We’ve been quite busy here at Orion and we have some wonderful news to share with the community. Before we go into our update, I would like to personally thank our passionate community for all of their support. We appreciate you and because of your immense belief in us, we are going above and beyond to make that Orion is one of the most promising blockchain projects of the year.

Tech Update –

Atomic Swaps

Orion joins different aspects of the modern crypto trading into one easy to use protocol: real-time connectivity to all major exchanges, standardized API to exchanges, price discovery tools, staking liquidity pool and obviously atomic swaps enabling instant trading on Orion from the user’s cold wallet. Today we would like to present the first fully functional atomic swap solution already integrated into our Trading Terminal.

An atomic cross-chain swap allows users to start trading on Orion without the need to transfer funds to any trusted third party. After connecting their cold wallets to Orion, users deposit their special-purpose smart accounts and a secret seed phrase is stored locally on trader’s computer that is never submitted to any external servers. This is essential, as keeping the security of our users is our highest priority. The next step is to send the address with funds to Orion for auditing and creating a counter-party smart account.

The most important detail is that users still have full access to their account at this stage and can refund at any time. One of the main differences between Orion when compared to other exchanges, e.g. when you trade on Binance or Coinbase, is that you don’t owe the funds you’ve deposited. On Orion you still have full control during the whole process of trading: you can buy and sell any crypto assets, transfer your funds to other accounts, and withdraw them to other external cold wallets at any time without the intervention of any third party.

Once Orion prepares the smart contract on its side the swapping procedure happens automatically without losing control of the asset. After the swap is finalized, Orion provides mutual crypto-credits to the trader to be able to buy and sell any available currencies on the platform within that limit. All provided credits are backed by crypto assets stored on Orion reserve accounts and acts as a medium of exchange currency that allow traders to utilize all available centralized and decentralized liquidity on the market and enables fast cross chain trading without the need for any trusted third parties.

This mechanism enables the best possible performance, security and transparency combined with full available liquidity from brokers on the major centralized exchanges. We are excited to announce that atomic swaps between Bitcoin and Waves are currently available for testing on the Orion Trading Terminal in testnet mode. Support for Ethereum and Holo smart accounts is in progress and expected to be completed very soon.

Marketing Update –

Orion redesign

We are proud to announce that Orion Protocol has undergone a full redesign including a new website, logo, and branding materials. Our devs have collaborated with a top Los Angeles based branding agency to bring our vision of Orion to fruition.

Modern color schemes and sleek font types accompany one another in an extraordinary design element that embodies our futuristic aesthetic.

Please check out our new look here.

Business Development Update –

We’ve been so hard at work that we felt like it was time to expand our team and add some very talented individuals to help us build out our vision for Orion. We are pleased to announce the following additions to our team.

Technical Team –

Simon Krause – Backend Developer

Enthusiasts will recognize our newest developer from many other projects such as BountyOx and also Block Collider. Simon has become quite a familiar face in the crypto community from helping several top projects with management, advisory, and dev work.

Software developer, ambassador and blockchain fanatic, Simon has many years of experience in planning and developing complex software projects. Simon is an avid bug hunter with an intense focus on security, making him a perfect fit for the Orion team.

Benjamin Tse – UI/UX Designer

Benjamin Tse is an 18 year startup and creative veteran. He has worked extensively to bridge market opportunities and technical competence between China, US, and Israel; across a variety of spaces including fintech, health tech, e-commerce, blockchain and AI. He has operated in a variety of roles including digital product design, UI/UX design, SaaS development, and Branding.

As the Director and founder of Hundredfold Studios, Benjamin served enterprise level clients such as Starwood and OnePlus, Shanghai Film Festival, Huayi Brothers, as well as governmental organizations such as the UN and the government of Equitorial Guinea.

He currently serves as the Chief Creative Officer of GeneOS, an award-winning genetics and AI company in the blockchain space.

Eduardo Moreira — Head of Development

Eduardo is a world renowned technologist having worked on major projects in several different continents. He holds an MBA from the Nottingham University Business School and is the CEO and founder of his own Development firm, EYSS. Eduardo also has many years of experience as an IT Director in various multinational companies but is now focused on helping others achieve efficiencies and positive market disruptions by using advanced technology.

Eduardo and his firm EYSS is closely meshed within the Holochain ecosystem with intimate links to the Holo team. Eduardo and EYSS is responsible for being the leaders of the Holochain movement in Latin America having educated several developers and community members in awareness of the superior tech of Holo.

Advisors –

Damon Nam

Damon Nam is a 20 year IT professional, Microsoft alumnus, and currently the Founder and CEO of Coinvest; an emerging financial services and technology company in the blockchain industry.

During his 16 year tenure at Microsoft, he assumed a number of different roles within the Microsoft Services organization. Among these roles were Technical Account Manager, Resource Manager and lastly US Services Program Director where he was responsible for driving and managing the Preferred Services Partner program for the US subsidiary; a program with approximately seventy-five partner organizations and a total book of business of over $90 million in revenue.

Damon studied Information Technology and has a Bachelor of Science in Business at Southern Methodist University.

Jingyuan Ye

Jingyuan is chairman of prominent digital asset management firm, Point95 Global. With over 10 years of experience in trading and portfolio management, he served as the chairman of PPS International (Holdings) Ltd (a HK listed company), Bank of America Merrill Lynch where he was the Vice President of Global Market Division, responsible for the risk and portfolio management of Equity Structured Products for EMEA.

He is a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA), and received a BSc (Hons) in Mathematics, Operational Research, Statistics and Economics from University of Warwick, United Kingdom, and a MSc in Applied Statistics from University of Oxford, United Kingdom.

Special Announcement –

We saved some interesting news for last. This may be a terribly kept secret being that a few of the community members have already figured this out, but we are officially building Orion Protocol on Holochain.

It has been an amazing journey so far for Orion and after consulting with our wonderful advisor David Atkinson of Holo we’ve decided to build out the project on the Holochain platform. With the addition of our Head of Development Eduardo Moriera, he is bringing his expertise in Holochain development to our team to help push Orion to the next level.

After revealing our decision to build on Holochain to a few early community members, it was evident to us that this was for the best for Orion.

Many have already reached out to us in praise, with feedback stating that:

“Orion is going to be a vital part of the hApp ecosystem and the crypto space in general.”

While others are eagerly expressing that:

“Orion is the most exciting project being built on the Holochain platform and is leading the way for hApps to follow suit.”

We are certainly amongst the most excited individuals for Orion as we aren’t just team members but we are also crypto community members that see the true necessity for Orion.

We are constantly updating our Holochain code and we invite you to take a look here at our Github.