Interview with a Dev : Hilux Coin

Hilux is a new coin that was just launched on August 3rd, 2018. Hilux aims to help solve the problem of hyper inflation which many counties like Venezuela are facing.

Hilux specs:
Ticker: HLX
Algo: x16r
Type: MN/POW
Max Supply: 21,000,000
MN Collateral: 1000
Block Rewards: 20 HLX (mn 60%, pow 40%)
Premine: 5%
Block time: 2 minutes

The following is an interview with Swatchie-1 the founder of Hilux Coin.

Could you explain your project Hilux Coin briefly for our readers that are not already familiar with the project?

Currently, FIAT currency is what we use in our day to day transactions. A FIAT currency is a government backed currency (example: US Dollars, British Pounds, Peso, Singapore Dollars) which is not backed by any physical commodity and it derives its value from perceived value by the community. This is why when a Government needs money, it prints as much as it needs causing too much FIAT currency circulation in the market resulting in what we call Hyper-Inflation. Historically we have seen this happening in Venezuela (24000% inflation in the past 12 months, Iran (200%) and South Sudan (110%). The list goes on but based on these 3 countries alone, we see how much buying power is being reduced at a daily basis. What this means is, if an iPhone costs 1 million Venezuelan Bolivar in 2017, it will cost 24 million Venezuelan Bolivar in 2018. See the difference?

The world has found a solution now and it is through Crypto Currencies. The purpose of Hilux Coin is to address this issue and allow a safe, reliable and decentralized transfer of value between anybody in the world who has access to an internet connection. Why is being decentralized important? This is so that no single party can dictate how many Hilux Coins should be produced and to obtain Hilux, one would need to either purchase it or Mine it. Mining takes work, equipment and costs, hence it is not free. Hilux also has a limit of 21 million coins which is not that much considering the population of the entire world.

The mechanics of Hilux Crypto Currency is the opposite of FIAT currencies. It can be traded world-wide with no middleman involved, its limit cannot be increased without consensus from 51% of all miners and Masternode Owners. This system is fair and just because the stakeholders want the best of their investment and should not make irrational decisions that will jeopardize his/her holdings. It is also decentralized which doesn’t allow anybody to come in and shut it down because the Hilux Nodes are running all across the globe. If one country shuts it down, the other nodes will still maintain the Hilux Ledger and can still be connected, hence a Hilux user can still access his or her wallet.

We have made sending and receiving Hilux coin easy by providing a Hilux Mobile Web Wallet facility at https://wallet.hiluxcoin.com. This provides access to the unbanked people in the world. For example, a user in South Sudan will be able to send value to their children studying in Singapore through the Hilux Mobile Web Wallet without going to a money changer or Western Union. It is simple to use because the receiver or sender do not need to run a Full-Node of Hilux in order to gain access to a wallet. We also recently have a Discord Hilux Wallet which allows you to send Hilux (HLX) to Discord users too. I suggest readers to check out our discord at: https://discord.gg/gqzpeWH

Could you tell us a little bit about your programming history and experience with blockchain technology?

Our core team has different sets of skill sets including JavaScript, Python, html and pug programming. This allows us to ensure the Blockchain is fair, being as secure as possible and able to build core infrastructures for the Hilux Coin. This includes the Mobile Web Wallet, Mobile Explorer, Official Dev Pool and the website on our own without external funding and programmers. As a result, we are a lean team, with our own initial funding hence we want to see the coin succeed as much as a mother wants to see her child grow into becoming a useful person to the community.

What inspired you to create Hilux Coin?

As aforementioned, there are governments which do not generate FIAT currency responsibly. Before 1933, the US Dollar was backed by Gold. However since then, it was not backed by Gold anymore and we need to address the issue of scarcity and not unlimited money printing. The Hilux Cryptocurrency is a solution for value transfer for the world due to decentralization, scarcity of 21 million HLX only, securely distributed around the world through Masternodes, Miners having to do work to secure the network and low fees of transaction.

There’s been quite a few coins launched in the past year. In your opinion, what sets HLX apart from other coins and makes it unique?

Yes, I’m glad you brought this up. There are two main types of method to build the blockchain at the moment, which is Proof of Work (PoW) and Proof of Stake (PoS). Proof of stake can also mean using Masternodes to stake. Most coins out there are either PoW or PoS exclusively. However, Hilux uses a combination of both sort of like a Hybrid. We call this Proof of Work and Masternode Hybrid. There are only a handful of Hybrid types out there out of all the coins available in the world.

Secondly, Hilux uses the X16R algorithm for its Proof of Work mechanism. This X16R was invented by Ravencoin and we give them credit for that. It is a combination of 16 algorithms randomly re-arranged at each block hence it is a little more ASIC resistant than other coins such as the X11 used by Dash. The reason why we prefer ASIC resistant coins is to encourage decentralization because normal CPU and GPU owners can use it to mine at reasonable speeds compared to ASIC owners who will obtain high hashrates at lower cost and this displaces the CPU and GPU owners which is not what we want. ASIC causes centralization of hashrates. If the ASIC owner decides to switch off or shift to another Coin, then there is going to be a huge vacuum of hashpower lost which is not healthy for the blockchain.

Third, our distribution of block reward is 20 and out of this, 12 goes to Masternode Owners (60%) and 8 goes to the Miner who solved the block (40%). This is a healthy ratio which encourages Miners to mine and earn their own Masternode which is a good incentive for them. We also did not do any Developer reward program, for example, 5% of the block rewards going into the Developer’s pocket. This is because we are a community coin and there is no one developer controlling Hilux forever. Again this is part of becoming decentralized.

HLX is a Proof of Work (minable) and Masternode coin. I haven’t come across too many coins yet using this combination. The majority are either POW, POS, POS/MN or ERC20 Tokens. Could you explain why you decided to go with the POW/MN format with Hilux Coin?

Yes, we addressed some of this in the previous question. The simple answer again is:

On one hand, it provides incentives for the miners to mine and on the other hand, it encourages Masternode owners to run the full node at all times. This is due to the block reward of 60% Masternode Owners and 40% Miners.

What is your number 1 goal to accomplish with this project?

To see worldwide adoption of Hilux as a community coin where developers from around the globe would contribute to the Github of Hilux and providing commits to improve it. Whether big or small, any improvement is a step forward for Hilux.

We need to continue building infrastructures around Hilux.

Because we now have a stable Blockchain, we can build centralized features around the decentralized blockchain. We cannot however do the opposite which is building a decentralized feature on top of a centralized entity. For example, we can now build a hosted mobile wallet to access the Hilux Blockchain. We can also build a hosted marketplace for trading on top of the blockchain and a mining pool on top of the blockchain. This is where community adoption comes in.

Aside from Hilux, what are some other projects you admire?

I have seen many projects out there which has got nothing to do with the blockchain but are creating a project just for the sake of having a blockchain name attached to their project. These are mostly Utility Tokens. In a simple explanation, Utility Tokens are projects that require a user to buy their tokens to gain access to their project or App. For example, a ride sharing app on the iPhone that requires you to use their token to pay for rides. In my opinion, this is unnecessary because we should be using FIAT to do it and conversion back and forth is a hassle and it doesn’t bring much economic benefit. Also, these projects are highly centralized. If one day the founders decide to close the company, your tokens will be worthless. This is not the case for Hilux where if one day the founders decide to leave, Hilux will still be around.

Back to the question of which projects I admire, it’s going to be Bitcoin. It is the father of all cryptocurrencies and our cryptocurrency is here because of it. However, there is room for more than one cryptocurrency in the market just like there is the US Dollar, Swiss Francs, Canadian Dollar, Australian Dollar and others.

What do you see as the biggest hinderance to blockchain technology and the use of crypto-currencies advancing?

The usual answer we get for this question is Government Regulation. Governments do not like it when they do not have control of money in their country. This will cause their monetary policy of money printing to go haywire because the citizens have options of cryptocurrencies. But what gave rise to Crypto Currencies was also because of the 2008 financial crisis which caused governments to perform Quantitative Easing (printing of US Dollars). In fact, they did it a few times. That was when people realized cryptocurrency may be an option.

However, government censorship will not be sustainable, hence it is not a long term hinderance. The long term hinderance in my opinion is the existence of Quantum Computers. If this technology becomes a reality and is accessible to people, it may destroy all blockchains and causes centralization. It will be able to mathematically solve all blockchain calculations rendering all semiconductors useless against it. Difficulty of the block will sky rocket and the block will become stuck. Until then developers will need to find a new solution against it.

In your opinion how far away are we from a worldwide adoption of blockchain technology?

We are like in the 1993 era of the Internet. It is still early and anybody who comes in now will be able to ride the wave upwards. Worldwide adoption is already beginning. We just need to make the blockchain easier to gain access to. We are doing exactly that by announcing the Mobile Web Wallet as our first product when we launched.

Are there any additional comments you’d like to add?

Firstly, I would like to thank Coin Space News for allowing me to voice opinions. I hope your readers have gained a little insight on what is the current world situation and what to expect in the future. When we select a Coin to invest in as you rightly pointed out there are many out there, one should look for:

-Scarcity of the Commodity. Hilux has 21 million only
-Usefulness of the Commodity. Hilux is easily transferable and has low transaction fees.
-Long term sustainability. Hilux will be around even if the founders are not.
-Decentralized. No one party holds the key to keeping Hilux alive.
-Continuous improvement. Hilux is always building infrastructures.

Also, if you like what you read, I would encourage you to follow our:
Twitter Feed: https://twitter.com/HiluxC
Discord: https://discord.gg/gqzpeWH
Bitcointalk: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=4780650.0

Thank you and regards,
Swatchie-1