Elastos Community Launches Hyper Messenger, An Encrypted, Blockchain DID-based Competitor to WhatsApp and Signal

Elastos, the decentralized internet platform built with the security of Bitcoin’s immense hashpower, proudly welcomes Hyper Messenger, the world’s first decentralized, completely private messenger service. Hyper makes its official debut exclusively on elastOS, the flagship application of the Elastos ecosystem, with a standalone version for Android and iOS currently in development. The launch comes equipped with a complete rebranding – from new colors and fresh design style, to a refined UI/UX and in-app notifications that allow users to receive incoming messages in real-time while navigating other applications throughout elastOS. Remaining true to the commitment to user privacy and individual empowerment it shares with Elastos, Hyper’s forthcoming release includes the integration of all four of Elastos’ main components: elastOS, Elastos Carrier, Hive 2.0, and the DID Sidechain.

“Chat Like No One’s Watching”

How Hyper is Better Than WhatsApp, Signal, and Telegram

First and foremost, Hyper leverages Elastos’ core technologies to produce a highly disruptive messenger application that provides unparalleled user privacy based on a decentralized protocol. Whereas prevailing messenger applications such as WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger harvest and consolidate user data, Hyper draws on Elastos Carrier, a decentralized, peer-to-peer network to protect users as they exchange information. Via Carrier, Hyper even separates itself from the existing pack of privacy-centric chat applications that dominate the market – most notably among them, Telegram. Even on Telegram, messages are routed through Telegram’s servers, which in addition to being centralized, require the Telegram development team for constant maintenance. Hyper, on the other hand, is merely a protocol which operates across a distributed network of nodes, and which exists and operates independently of Hyper’s development team. Lastly, by virtue of its integration with Elastos Carrier, Hyper’s users can connect with others from any messenger application run by Carrier nodes – a feature that allows for the formation of a truly interoperable and democratic network.

Hyper also integrates Elastos’ DID functions (decentralized IDs issued by a public blockchain, not a company, ie. Facebook or Google IDs), such that users can generate profiles and accounts based on their Elastos ecosystem identities that have been issued and secured by the robustness and security of the Elastos blockchain. Thus, Hyper is not responsible for protecting account information and instead focuses on facilitating private information exchange. In this way, Hyper stands apart even from prominent privacy-centric chat applications such as Signal, which still require user phone numbers for identification purposes. DID integration also enables users to connect to Hive 2.0, Elastos’ proprietary decentralized storage service. Using their DIDs, users can run their own Hive Vaults, or select existing public Vaults, thereby storing their messenger data securely, privately, and locally, pending their individual preferences. As is intrinsic to the ethos of Elastos, all user-generated data is private property, and Hyper’s decentralized protocol supports and realizes such an initiative, as it neither accesses nor stores data without corresponding user consent.

https://youtu.be/RpABUzVWIuM

What’s Next?
Handing the Project Over to the Community-led DAO Cyber Republic

In the meantime, the Hyper team remains hard at work, piling on new code for a breadth of new features slated for upcoming releases, including but not limited to:

→ Hyper Messenger for elastOS for Desktop
→ Hyper Messenger as a standalone (Trinity Native) app designed for Android and iOS
→ File Transfer functions for non-text messages
→ WebRTC functions for audio and video streaming
→ Release of open source code

Hyper Product Lead Peter Strauss said of the launch, “Hyper has come a long way in integrating Elastos’ core tech components, and continues to have its sights set on a goal it shares intimately with Elastos: preserving privacy and enabling users to truly own the data they generate on the internet. I speak on behalf of the entire Hyper team in expressing our gratitude to all of the Elastos community, as well as the Elastos teams that have contributed to our product along the way. We are excited to continue building both our technology and our relationship with Elastos into 2021 and beyond.”

The Hyper team plans to secure future funding from the community’s decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) called Cyber Republic, as well as share all of its code open-source. The combination of a democratic, decentralized funding source, with a truly decentralized and private messaging platform, make Hyper one of the most unique and innovative ways to communicate in the world.

As Hyper Messenger and an array of new applications make their debuts and publish new releases on elastOS, keep up to date with all the latest news surrounding elastOS and the rest of the Elastos ecosystem on the official Elastos Info Blog.

Where To Find Hyper

Hyper Website: hyper.im
Hyper Twitter: @hypermessenger
Download Instructions: https://launcher.elastos.net/app/?id=com.hyper.messenger
Demo Video: https://youtu.be/pwS0iKt2cuo

About Elastos

Founded by OS expert Rong Chen, Elastos is building the blockchain industry’s most comprehensive and interoperable open-source platform. Using a hybrid consensus that combines the secure hashpower of Bitcoin and the democratic ideals of Delegated-Proof-of-Stake, the SmartWeb of Elastos is a suite of software for an entirely decentralized internet. Elastos employs not only blockchain technology, but a peer-to-peer network for communication, decentralized data storage services, and a decentralized ID (DID) system for all digital assets. With sidechains like Ethereum, Elastos is not merely the foundation for securing truly decentralized applications that can scale, it is the foundation for true data ownership.

elastOS, the flagship product of the Elastos Smartweb, brings the entire decentralized ecosystem into a single App, currently available for Android and in development for both iOS and desktop.

To learn more, visit the Elastos Info Website, Twitter , or Telegram. If you are a developer, visit Elastos Academy, Elastos Developer, or Elastos Developers Telegram.

Elastos is also actively searching for both new and existing dApp projects through its Cyber Republic initiative. Cyber Republic possesses a community-governed grant fund designed to help startups and existing businesses explore blockchain. You can read more about Cyber Republic at https://www.cyberrepublic.org.