Investigating the Top 50 Cryptocurrencies, Part 31/50: HShare/HCash

HShare is trying to become a sidechain service that allows value to be transferred between any two other blockchains… although the details seem confusing.

What is HCash? If you look on the site, you’ll get a poetic answer: HCash is Hive, Hidden, Hybrid, Hierarchy, Hard, Haven, and Handy. Each word represents a value proposition. For example, HCash is “Haven” because you can make private, anonymous transactions. It is “Hard” because it is resistant to the quantum computing of the future.

The token claims that it will revolutionize the blockchain space by offering a sidechain solution for all blockchain projects, even blockless i.e. DAG (Directed Acrylic Graph) ones. It will change everything! It will…

zzz….

_{This is how much I do not care. I am asleep, like this internet kitten. Source: Unsplash / Erik Jan Leusink}

Here’s the deal: I am too jaded to be easily swayed by promises of revolutionary technology in the blockchain space. To be honest, big claims put me to sleep. What I like to see is working products. With that said, here’s my question:

Where’s the Value?

There are quite a few projects that derive most of their value from the idea that they will connect other blockchains.

We previously saw this with the Ark blockchain. Ark claimed that it would provide an alternative to the “speculative instruments” of other tokens, that it would be a “Google of Blockchains.”

In the case of HShare, I’m seeing a similar pattern. It looks good but may lack a real use case.

On the surface, the website looks very nice and has all the basic checkboxes marked off. You have a large number of exchanges where the token is transacted:

You’ve got a lot of technical speak on the homepage: “The New Standard of Value,” “Distributed Ledger Cryptocurrency,” “DAO Governance,” etc… these phrases have real meanings, but are they relevant here?

Above all else, the HCash homepage wants to represent the future. It’s got every buzzword that it can have and promises that amazing new technology is just around the corner. At the core though, what is the value of this token? Can it really become a “new standard of value?”

What HCash Is

Firstly, a clarification: The current token in circulation is “HShare.” Those tokens are going to be redeemable for the real token, HCash, at some point in the future. This is a somewhat common working practice that other blockchains use too - most spectacularly, Ardor has like 10,000 tokens going on.

When a company is promising to change the world, but they haven’t even issued their real asset yet, be cautious. It’s easy to make big promises yet extraordinarily hard to deliver upon those promises.

With all that said, HCash offers the following functions:

• Private Transactions using Ring Signatures / “Zero Knowledge Proof” (Similar to Monero, ZCash)
• Decentralized Governance Model Combining PoW and PoS
• Supposedly resistant to Quantum Computing
• Fast, low-cost transactions

Lastly, they offer this bundle of word salad:

What the fuck does this mean? I have read dozens of white papers, I’ve studied the foundational texts of this space. This paragraph to me, while it reads like something smart and technologically advanced, does not mean anything in particular.

I understand what a sidechain is. After all, we did an in-depth look on Factom which is entirely attached to Bitcoin as a sidechain.

But what does it mean to facilitate “unrestricted flow of information and value” with regards to blockchain? Does that refer to atomic swaps, or just transacting in different currencies? Is it just a fancier way of saying that we can send information via the internet?

Maybe, they are offering some kind of protocol-level solution to help other developers use sidechains more easily? IDK if that is the implication.

I guess what I’m trying to say is, I have no idea what distinguishes this project, which sounds so fancy, with a similarly principled, but less hype-y, project like DeCred.

Accusations of Scammery

It’s worth mentioning that there are a few accusations of HCash being a scam:

• What the F is HShare?
• HSR is a Scam Coin
• Scam Alert: HCash / HShares is Likely a Scam

I can’t confirm or deny any of these.

Token Distribution

Here’s how the HShare tokens were distributed:

Only 20% of tokens go to the team and the pre-ICO investors, which is a good distribution. This lends some evidence for HShares being a legitimate project.

Most scams (or dubious tokens, if not outright scams) take a way higher percentage of tokens, perhaps because they have to - for example, 98% of Veritaseum tokens are held by one person. In contrast, HCash is a cautious distribution that prioritizes having a large number of people hold tokens.

The HCash Team

Let’s take a look at a few of the top people involved with HCash. All photos are taken from the HCash website.

Dallas Brooks, CEO

According to his bio on the site, Dallas is a *”qualified, highly sought after expert” in the world of finance. However, the only specific reference to a job he does is that he hosts a “television show” (LinkedIn clarifies: YouTube and “Community TV” only) called “Dollars With Sense.” Hm…

Khal Achkar, CTO

Khal’s bio suggests that he has deep knowledge regarding information technology and business, has 18 years of experience in the technical field, and that he is “looking forward to add value in this [cryptocurrency] space.”

Andrew Wasylewicz, Business Development Manager

Andrew’s interest in blockchain goes back to the early days of the space and he holds a Masters of Applied Science. His past history includes strategic roles in the insurance and superannuation industries.

Market History

The price had some early highs and has struggled to get anywhere back near them… Also it’s a very short amount of history to go off of. We could see the price rise back up to meet the old record high, although given how poorly it is performing against BTC, that may be unlikely.

I can’t predict the future, but based on my skepticism surrounding this token in general, I personally would avoid investing in it.

Final Thoughts

There are three factors that make me have a total lack of confidence in this token:

(1) The team lacks experience
(2) The claims are seemingly huge, but don’t actually make much sense / create value
(3) There’s no working product yet

With each of those ideas in mind, there is no way that I am going to spend much more time thinking about HCash. Give me a call when/if they launch a working product that is more than a basic digital currency.

What do you think about HCash / HShare?