Hightop Sunset, Ripe Sunrise
A new chapter of the story begins…
Late last year we decided to pause development on Hightop. There are a variety of reasons why a startup might fail — maybe money runs out, the idea is bad, no demand, terrible business model, poor execution.
In the case of Hightop, none of those things were true.
So why shelf Hightop? We shared a few of the business reasons in our previous Medium post. But cutting thru all the noise, here’s the biggest reason: My heart is somewhere else. I started working on something that I believe can be bigger and more impactful than Hightop.
Ripe Finance
The project our team is currently focused on is Ripe Finance. It’s a new DeFi protocol that unlocks yield and borrow capability on any asset — digital assets (NFTs or cryptocurrencies) or real-world assets (land, homes, sneakers, goats). The protocol is powered by a new synthetic stablecoin that is decentralized (yet scalable), algorithmic (yet fully collateralized), and highly productive (yet capital efficient). Here’s the intro post from a few months back and we have a lot more mechanism design on our Medium.
This is not a mass-market consumer app like Hightop. It’s a low-level protocol that will live on the Ethereum blockchain. This is infrastructure that others can leverage and build on (other fintech apps like Hightop or even big financial institutions like Wells Fargo). This work is more like laying and setting the railroad tracks to the edges of the web3 frontier. Whereas Hightop was more about offering the train ride to settlements.
Ripe has been a passion project of mine for the last 18 months. I’ve personally been writing the smart contract code — lots of late nights and weekend warrior-ing. It has come a long way since the summer of 2021 when we started. If you follow me on Twitter, you’ve probably seen many hints dropped (like this, that, here, that one, this one, hey, ho, yup).
My DeFi Roots
DeFi is where I belong. These are my roots. I was forged in this world and have been here since the beginning… before it was even cool, when Ameen was calling it DopeFi. I authored Mainframe’s original credit protocol white paper in 2019, well before Summer 2020 (when DeFi really took off).
During Covid I did a series of videos to highlight the power of DeFi: The DeFi Intro, The Most Promising DeFi Use-Cases, and 10 Points that Highlight the Magic of DeFi. It’s wild how evergreen that content still is.
I participated in all the liquidity mining and yield farming. SNX. COMP. YFI. All the food farms. The endless Andre rugs (Eminence, LBI, Solidly). Did my duty to #SaveYam, holding thru the collapse, then rolling up my sleeves to support the core team, rebuilding from the ashes.
0xMaki calling me the night of Chef Nomi heist, seeking my advice, and the Sushiswap community voted to put me on the multi-sig (along with the SBF).
Taking a massive bet on a young gigabrain named Zeus (3,3), where I became the largest aOHM holder (yes, that stands for alpha OHM, before OHM was even minted), host of Zeus After Dark, speaker at the original FOHMO #1, and OTC seller to both 0xB1 and Polychain. Creating the Discord for Basis Cash, which turned out to be Do Kwon’s first act before UST/Luna.
I’ve been part of every stablecoin project (floating, pegged, algorithmic), lending & borrowing market, food farm, money game, DEX, and quasi-ponzi that has ever come thru DeFi. And also all their forks. I’ve loved every second of it. This is home for me. This is my happy place.
Hightop 2.0
Despite Ripe and DeFi being our focus now, I intend to take Hightop off the shelf someday. I really want to build a mass-market consumer finance application powered by DeFi (with deep Ripe integration). It needs to exist. There is still so much promise and potential. I’ve written how fintech is just lipstick on a pig. I’ve written how crypto will ultimately be adopted (and how we need to meet people where they are). This opportunity is still wide open for the taking — especially after the massive collapses and giant frauds we saw this last year (FTX, Celsius, Voyager, BlockFi, etc). The problems we originally set out to solve (see Intro blog post) still ring true today!
BUT… a lot of regulatory clarity is needed between now and then. And a lot of the web3 infrastructure still needs to get built out — more of the railroads, like Ripe. The timing isn’t quite right today.
At our peak, Hightop had $100M in assets under management (achieved in just 6 months and only open to accredited investors). In all our history, we’ve never lost a cent of customer money. Clients got 100% of their money back plus their promised yield. Most companies in the crypto-finance world cannot say the same. I’m proud of how we managed risk (no uncollateralized loans to hedge funds or market makers — for us it was all DeFi). I’m proud of our commitment to compliance. I’m proud of the culture we created. I’m proud of the community we cultivated. I’m proud of the brand we designed. I’m proud of the cutting-edge technology we built. Even tho the Hightop chapter of our story is paused for now, I’m still really proud of our team and everything we accomplished. Helluva run. I will do everything in my power to get the entire band back together when the time is right. The team was that special.
In all of our public comms about Hightop, we keep using the word “paused.” I like that word. It implies a temporary state. It’s not finished. It’s the button you press when you take a phone call or need a bathroom break. When you know you’ll be back. When the story isn’t over yet. Hightop will be back.
My Why
To wrap up, I wanted to share a video I’ve never shared before. A few months ago, I filmed a low-production, private video talking about my Why. Why I do what I do, why I wake up every day to work in web3, why I’m spending so much of my time and money on these projects.
Here I share my life’s mission, my purpose. This is North Star stuff. This speaks to my dedication to this space, the positive impact that I know this technology can have, and my willingness to go to the ends of the earth to see it thru. I share some of the life experiences that helped shape my worldview, and what I hope to accomplish in my life and with my projects. I think this will add useful context to everything I’ve shared today.
Well… the next chapter begins now. Time to get fruity with Ripe. And yes, I am Dre Ham. Doxxed.
