Just the other day, we were thrilled to announce Hub Token’s listing on Bitcoin.com Exchange. To find out more details on the Human Trust Protocol, with its innovative features and it’s, CEO of Bitcoin.com Exchange, Danish Chaudhry asked a few questions to tech entrepreneur, LinkedIn Co-Founder and Founder of the Human Trust Protocol, Eric Ly, regarding the project’s current state, further development, and the expert vision of the crypto industry as a whole. Check it out!

1. How would you describe the Human Trust Protocol to someone who has never heard of Blockchain?

It’s a new kind of identity system where you can store your digital ID which may have your credentials associated with your ID. You benefit from who you are, your qualifications, and your expertise. Because of this, you gain access to new opportunities and ultimately your personal financial freedom.

2. Where did the idea of creating the Human Trust Protocol and the Hub Token come from?

I was one of the co-founders of LinkedIn, and social platforms like the one we created made it possible to interact with more people around the world than ever before. I take the analogy of a village that has truly become global. Before technology, we could know the people in our village very well as we dealt with them and even bartered with them. Now, that village has truly turned into a global village. A simple example is if we move to a new city and we need to look for a good plumber to fix a clogged drain in our house. How do we find a reliable plumber? Now imagine the problem as it exists across a thousand kinds of situations. To effectively deal with people and especially in commerce, we have to get comfortable with the people we interact with. “Comfortable” means trust with other people. That’s what the Human Trust Protocol and the HUB token are meant to solve. The more comfortable it becomes to deal with “strangers” we want to deal with, the more everyone benefits because it is a two-way street.

3. How does Human Trust Protocol work? 

First, it’s a database that gives you a wallet to store your digital ID with your credentials, except that it will truly be your wallet and you will be able to take it onto any platform or marketplace that supports it.

The HUB token allows you to exchange for goods and services on the Hub network. The more tokens you have, the more goods and services you can exchange obviously and actually, you have more opportunity to earn even more tokens. You also earn more tokens on interactions where you were trustworthy!

4. What are the most unique selling points behind your platform? And are there any similar platforms out there?

Hub is part of a larger effort of using blockchain to encode people’s identity and making it accessible to everyone. However, we have spent a significant amount of time to build incentives that motivate people to get their identity onto the blockchain and then encourage those identities to be trustworthy. We believe the faster the vision is fulfilled, the faster people will reap the benefits.

5. The element of ‘building trust and reputation’ is something Hub surrounds itself around, could you kindly elaborate?
   

We believe that for people to get access to opportunities and ultimately achieve their financial freedom, they need to be trusted and to have a good reputation in their community. That’s what Hub is trying to do in helping people achieve through the system.

6. What are you referring to when discussing ‘trust stake’ in tasks where the redistribution of their stake is affected by task outcomes?
   

It just means that you put some tokens at risk during an interaction with others. If the interaction is deemed trustworthy, then you get those tokens back at the end plus a reward. If things don’t go well, you might lose some of your tokens. In that way, the system gives people an incentive to be trustworthy in interacting with others.

7. Why do you think this protocol would unlock more economic opportunities to billions of people, outside of the cryptosphere? 

You know there are already systems out there that have profiles and reputations, but they all have two main problems. First, they are controlled by the guardians of the platform, so you can’t take your identity with you when you want to settle in a new “village”. Second, it’s too easy for someone to game their reputation. After all, people enter their own information which can be falsified or they can hire people to upvote them. So you can’t really trust those profiles or the people behind them.

The Hub protocol is meant to address both these problems so that the information about people can be trusted and the people behind these profiles can be trusted. That applies to just about everybody.

8. What other products can be derived from the Hub network?

There’s so much that can be done and so much to do to deliver this much value to the world. We believe much better digital communities and marketplaces can come from Hub. Identity verification services and reputation systems of all kinds can be registered on Hub. Finally, Hub has a lot to do with the exploding DeFi space because financial services is really dependent on trust. We are looking into DeFi intensely.

9. What’s your long-term goal? And when do you think this would be achievable?

I hope that this digital technology can be improved for the greater good of people around the world, particularly for their financial freedom. We’re seeing some serious problems with our digital existence today around the tendency for misinformation and the inability to trust each other. I believe if we can fix these problems, the world will be more prosperous for everyone.

It might take a generation to fulfill this goal but the challenges–and the opportunity to solve them–are already upon us.

10. Why did you decide to list on Bitcoin.com Exchange?

First, I love the domain name! Bitcoin is the most well-known cryptocurrency of all. Seriously, I love the global reach of the exchange and also the exchange’s intentions to bring crypto to many more countries around the world. Plus, Bitcoin.com has been very supportive to Hub in the listing process. We encourage other projects to seriously take a look at Bitcoin.com for future listings.

11. For someone who has never used cryptocurrencies before, what would be your advice to start getting familiar with this “new world”?

First, start loading up on Bitcoin if you haven’t as part of your assets because it is Gold 2.0, and it has advantages beyond traditional assets such as gold. Secondly, you will hear about “alt coins”. These are cryptocurrencies that are different than Bitcoin. For example, the HUB token is one of them. Consider investing in these altcoins whose mission and vision you believe in and for which there will be a large user base.

12. Now, for a more personal question, what got you into crypto, from being one of the founders of LinkedIn?

I see crypto and other blockchain concepts as a once-in-a-generation disruptive paradigm shift. It has the potential to better align the incentives of technology platforms and the interests of users and cure current ills. Who wouldn’t want to make major contributions with this great opportunity?