Messaging is a core feature of the internet. It was described as the internet’s killer app. It enabled anyone to communicate with anyone else in the world instantly, and for free. Billions of people chat every day. Payments is a core feature of crypto. It is described as crypto’s killer app. It enables anyone to pay any individual or business in the world instantly, at very low costs. Billions of people pay for products and services in crypto everyday. See the similarities here? Why aren’t those two concepts available together?

Other crypto companies like MEW (MyEtherWallet) and imToken will be launching their own app using the dChat protocol. Expect many more apps to launch their own feature in the coming months. Crypto made the internet a free place to pay people. Now is the time for us —developers and users— to make sure we are free to message the people we care about, without big tech controlling us.

With dChat, no company can shut off a user’s account. All data is stored on the P2P storage network, and only the user itself can access and delete chats. Even if a company bans a user, gets hacked, or shuts down, users are unaffected. They can simply chat in any other app that supports the protocol. All chats are encrypted by default and can only be unlocked by the owner of the private key.

This means that a violation of privacy would require someone getting physical control of the device where the private key is stored (typically a phone or computer). It goes beyond centralized counterparts end-to-end encryption, because there is no central database from the start. It also significantly reduces text phishing as the business you interact with will verifiably have the same payment address as their domain name.

Since this protocol can be implemented in any wallet or service using your crypto address, you keep the same chats in all the applications using your crypto address. This is the opposite of today’s countless applications that all have separate Direct Message features where users are locked-in. You can now have a unified inbox, portable anywhere your crypto address is, bringing clarity to every message going through your crypto address.

Disclaimer: this is “Early Release Beta” and has NOT been audited for cryptographic hardness. There is currently no guarantees on it being secure — we are not security researchers — but are open to security review and hope others can improve and potentially even implement their own derivative protocols.