Echo prepares to launch blockchain decentralized chat software

Rage Review : Peer-to-peer messaging and digital payment application Echo plans to launch a fully functional decentralized chat application that not only continues the free and easy-to-use performance of centralized chat software, but also has security, privacy protection and encryption performance. Centralized applications can cause many problems, such as malfunctions, security vulnerabilities, zero anonymity/privacy, etc. Therefore, decentralized applications are the general trend. Christoph Hering, CEO of Echo, accepted Cointelegraph and discussed in detail the specific details of the release of the project.

Translation: Nicole

Using IPFS technology (a new peer-to-peer hypermedia protocol) and Graphene blockchain technology, Echo aims to launch a fully functional decentralized chat application that not only has the performance of a regular chat software: free and easy to use. It also has security, privacy protection, and encryption. The application is still under development, and has already launched four proof-of-concept mechanisms, and a crowdfunding campaign is also in preparation.

The team behind Echo, a peer-to-peer messaging and digital payments app, aims to create a solution that makes it easier for people who have never heard of cryptocurrencies to use them.

Real-time encryption and data storage

Echo plans to implement the ability to send multimedia (stored using IPFS) while supporting real-time encryption of all audio and video streams.

“Echo will use IPFS to store multimedia data, so all data is decentralized and encrypted,” said Christoph Hering, CEO of Echo. “We will send IPFS hash codes via blockchain ‘memos’, so only the recipient can read the information. Echo will encrypt all audio and video streams: you can call your friends via IPFS video streams.”

Adding a decentralized messenger on the blockchain can receive and interpret messages for users, but it will take up a lot of resources, which is an almost insurmountable problem for mobile devices. This is a common problem for all such applications.

Christoph Hering

Herring commented: “We have developed a special light client for the Bitshares platform, so you only download user-specific data, rather than downloading the entire chain. This not only saves battery and data, but also saves us time.”

Centralization vs Decentralization

Instant messaging enabled by blockchain technology can bring many positive impacts to many industries.

The most popular IM applications are centralized: WhatsApp, Skype, Viber, and Telegram - these applications use company servers to send messages across the network. This means that each application is subject to the inefficiencies brought by centralization: causing failures, security vulnerabilities, zero anonymity/privacy, etc.

The result is that the market will be replaced by a blockchain-driven, secure and efficient private chat application. There are already some decentralized attempts, such as CoinSpark and Blockom. This trend is unstoppable, and even the US Department of Defense's Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and the Commonwealth are considering building blockchain chat software.

However, no solution has yet become popular among large traditional institutions in the industry. This is because these decentralized solutions are not aimed at the general public: projects developed by government agencies are completely confidential, and even private solutions are mostly targeted at experienced digital currency users.

Simple transfer

In addition to the traditional function of sending messages, the application can also solve the transfer problem that banks are troubled by. In order to make seamless transfers through the blockchain, Echo plans to support some simple transfers such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, US dollars, euros, yen, etc.

Users don’t have to remember recipient addresses for various currencies or other specialized data: They can send funds to a username or transfer money via a QR code. Companies can set up corporate accounts through Echo to accept transfers.

Cointelegraph spoke to Christoph Hering about the project.

Cointelegraph: When will your crowdfunding start? When do you plan to launch a work app?

Christoph Herring: We are launching a crowdfunding round right now and will be answering early adopters’ burning questions with a short video, and in the coming weeks we will share our long-term vision. Next, we will make our crowdfunding campaign public on websites, forums and social media.

The crowdfunding campaign will start in early August 2016. We have a very dedicated and enthusiastic team and we plan to launch the first ECHO version within six months after a successful crowdfunding. We will also share the latest progress of our team in the newsletter.

CT: Who will be the biggest competitor to Echo? How do you stand out?

CH: The biggest competitor is WeChat, the Chinese social chat app giant that provides a full range of messaging, payment, shopping, social media and other services. I was also shocked when I used WeChat for the first time in Shanghai. I really like WeChat's simple interface and its ability to get new users started immediately. However, the 700 million WeChat users have to put up with censorship, unencrypted transactions, and the centralized financial system WeChat Pay.

After I returned from my exchange year in Shanghai, the time had come for my dream to create ECHO, a new social messaging app that protects users’ encrypted data and allows users to transfer money freely using blockchain technology. Imagine how convenient the world would be if we could use the most famous interface on our phones, the chat window, to send money, assets and loyalty rewards using only text messages. Finally, you can share your most private thoughts with your family and friends in complete privacy. My vision is to combine the best of social messaging and digital money transfer into one application that anyone can use.

CT: Why do you think decentralized messaging apps will really take off?

CH: Because first of all, most people are not very interested in security, privacy and decentralization. In the real world, we trade privacy for security, and every conversation, interaction and opinion is recorded forever. This is very dangerous, and I think we have the right to choose to forget and delete the fragments of our past mistakes, so that we will become more mature in the future.

Secondly, in a fast-developing world, people will have more demands and enthusiasm for privacy and security. After Brazil shut down WhatsApp and social media censorship in December 2015, people in China and Europe found that their freedom of speech was affected. They urgently need a new decentralized chat software that will not be shut down, censorship, or easily attacked by hackers. Thanks to modern blockchain technology and IPFS technology, ECHO can encrypt all audio, video, chat messages, and wallets to protect user privacy.

Privacy should be the default in all our apps. Even today WhatsApp’s novel and powerful encryption is only an option, not the default. Why?

CT: Ethereum’s integrated programming language allows developers to build a similar application on the blockchain. Why did you choose to build your application from scratch?

CH: Ethereum has its place, but it is not suitable for scalable operations, such as an instant messaging or global financial platform. We decided not to use Ethereum because it did not provide the functionality we needed. We were looking for a blockchain that could handle 50,000 transactions per second, without any transaction fees, support multiple digital assets, have a higher security index, and have more advanced account management functions.

We decided to build ECHO on the BitShares blockchain, which has stood the test of time for speed, security and scalability. ECHO will connect to the BitShares blockchain API, allowing users to use price-stable assets such as Euros, Dollars and Yuan, support digital currencies such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, etc., and build a loyalty reward system for store purchases. In short, ECHO will connect to a new SWIFT network Bitshares, which merges multiple companies around the world and provides a global transaction ledger for exchanging currencies, assets, stocks, bonds, ICO tokens, etc.