HERE & HOT: INNOVATING THE WEB3 ADOPTION PROBLEM WITH GAMIFIED SOLUTIONS

In a recent interview, when asked about the position of HERE and HOT wallet, HERE CEO and founder, Peter Volnov, had a really clear picture of what he wanted them to be, referring to them as the “VISA/MasterCard of Web3”. The analogy captured both the present status and future ambitions of his products, and we couldn’t help but take a deeper dive into what he meant.

HERE is a platform on NEAR, that builds non-custodial wallets focused on user experience that lowers the barrier entry into Web3, and security. The team currently has two products out:


– HERE wallet, a non-custodial Web and mobile wallet offering an all-in-one DeFi experience to users.

– HOT wallet, a non-custodial Web3 wallet for Telegram, featuring a gamified user journey.

Both wallets focus on delivering ease-of-use and familiarity, but also target slightly different levels of the same audience.

HERE WALLET

In addition to being non-custodial, HERE Wallet offers a comprehensive DeFi experience with features such as liquid staking, NFTs, swaps, and more. Its mobile app enhances accessibility, making it a convenient option for users on the go. The wallet employs innovative yet familiar technologies like QR code scanning and offers gas-free transactions to further enhance the user experience.

The wallet’s comprehensiveness, combined with its convenience, makes it an easy yet powerful option for users exploring the NEAR ecosystem and already deeply entrenched in Web3.

HOT WALLET

Built primarily for Telegram, and newcomers into Web3, HOT focuses on delivering an engaging and simplified user experience through a gamified interface. It allows users to mine “fire droplets” as currency and join a community to collectively mine and earn more. While onboarding individual users is beneficial, building an incentivized community that can explore, discover, and experience the ecosystem’s value is even better. This approach also creates an organic marketing wheel and landing pad for incoming users.

Telegram is the 8th most used social media platform in the world, with 1.5 billion users globally, and over 190 million daily users. Its user base grew by 46% in 2024 and is projected to grow by another 46% by 2025. By intelligently leveraging Telegram, HOT provides a low-effort, high-reward gateway to Web3 on one of the biggest social media platforms in the world.

HOT wallet emphasizes onboarding and easing new users into the world of Web3, while HERE wallet becomes more of an option once the user is familiar with the basics and wants a more advanced experience. 

WHY WEB3? 

If you noticed that “non-custodial” is a premier feature for both wallets, it is largely because it is part of the Web3 ideal and a foundational tenet, and is closely tied to Peter’s experience with traditional banking. An experience that is shared and talked about by NEAR co-founder, Illia Polosukhin, in his article Self-Sovereignty is NEAR. Web3 champions the value of full user ownership and control of their assets, from money to data. 

In addition Web3 unlocks robust and varying types of security that makes the responsibility of non-custodianship more attractive.

As a melting pot for technology that offers prime infrastructure for building robust products, thanks to a unique account model, and features like meta transactions (for gas free transactions), FastAuth (Web2-style security backed by blockchain) and chain signatures (enabling true interoperability), another one of NEAR’s notable attractions for the HERE team was how developer friendly and focused the tech stack was, making it easy to build on. 

IT’S HOT, IT’S HERE, IT’S NOW

HOT wallet currently (as of June 10) has 9.5M users after launching in early 2024, while HERE accounts for over 50% of transactions on NEAR Protocol, with $130M in transactions signed via the wallet in May 2024. 

WE ARE HERE, WHAT NEXT?

Aligned with NEAR’s Chain Abstraction vision, HERE is looking to infuse their products with the next arc of Web3, a connected ecosystem that abstracts complexity and enables users to interact and access different blockchains from a single entry point (wallet). 

The vision for HOT wallet is to develop it into a protocol offering multiple chain abstracted use cases (NFT marketplace, cross-chain swaps, launchpad, discovery portal, MPC wallet, etc), without losing the core function of being a simplified gateway for new Web3 users. To that end, the HERE team has already been productive, delivering a launchpad and dApp gateway.

HERE is effectively building out an open ecosystem that takes full advantage of all NEAR has to offer to create value in Web3 that completely reverses the experience of traditional finance, and puts users firmly in control of their assets, data and journey, with a dash of fun.

Discover HERE wallet: https://www.herewallet.app/ 

Discover HOT: https://t.me/herewalletbot/app