a success, and the people selected to be part of this program are extremely lucky.
If you want to stay up to date on Hermes Protocol, then follow these links:
Website | Twitter | Telegram | Discord | YouTube | 2m video about our latest features | Documentation
Optional: Intro by RDX Works (blog) | Piers intro of our project (vid) :)
Please share your comments & also leave notes about which projects you’d like featured in the future.
~VandyILL.xrd
