Hermes - A decentralized, encrypted chat app

Product Hunt

Hermes is a decentralized, encrypted chat app, built on Blockstack. Privacy is our priority. Your information is end to end encrypted, and is only

shared with the people you choose. You hold your own private keys.

Replies

Best

Steve Flanagan

Hi there - very nice UX! I hadn't actually used a blockstack enabled dapp before. Great onboarding experience. One question - why is it necessary to incorporate blockchain for this? Couldn't I message a peer directly and encrypt my message locally, rather than store the message on the blockchain in the interim? I guess what I'm asking is - why go Alice->blockchain->Bob when you could just go Alice->Bob? Perhaps I'm missing something All in all, great work on this and I'm happy to see people creating exciting things with blockchain!!

Report

6yr ago

Daniel Healy

@steveflanagan_ Thanks Steve! So the message isn't really stored on the Blockchain, it's stored where you want--I think it defaults to a Blockstack-owned S3 bucket, but it could be your own S3 bucket, your Dropbox, whatever. What is stored on the (Bitcoin) blockchain is a hash of your Blockstack ID, which means A. no one can control or revoke it--your ID is yours and B. other blockstack users can find your stored info. If you want to read more in depth on Blockstack here's a presentation I made a while ago: https://www.dropbox.com/s/7am1ey...

Report

6yr ago

Steve Flanagan

@danielhealy3 Gotcha. So it's an encrypted messaging system that assures identity via blockchain. Very cool! I know the folks over at uport.me have been working hard on an ID system built on Ethereum - you could perhaps link up with them if you're looking to expand your user base. Good luck with it all!

Report

6yr ago

Daniel Healy

I made it I'm biased but you should try it!

Pros:

--The feds can't get you

--Bangin design

--Timed disappearing messages

--File/picture share

--Send Bitcoin

Cons:

--No one else has it