Back in the day walls had ears. Now, our phones have eyes and they’re reading our texts. Will the blockchain technology manage to extend the lifespan of free messengers and keep our constitutional right to privacy of personal correspondence?
According to the HubSpot study, the combined number of monthly active users of messaging apps is in the excess of 5 billion people. There is no other category of applications that can even come close to such numbers. Notably, the variety of offers is insane and the competition on this market is fierce: WhatsApp, Viber, Facebook Messenger, Snapchat, Line, Telegram, QQ, BBM, KakaoTalk, Google Hangouts, Skype, Zalo, Slack, WeChat… This list is endless.
What does the Blockchain have to do with it?
The vast majority of the messaging apps users are most likely under the impression that the messages they send are delivered directly to the person they’re talking to, but that’s not quite right. All messages actually pass through a third party — the company that developed the application. These messages as well as users’ personal data are stored on the servers that belong to that company and all that information can be transferred to someone else, sold or even stolen.
The blockchain was created as a peer‐to‐peer payment network. Essentially, it’s a distributed database, and that’s exactly why it can help users avoid the control of their data by the developer of a mobile operator, as users will be able to communicate directly with each other, avoiding the third party servers. The blockchain is built on secure methods of cryptography, which means this technology can help further protect the privacy of personal correspondence via encryption. Moreover, this technology will enable the users of messaging apps to send cryptocurrency anywhere in the world, quick and with little to no fees.
Unfortunately, a lot of messaging app developers might be okay with just taking the word ‘blockchain’ and add to their company’s name just to stand out from the competition. And at times it works. Several dozen companies from very different fields have done it in the past. Their stock value soared as the result. That’s a very questionable approach, to say the least.
What is happening right now?
Perhaps it’s worth noting right away that the blockchain technology is still a very niche one and not all the developers of messaging apps are interested in it. Most of the industry giants are focusing on the number of active users, rather than the security and privacy of their data. This trend is unlike to change anytime soon, so for now this technology will only be adopted by smaller apps.
One of the first messengers to adopt the blockchain technology was the Canadian Kik. In August 2017, the company closed an $98 million ICO and launched their very own cryptocurrency token Kin. In the beginning, the move was mostly about marketing and attracting new users, and it actually worked. Right now, Kik are actively developing new ways to use Kin within the app. They’re planing to open a trading platform within the app, enable the users to earn tokens for various activities and integrate third‐party applications into the Kin ecosystem.
People at Kik actually seem to be quite well‐versed in the blockchain technology and in the way cryptocurrencies work. Initially, the Kin token was issued on the Ethereum blockchain, but it was later ‘moved’ to the Stellar blockchain, as the latter was several times faster. Now Kik operates on their own blockchain, fully optimised for their need. Naturally, this didn’t go unnoticed in the crypto community.
Despite all that, Kik didn’t manage to become the central communication hub for crypto enthusiasts. Due to the highly reliable end‐to‐end encryption methods, this niches has been occupied by Telegram for quite some time. With the community’s support, the creators of Telegram decide to develop their own blockchain with the native cryptocurrency token called Gram. At the time of writing, they’ve managed to collect $1.8 billion, exclusively from large investors contributing via a private subscription.
The Japanese messenger LINE went even further. They’re not going to just develop their own blockchain, the company is also working of a full‐fledged financial platform, with the blockchain playing a connecting role between the platform and the messenger. In January, they’ve announced the creation of a subsidiary financial services company dealing with virtually everything: insurance, loans and the exchange of cryptocurrencies, all through their messaging app.
All 3 of these applications are using the blockchain technology for different purposes: Kik seems to be looking for new ways to attract new users and their money, Telegram are building their own version of the internet, if the rumours are correct, while LINE wants to connect its messenger with other services through the unified payment network.
Of course, there is also a flurry of lesser‐known messengers that are not just integrating the blockchain technology, but were fully built on it: Air, Gliph, Just, Whisper and so on. It seems very unlikely that any of these apps will find enjoy any success at all — they can’t compete with the market giants and they don’t really offer anything revolutionary so that they could stand out in this market.
Do messaging apps actually need blockchain?
In China, WeChat has been at the top of the game for a long while now. It’s an instant messenger, a social network, a payment service, a marketplace and a personal identifier, all wrapped in one. Their monthly active audience is more that 1 billion people. The company achieved all that without blockchain.
Interestingly enough, WeChat has become a part of life for a lot of Chinese people, and it goes far. For instance, if you want to get access to the free toilet paper in on the public toilets, you’re going to have to scan a QR‐code. Yes, in order to to relieve yourself you need to check‐in and send your personal data somewhere.
Undoubtedly, WeChat is a very convenient messenger that connects a huge amount of services, but due to its centralisation, it’s subject to government censorship, with the users’ personal data, which includes their financial information, is basically in the hands of the company.
Perhaps, that’s exactly the point where blockchain might be of help. Because of the complicated cryptography, the blockchain technology will secure the users’ personal data, their financial relations and the privacy of their correspondence. Most likely, we will be able to see an messaging app like this very soon, as this is exactly what the public expect from Telegram’s new service.
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