The forthcoming era of internet communication: Chatting on blockchain with enhanced security and immunity to censorship.

The importance of communication remains unchanged, even as society progresses. The digital age has introduced a wide range of online tools that bring people together, and the shift from postcards to platforms like Discord has been swift. Applications such as Slack, Discord, and WhatsApp, which combine instant messaging with social elements, serve as communication facilitators for millions of users worldwide. Both individuals and businesses take advantage of the rich features and user-friendly interfaces provided by these applications.
However, as communication becomes increasingly centralized in the hands of a few services, certain concerns arise:
1. Privacy and data security: Centralized platforms store user data on servers controlled by a single entity, making them attractive targets for hackers. There are also concerns about how these companies use user data for advertising or other purposes.
2. Censorship: Centralized entities have the power to censor or moderate content based on their policies or external pressures, leading to the arbitrary removal of content or even entire communities.
3. Service outages: Centralization means that if a service’s servers go down, every user is affected. This creates a single point of failure.
4. Monetization and advertisements: Centralized platforms may prioritize profit over user experience, resulting in invasive advertising or the sale of user data to third parties.
Decentralization offers solutions to these challenges in digital communication. Blockchain-based decentralization has the potential to enhance privacy and security by distributing data across multiple points on the network, making it more difficult for unauthorized parties to access or compromise user information.
In a decentralized network, the risks of censorship and service outages can be minimized. The user-centric nature of Web3 also makes it easier to introduce new monetization models that empower participants.
The idea of decentralized applications (DApps) for instant messaging has gained traction over the years, but implementing Web2-like features on a blockchain-based platform is no easy task. Most DApps that attempt to offer these features encounter significant hurdles.
While decentralization enhances privacy and reduces censorship, it often comes at the cost of performance and user experience. Achieving real-time communication, which is crucial for user satisfaction in messaging apps, is more complex on a decentralized network due to increased latency and inconsistent data synchronization across nodes.
To maintain performance, most DApps compromise by handling user-facing front-end features off-chain. However, this approach dilutes the principles of decentralization and limits the functionality and scalability of these applications. As a result, while DApps hold promise in digital communication, their current implementations often fall short of fully harnessing the advantages of blockchain technology.
OpenChat, a cryptocurrency messaging platform, aims to revolutionize digital communication by leveraging the power of blockchain technology. It offers a unique decentralized chatting experience that prioritizes security and user autonomy. OpenChat runs its entire communication infrastructure, including the front-end, on the Internet Computer (ICP) blockchain.
OpenChat is made possible by ICP, a blockchain network designed to expand the functionalities of the internet. It provides a platform for smart contracts and DApps to run at web speed directly on the blockchain. ICP’s infrastructure aims to unlock the full potential of DApps, enabling them to perform at traditional Web2 speeds while keeping the entire process on the blockchain.
By running on ICP, OpenChat can offer the same performance and features as centralized platforms like Discord or Slack while providing the benefits of decentralization, such as data security, reliability, and censorship resistance. In addition to traditional chat features, OpenChat also supports crypto-native functionality, allowing users to send and receive tokens as chat messages and swap tokens through integrations with exchanges or in a peer-to-peer fashion.
OpenChat recently introduced video and voice chat support, starting with one-to-one video calls and group video calls for up to twenty people. The platform plans to expand its capabilities to include community broadcasts in its next phase.
The concept of decentralization and on-chain communication offered by OpenChat has been well received by the ICP ecosystem. The project raised over 1 million ICP in a fundraising campaign, becoming a fully functional decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) led by its community of shareholders. OpenChat is now controlled by a DAO and uses CHAT as its governance token, allowing tokenholders to have a say in the platform’s future.
OpenChat has also introduced the ability for users to create Communities, which are servers that resemble a mix of Discord and Slack. These communities enable group admins to create subgroups for more focused conversations. Users can join existing communities based on their interests or create their own. OpenChat plans to offer the Communities feature as a communication tool for projects to integrate into their own websites.
OpenChat’s roadmap includes plans to introduce end-to-end encryption for chats in 2024, providing superior security and privacy. The platform also aims to implement a sophisticated tokenization system that rewards users with CHAT tokens for posting key content. The development team is committed to keeping up with major Web2 competitors and leading innovation in Web3, ensuring that OpenChat’s feature set evolves and expands alongside advancements in digital communication.
OpenChat will be featured in the upcoming ICPCC event, where it will showcase how ICP technology can enhance decentralized applications on any blockchain.
Fully decentralized platforms like OpenChat aim to address the challenges of privacy, security, and centralization by offering enhanced privacy, reduced censorship, and a user-governed ecosystem. They promise to protect user data and empower users through community-led governance and innovative monetization strategies planned for the future.