Cardano Developer InputOutput and Hedera Join DeRec Alliance as Final Founders
Date: 2024-09-06 Author: Henry Casey Categories: BLOCKCHAIN
The Decentralized Recovery Alliance (DeRec) has added its latest founders: research and engineering firm and Cardano developer Input|Output, and open source proof-of-stake network Hedera.
With this move, they join the Algorand Foundation, Hashgraph (formerly Swirlds Labs), Ripple, and XRPL Labs.
The founders’ role is to provide leadership in oversight and governance.
The companies receive two-year seats on the Technical Oversight Committee (TOC).
As members of the TOC, Input|Output and Hedera will provide “critical input” into the Alliance’s governance structure and core policies.
This is necessary to maintain the strategic focus of the Alliance and meet the needs of its growing community, the announcement said.
“The combined experience and expertise of the new members will be a great asset to the Alliance,” said Hedera co-founder Leamon Baird. “It’s exciting to see the industry collaborating across multiple ecosystems to deliver the decentralized recovery the world so desperately needs.”
The Alliance Expands with New Members
In addition to the companies mentioned, the DLT Science Foundation, Hashpack, Oasis Protocol Foundation, and Palisade have joined the Alliance as members.
Their role is to advance the DeRec Alliance’s mission to create an interoperable recovery standard to facilitate the widespread adoption of cryptocurrencies and other assets.
Alliance members provide policy advice and oversee the development of DeRec-based solutions, shaping the direction of the Alliance.
Members also attend quarterly meetings, nominate candidates for the TOC, and participate in elections.
The press release highlights their importance: “They represent a diverse group of organizations that are implementing the DeRec Alliance standards and best practices, promoting decentralized recovery and making it accessible to a wider audience.”
The DeRec Alliance was launched in January 2024 by Leamon Baird and ecosystem leaders from Hedera and Algorand.
They aim to introduce a new open protocol that standardizes the process of digital asset recovery, making it easier and more secure for users to use them, while facilitating the adoption of Web3.
The alliance claims that the protocol “frees users from the risks of self-governance,” including the complex processes of securing keys, passwords, accounts, and funds.
Instead, DeRec’s solutions protect all of this data, the announcement said.
Pavlo Tasca, founder and chairman of the DLT Science Foundation, explained that his team co-developed a “secret sharing protocol with trusted assistants” that eliminates single points of failure and that DeRec uses to ensure reliable data recovery.
HashPack CEO Mei Chan noted that DeRec’s solutions have the potential to solve many problems associated with accounts.
Web3 for Everyone
According to John Woods, CTO of the Algorand Foundation, Web3 “falls short in delivering a great user experience for protecting and recovering key material.”
That’s why the foundation co-founded the DeRec Alliance to improve the user experience for the entire ecosystem, including regular users, developers, and others.
In addition to simplifying the key recovery process, it’s important to further decentralize other key infrastructure, Woods said.
Hedera President Charles Adkins added that the DeRec Alliance’s open protocol, which makes asset recovery easier, “aligns closely with our mission to usher in a new era of trust and transparency.”
Participants say this is the path to Web3 adoption.
Charles Hoskinson, founder of Cardano and CEO of Input|Output, noted that “as an industry looking to achieve wider adoption, we must all strive to continually improve security, accessibility, and user experience.”
For the industry to achieve true adoption, said Oasis Protocol Foundation Director Jernej Kos, applications must match the flexibility, privacy, performance, and user experience of Web2.
The mission of the members is therefore to remove the “long-standing friction point” of private key management, making Web3 accessible to all.
Tom Kiddle, co-founder of Palisade, says the future of Web3 depends on providing users with reliable and secure mechanisms for key recovery.
By contributing to private key management and wallet infrastructure, “we are helping to prepare Web3 for mass adoption,” Kiddle said.
