New Peer-to-Peer Chat Application Launches On The Decentralized Streamr Network

Zug, Switzerland

Streamr, a decentralized network for real-time data, recently launched the beta version of thechat.app, a new decentralized and serverless group and private chat instant messaging application.

It offers a unique Web 3.0 communication architecture.

Chat rooms are actually streams on the Streamr Network, with each connected participant forming part of a peer-to-peer mesh network for messages to flow through – without a centralized instance in between.

This is unlike other chat apps that rely on a central server.

Henri Pihkala, co-founder and CEO of Streamr, said,

“The Streamr Network offers an ideal opportunity to build decentralized communication and social media applications. For the Web 3.0 community to migrate from using Web 2.0 messaging platforms, they need a protocol that’s fast and serverless.

“We hope thechat.app provides a tangible inspiration for builders to explore the possibilities of truly permissionless, real-time communications with Streamr.”

Chat rooms come in three types – public, private and token gated.

Token gated rooms allow users to configure an access control policy to check that users hold a chosen token or a certain amount of tokens in their wallet before granting them access.

Private rooms restrict access to chosen users. Public rooms are viewable by anyone.

Messages in all room types are secured by end-to-end encryption and allow users to communicate without any intermediaries. Over 6,000 registered beta testers are currently exploring these various types of chats.

The beta version of thechat.app is built to work best as a desktop browser application with users connecting via their wallets, including MetaMask, Coinbase Wallet or WalletConnect.

Creating rooms and invites are on-chain transactions while messages in chats are cryptographically signed and delivered over the Streamr Network.

To avoid a UX pain point of individually signing actions, ‘hot wallets’ are generated and linked to the user’s main wallet with on-chain mapping between the hot wallet and the main wallet.

This allows for automatic signing and provides a barrier against the main wallet being compromised.