Coinbase-Backed DeSo Disrupts Telegram, WhatsApp, and Signal

October 11, 2022 at 12:13 PM EDT

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Takeaways:

DeSo, a new blockchain that has raised $200 million from Coinbase, Sequoia, and Andreessen Horowitz, just launched decentralized on-chain end-to-end encrypted group chats, a first-of-its-kind innovation.
On-chain messages are resistant to censorship and can be used pseudonymously without supplying personal information, just like Bitcoin or Ethereum.
DeSo is the only blockchain that supports seamless end-to-end encrypted on-chain messaging today, and the extension to group chats is a first-of-its-kind breakthrough.
Apps like Diamond, a Decentralized Twitter app that launched recently, are launching decentralized encrypted group chats on DeSo in the coming weeks. Diamond already supports end-to-end encrypted on-chain direct messages, which DeSo has featured since early 2021.

Today, Signal is the most popular private messaging app, and yet users can't use it without entering a personally-identifying piece of information: their phone number. This makes it so that anyone with access to Signal's database gets full information about who the user messaging and when. Additionally, because Signal is a centralized service, it has been blocked in major countries like China.

Imagine if creating a Bitcoin wallet required users to give up their phone numbers. Why can't users have the same level of privacy and censorship resistance that they have with Bitcoin but applied to their communications?

Today, the DeSo blockchain brings Bitcoin's pseudonymity and censorship resistance to messaging with the launch of decentralized end-to-end encrypted on-chain direct messages and group chats.

Thanks to a recent integration with MetaMask, users of DeSo apps like Diamond can sign up without entering any personal information. Additionally, because DeSo is a decentralized layer-1 blockchain, all messages are censorship resistant, meaning that nothing can stop the users recipient from getting their message, even if they're in a country with limited free speech.

“DeSo is the only blockchain that could support something like this today,” says Nader Al-Naji, the creator of DeSo. “It costs about $75 to store a 200-character message on Ethereum, and about fifteen cents to store it on Solana, Avalanche, or Polygon. In contrast, DeSo is one ten-thousandth of a cent, making it the first blockchain capable of disrupting storage-heavy applications like iMessage, WhatsApp, and Signal,” Al-Naji adds.

This is the latest in a recent string of successes for DeSo. The platform listed on Coinbase earlier this year announced a groundbreaking MetaMask integration last week that caused a significant price surge. Many new social apps like Diamond, a web3 social network built on DeSo, have launched and are growing rapidly with a recent surge in user numbers. Recently, the platform announced a USDC integration that has attracted many new builders to the ecosystem.

With the launch of decentralized messaging, DeSo’s true disruptive power becomes apparent. It is a platform that can not only disrupt social media but a platform that can ensure open communication and free speech for all citizens of the world.

About DeSo Foundation

DeSo is a new layer-1 blockchain built from the ground up to decentralize social media and scale storage-heavy applications to billions of users. They raised $200 million and are backed by Sequoia, Andreessen Horowitz, Coinbase Ventures, Social Capital, Polychain Capital, Winkelvoss Capital, Pantera, and others.

$DESO, the native currency of the DeSo blockchain, is listed on Coinbase.

Check out the full roadmap and claim your username on deso.com.