  Are there any degrees of freedom on the black hole horizon? Using the
`membrane paradigm' we can reproduce coarse-grained physics outside the hole by
assuming a fictitious membrane just outside the horizon. But to solve the
information puzzle we need `real' degrees of freedom at the horizon, which can
modify Hawking's evolution of quantum modes. We argue that recent results on
gravitational microstates imply a set of real degrees of freedom just outside
the horizon; the state of the hole is a linear combination of rapidly
oscillating gravitational solutions with support concentrated just outside the
horizon radius. The collective behavior of these microstate solutions may give
a realization of the membrane paradigm, with the fictitious membrane now
replaced by real, explicit degrees of freedom.
