Letter to Community from Dyma Budorin

Dear Hacken fam,

I feel inspired by the transformations we are going through. This year was challenging, but even under such circumstances, we exceeded the goals that we set back in 2021. Hacken continues rapidly growing in 2022: our revenue increased by 166%, we gained +537 new clients, and 0 smart contracts audited by our team were hacked. But it’s not today’s topic.

In this letter, I want to express gratitude to you, our community, our main treasure. With your support, we managed to build the Web3 cybersecurity market leader. I always say that HAI holders are our key stakeholders, and the HAI token is a lifetime liability for the Hacken team, so we have to work hard to repay the trust we have received.

Another important task for this year was to find a way to merge the interests of Hacken equity stakeholders and HAI holders. So today, we are starting this journey with the first step — the hDAO creation. How did we get there? Let us recall the history.

ICO & Hacken Brand Growth Era, 2017–2019

We used to be a small but very ambitious team in 2017, mostly positioning ourselves as crypto-oriented white-hat hackers. We were working with white-hat hackers worldwide and organized the event visited by Steve Wozniak. Our team visited industry conferences, negotiated partnerships with key industry players, and reached projects to deliver our cybersecurity services.

2017 was a year of crazy ICOs launches. One could easily collect tens of millions of USD during an ICO. As for that time, the HKN (former — HAI) ICO was pretty modest and raised $4 million. Looking back to last year and seeing crypto projects crushed, I’m even more sure it was the right decision to be focused on the product. People were always primary for us, but we did not use this power to the fullest. It was time to build expertise and let the industry know about it.

Beginning of Hacken Ecosystem Era, 2020–2021

In that period, there was a crypto boom. Both mature projects and newcomers enjoyed high popularity among investors and crypto enthusiasts worldwide. Hacken was building the community around the HAI token, enhancing its utility with the released HackenAI application and launches of the HAI membership, hVPN, and hPass applications (still, both are used by HAI holders for free).

We started organizing family-atmosphere events like Blockchainhackers and Defi Retreats and talking to the community through AMA sessions. To elevate cybersecurity in Web3, we established the Hacken Foundation, which supported the launches of OneArt, HAPI, disBalancer, and PureFi. HAI token holders could farm other cybersecurity tokens with HAI. That time was remarkable as the DeFi boom led to the token’s utility revolving around farming and speculation on the token price.

russian War and New Reality Era, 2022

In February 2022, the community migrated to Discord and became more mature. Then the worst forecasts came true — ruzzia invaded Ukraine, our homeland. HAI holders started selling their tokens due to fear of the possible future. Our decision to block access to our apps for russian users also added some selling pressure, but it was a fundamental thing to be made. Anyway, we had total control over the situation. A few days later, we started fighting on the cyber front by DDoSing ruzzian propaganda websites together with the disBalancer tool, Liberator. We made a product that hundreds of thousands of people use, which helps Ukrainians survive the horrors of war. Now, Liberator continues to work separately from us.

I’m grateful to everyone from our community who appreciated our decision and actively supported us during that time of uncertainty.

2022 was hard not only for Ukrainians but for millions of crypto users. The collapse of Luna, 3ac, and FTX has led to the evaporation of trillions of USD. Speculative tokenomics are still crushing. Teams without revenue and products used by their communities are shutting their operations.

2022 was the time to think strategically. We did very well with the B2B market share increase. But what about B2C? What is the perfect community we want to build? What is the portrait of the Hacken holder in 2025 we want to see? What is on his mind? Is he bothered about another IDO, farming opportunity, or seeking airdrops? No. We want to build a different community.

Our role model community member in 2025 will:

• have sufficient knowledge of cybersecurity and help all no-coiners to enter the industry securely utilizing Hacken tools;
• be an on-chain data expert who knows how to reveal scams and rug pools;
• be an active contributor to Trust Army, a decentralized Web3 security researcher who has his soulbound medals;
• take an active part in Hacken’s strategy through an efficient DAO governance process;
• occupy a senior role in our community, and build other projects to develop the Web3 industry.

hDAO is about building a community where we all want to spend our time. And that’s just one of the first steps. The merge of equity and HAI stakeholders is the next one, and it will be delivered on 1 March 2023.

HAI Community Evolution Era, 2022-…

I have formulated a clear vision of building a cybersec community in Web3 primarily based on hDAO and Trust Army. These projects will not change our market cap share in one night as they are long-term initiatives. And that is what steady and sustainable growth is about, just like Hacken B2B.

We want you to be involved in both of them. Using the Trust Army platform, you can learn and get a profession and a steady income, alongside contributing to crypto transparency. By participating in hDAO, you have the power to influence the future of Hacken. In this way, each talented member can become a decision-maker by building Web3 Trust.

I want to summarize this letter with the following idea: to build Web3 Trust, we need to be united and work in the same direction. So, let’s move together towards becoming the strong and self-regulated cybersecurity community in Web3.

I am proud to serve you.

Dyma Budorin, 

Co-Founder and CEO of Hacken.