GIP-98: Should GnosisDAO invest in HOPR to kickstart development of GnosisVPN?

Abstract To strengthen Gnosis’ positioning as a leader in resilient web3 infrastructure, GnosisDAO would invest into HOPR to foster Gnosis’ focus on privacy. HOPR would then build Gnosis VPN, a truly private and decentralized VPN on top of the HOPR mixnet. To increase Gnosis DAO’s oversight, this effort will be split into two: this proposal and a follow up proposal for further development after initial work has been presented within 9 months.

Within the framework of this first proposal, HOPR would build a set of VPN (virtual private network) libraries for privately relaying HTTP calls and responses and a proof of concept Gnosis VPN browser extension. Working over the HOPR mixnet, this first extension will give users fully metadata-private access to a set of predefined Gnosis Dapps from their web browsers. In particular, this will allow users to interact with a full suite of crypto services without revealing their IP address or geolocation to the respective web servers.

These libraries and proof of concept browser extension would be supported with an investment of $1.5m to form the basis for GnosisVPN, a fully decentralized VPN service tailored to web3 users. The scaling and UX work needed to bridge these two versions would be the subject of a future proposal, contingent on the successful completion of the deliverables in this proposal.

In addition to the product development, GnosisDAO will receive HOPR tokens at a 30% discount on the 90-day $HOPR TWAP, ending on the day the proposal passes for their $1.5m investment.