Hathor has cemented itself as a keen contender in developing cutting edge Blockchain technology. It has managed to consistent links from Web3 to more traditional industries like regulated securities (Tokenizadora, Brazilian company) and large telecommunications companies such as Telefónica (based in Spain). These industrial links allow the technology to stay closely linked with current requirements, and further encourages people to switch technologies over from Web2 based technologies. They have not only managed to generate new connections in this manner, but also continuously update and improve the network whilst doing so. The focus of this article is to further explore each partnership and the role they play in making the Web2 to Web3 transition as seamless as possible.
Tokenizadora
This company is mainly focused on transforming traditional securities (such as stocks and bonds) into digital tokens on the blockchain. They are regulated by the Brazilian Securities and Exchange Commission (CVM). The benefits to using blockchain technology as a whole are expansive, however there are certain features that makes Hathor stand out. Generally, the use of blockchain implies that anyone is able to audit the transactions, and they cannot be manipulated by any singular party — and as such a great deal of transparency is gained.
One issue with traditional blockchain technology would be the fees and confirmation time required — which could slow down the market or make it unfeasible to sell/trade your securities. Hathor is able to provide feeless and instant transactions by integration of DAG and blockchain technology, and cut down on energy emissions for processing these transactions through the integration of Hathor’s merged mining with the main Bitcoin network. Another issue is scalability, where rapid market growth might lead to rapid short term change. Hathor is able to be easily scaled up to handle more transactions, and thus can handle not only more transactions from Tokenizadora but also from the other users of the network without slowing down or bottlenecking as Ethereum or Bitcoin would.
Bigger institutions are starting to realise the potential of this technology, such as Santander — one of the top five banks within Brazil. They have invested an $8M USD sum into creating tokenization for private bonds for a parking company. The third largest bank, Itau, currently holds around $25M USD in tokenized assets — further showing the potential for this technology to accelerate, with Hathor at the forefront.
Alvarez & Marsal (BizHub)
Alvarez & Marsal is a global firm focusing on providing professional and management solutions. They have offices around the world and aim to be on the forefront of consultancy technology. They recently ranked tenth (#10) in Global Consulting Firms 2023. They pride themselves on being fact-driven and action-oriented, making it perfect for innovation involving integration with Web3. This partnership includes the creation of tokenised securities similar to those created on Tokenizadora. The main difference comes in the form of selling tokenisation as a solution rather than doing that transition for their own company. This is part of Alvarez & Marsal’s Innovation sector, Bizhub.
“We provide the technology to customers. We are going to create the platform, but we are not going to become a distributing bank. We are not a bank token company”, explains Tiago Nascimento, director of technology at BizHub.
The director then goes on to elaborate on them jumping on the growing demand and materialising a platform to implement the change and sell the product. They faced the same issues with other platforms as aforementioned, such as high gas:
“We did a benchmark in 2021 looking at sport in b2c [businesses with direct sales to the consumer]. We performed an analysis of all blockchains on the market and Hathor was the most open to work with. The others had a big problem with a very high gas rate. For us it was a much better solution from a productivity point of view,”
Although Hathor is a smaller player in the crypto space than Bitcoin or Ethereum, the company noted that the prior partnership with Tokenizadora showed the potential Hathor has as a network to bring cohesive solutions to market.
Hackathon (Web3MBa x Startups)
Hathor is one of the three infrastructure providers for a Hackathon involving the creation of innovative and scalable business models on Web3. The companies sponsoring included Google, Telefónica, Iberdrola, and KPMG — to name a few.
This Hackathon was hosted in Spain, and the winning idea was to be supported by the companies to further develop it. To be alongside such big players within industry as an infrastructure provider puts the technology’s key strengths in front of those who constantly seek innovation and improvement. As earlier with A&M, sometimes products being in the hands of the right people is the catalyst required to drive uptake and usage across the globe.
Moving Forwards
The examples of the technology being used without any smart contract integration show the potential and power of the network as it continues to improve itself. There is an ongoing series on the Hathor Twitter about the utility of Nano Contracts with smaller development teams within the community. It demonstrates the power of Nano Contracts to do more on chain than was previously possible. This further decentralises the security industries as trades can be done without their approval, meaning that users have full control of their assets.
The team is committed to only releasing products once they are fully battle tested and bug-free. This is another value of the network which helps to set minds of those in traditional industries at ease, as vulnerabilities could result in people losing assets.
