“Let him come out to-day!
For the horses are neighing, and the hounds are baying,
And the hunt's up, and away!”
- Hunting Song from "King Arthur” by Richard Hovey
Foxhunting, the chase of a red fox with horsemen with a pack of hounds, was a popular activity in the 19th century in many parts of the world. This activity originated in England in the 15th century but modern foxhunting became formalised later on. Before the First World War, foxhunting reached the peak of popularity as an English field sport and it spread to almost all British colonies. A group of horsemen were led by the ‘master of hounds’ to take part in the activity. They followed the pack of hounds to hunt the fox. The hounds searched for the fox hiding in the woodland or field and whenever it was sighted, they signalled the huntsmen. There used to be a war cry – ‘Tally Ho’! That was the beginning of the hunt. This activity also became a community program that reminded farmers and community members to remain argus-eyed against menacing predatory animals.
Source - 19th Century Original Sporting Equestrian Fox Hunting
The word ‘community’ was always relevant in our society. In today’s world, it’s almost a buzzword. How do we define a community in the digital era of the 21st century? It is a group of people with shared or overlapped vision, philosophy, faith, behaviour, passion or profession. But a true community has a shared trust, social connection and sense of belonging. A community provides a supportive group for people to celebrate different causes of life and overcome challenges together. Historically, communities existed in many forms but the internet initiated the organic formation of communities around common interests and goals very differently. Passive interest was converted to engagement with ease. The internet also changed. Web 1 started with openness but Web 2 was captured by influential corporates. Then came the Web 3 movement and the practice of building communities went through a profound transformation. The web tools became the catalysts for the change.
Source – Community Fun - Vitalik is rapping
Web 3 came with belongingness for anybody and everybody. The builders took part in the hackathons and build-together movement. The vision of a more democratic and decentralized web found acceptance among people. Blockchain became a key technology to build Web3. The trustless and open nature of the underlying technology carried risk but ground-breaking innovations were delivered. Internet needed improvement in transferring monetary value. Ethereum became the internet of money! The network effect of Ethereum flourished just like the internet. The development, improvement and continuous new uses cases of Ethereum drew more users to connect, transact and settle values on-chain. Metamask became the default wallet for Web 3 users.
When Metamask was launched, it came with a permissive MIT License and connected billions of users. It was basically an open-source software but in 2020, the application went under a tiered proprietary license. The code still remains in the public repository but commercialization of the software needs the permission of the makers. The step was supposedly made to protect Metamask from competitors. The open-source developers, who contributed to the codebase, suddenly found their beloved application in a walled garden. Geofencing was started by Metamask very surprisingly. It happened as Infura, the blockchain access link of Metamask, became unavailable in specific jurisdictions due to legal issues. But Metamask started to make a huge profit from its swap service. The 1% fee charged by Metamask Swap is one of the highest in the industry and this fee goes to the corporation behind Metamask. The community, which supported the project for a long time, gets nothing. Is Metamask the predatory fox of Web 3 now?
Community-based alternatives to Metamask are possible. Web 3 is a charged idea with help of blockchain technology now. We have seen various evolving phases of technology and business in the past of mankind but this new language of democratization of technology and the business of technology has been unforeseen. There are vocal supporters and vehement critics in this space but high-order, decentralized and community-governed applications exist today. Real good work is taking place here that can change the way the software industry operates but it is going to be a long battle. A battle worth fighting! The giant monopolistic corporations won’t give up so easily. Don’t we need a war cry? It’s time to chant ‘Tally Ho’ again!
Tally Ho is an open-source alternative to Metamask. It is the first wallet owned by its users and trying to dismantle the hegemonic structures. The team of the developers of the project did not fork Metamask. They built it from scratches and delivered a functional product. Tally Ho works with all decentralized applications and it has an in-built swap feature too. Whatever you do with Metamask, you can do with Tally Ho. The best thing is that all fees generated by the wallet will go to its community. We have already seen a lot of ‘vampire attacks’ on tokenless DeFi protocols. The siphoning of over $1B liquidity from Uniswap by Sushiswap’s vampire attack will always remain in the history book of the DeFi degens. Tally Ho’s ambition is clear! It wants the userbase of Metamask. Those who switch teams will get incentives. The yet-to-be-launched DAO structure will provide the layout for the users to chuck Metamask and embrace Tally Ho. The governance tokens of the DAO are destined to be fair-launched!
Tally Ho is still in the early developmental stage. If you use the community edition of the wallet, you may find some bugs as of now. Support for Ethereum L2 chains and other EVM (Ethereum Virtual Machine) chains have been planned in their roadmap. A lot of new features are going to be added soon. Ledger support is already there and that's a great thing. The DAO structure proposal was published in May 2022. Governance engagement is the key to success for any DAO. As per the high-level structure of the DAO, the token holders will be able to self-delegate or delegate their voting power to their representatives to maximise participation in governance. The journey of Tally Ho won’t be very easy in this bear market. People quickly rally around a project when prices surge but that may not be the case during a downturn. Tally Ho will have to focus heavily on the community for which it is made. Ideal Web 3 is not in utopia but only difficult roads can lead to!
Follow Tally Ho on Twitter to get regular updates and join their vibrant Discord.
Note: The cover image source is here.
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