The Mercury Protocol

The way we communicate changes often, but it hasn’t changed for the better in a really long time. I mean, of course, back in my day, I used pigeons launched from the 🚢 Santa Crypto 🚢 to carry my messages. Needless to say, I have seen messaging change quite a bit. And while my birds may not have been very fast, I never had to worry about them being hacked as many times as Snapchat has been. 👻

We are due for a change in the way we message and digitally communicate. Sadly, the majority of people are quick to push away change. (Remember how devastated people were when the iPhone lost its headphone jack?) 🤣 On a more serious level, even in the face of privacy and security, people continue to push away needed change in exchange for what they think is convenience.

TL;DR The Mercury Protocol is using the blockchain to enhance security and privacy in messaging by utilizing the blockchain.

Overview

You can read the white paper here. It’s the best place to get the most direct information about the project. It’s written in a basic format with diagrams that make it easy to understand while explaining all the features and benefits of the platform and token. We discovered this project when we came across this reddit thread from Mark Cuban:

I believe that this project has that ability to be a part of the change we need. The passion of the team, coupled with Mark Cuban as an advisor (who takes privacy and security as a very serious concern), is added fuel to drive this innovation on the blockchain.

If you remember, he stood up to the SEC when they violated his privacy, sued them and won. It was a huge victory for him that could have possibly paved the way to make the mercury protocol a reality today.

By using the blockchain, the Mercury Protocol will be enhancing our overall privacy and security. The developers say that Mercury Protocol will increase user privacy and security in part because blockchain anonymizes user identity. Behavioral data won’t be linked to individuals and sold to advertisers the way it currently is on social networking platforms like Facebook and Twitter.

If you have not seen this video before, it’s worth the couple minute watch. While you will probably crack a smile, you will think about this on a deeper level, as well while scroll your newsfeed…

It doesn’t stop there. The Mercury Protocol also baked in way to address online trolls and bullies with what is described as “reputation points for positive interactions”provides users with rewards for participation whilst service providers can bootstrap a network out of the box. If you have negative feedback you pay a higher premium. How’s that for social proof? I dig it.

I would suggest signing up for the email updates and keep you’re eyes peeled for the ICO for the Global Messaging Tokens.

Technology

The Mercury Protocol is built on Ethereum. The GMT (Global Messaging Token). It is an ERC-20 Token.

The ERC20 token smart contract is written in the Solidity programming language and will be publicly accessible and free to use.

The Team

Ryan Ozonian, Chief Executive Officer

Rohit Kotian, Chief Technology Officer

Igor Shpitalnik, Lead Backend Engineer

Ian R. Connelly, Project Manager

Preethi Kasireddy, Lead Blockchain Developer

Alex Moir, Blockchain Developer

Elliot Sperling, Blockchain Developer

Sameer Khavanekar, iOS Team Lead

Manju Deshpande, iOS Developer

Alex Rupprecht, Android Team Lead

Brant Kortman, Android Developer

Evan Albert, Lead Web Developer

Mayukh Das, Software Developer

Michael Talarczyk, Lead Systems Engineer

Jon Ikemura, Lead Designer

Advisors

Mark Cuban, Dust Investor, Owner of the Dallas Mavericks

Nick Tomaino, 1Confirmation, Previously at Coinbase, The Control, Runa Capital

Resources

Twitter: https://twitter.com/mercuryprotocol

Whitepaper: https://www.mercuryprotocol.com/files/Mercury_Protocol_whitepaper.pdf

Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/mercuryprotocol

Medium: https://medium.com/@MercuryProtocol

Slack: https://www.mercuryprotocol.com/slack

Frequently Asked Questions

What problem does the Mercury Protocol solve?

Blockchain technology enables us to shift from privatized silos of applications and data to a public, decentralized and trustless digital community. Dust aims to use blockchain technology to replace the current industry standard of messaging that uses a centralized advertising based model that extorts user data for profit, to one that trustlessly incentivizes users for their participation and attention within the platform. The Mercury Protocol and the GMT token is how Dust plans to achieve this. We believe that if implemented correctly, tokens can solve any number of problems with communication platforms, including online harassment and trolling. There are countless potential implementations for a token system within messaging applications (e.g. rewards for watching ads, fines for abusive behavior, etc.), but the commonality between all of them is that tokens are designed to provide a secure, measurable way to encourage positive behavior and discourage destructive behavior within a decentralized ecosystem of any size. Additionally, the protocol will enable decentralized and platform agnostic communication. This means it becomes possible to send communications from one Mercury Protocol integrated platform to another, thus expanding the ecosystem to include all users across all Mercury Protocol integrated platforms, as opposed to a single platform’s users. We intend for this protocol to enable a token ecosystem that is completely scalable within communication platforms of any size, and one that continues to increase in utility for every new platform that comes on-board. Source: https://www.mercuryprotocol.com/faq

How is the Mercury Protocol different from centralized token systems like those found in WeChat or other messaging apps?



We suggest checking out the whitepaper for a great chart with the comparisons.

The Mercury Protocol is decentralized and trustless. Token-like mechanisms within WeChat and other applications are centralized and proprietary systems that are not transferable across communications platforms. Mercury Protocol, on the other hand, provides utility across every messaging application that adopts it.

Unlike centralized alternatives, the Mercury Protocol will be open-source and free for any application to use to build user-facing messaging applications on top of the protocol.

The token system built on the Mercury Protocol benefits from network effects — if a new platform accepts a token already integrated into other platforms all of them will benefit from the expanding user base. Source: https://www.mercuryprotocol.com/faq

Why not just use Ether or another existing cryptocurrency?

Primarily, the native units of exchange on any given blockchain network (Bitcoin, Ether, etc.) are not intended to be valued for communication related activity. They are designed to be used as the metric of participation in the blockchain network. If a communication platform were to implement Bitcoin or Ether as the primary metric of communication participation, it is possible for the value of the cryptocurrency to fluctuate for a reason unrelated to the platform. This inconsistency makes it difficult to accurately reward a user for participating in the communication platform. If a user spends one Bitcoin to send a premium message to a friend, for example, and the price of Bitcoin skyrockets for an unrelated reason, that user arguably just lost that increase in value because of market instability. That’s where the blockchain-based token comes in. By disassociating from the blockchain parent network and implementing the token specifically as incentive for communication platform participation, it creates a more stable token value as determined only by the behaviors of the token’s network. In the above example, if a user were to spend one token to send a premium message to a friend, and the price of Bitcoin were to skyrocket, it would have no bearing on the value of the token or the cost of the premium service. This stability makes it possible to properly calibrate the token cost of a platform’s premium services, and consistently promote positive network behavior while discouraging negative ones. Final Thoughts

As I have said before, blockchain technology is solving many problems across the board.

The Mercury Protocol solves a real world problem, while innovating messaging, communication and social proof. “And for those reasons, I’m In!” – Cryptopher Columbus

If you use the Dust App, be sure to connect with me there. If you don’t use the app, check it out! Familiarize yourself with it, and get a feel for the platform. Add Cryptopher Columbus on Dust to keep up with all our crypto blasts!

via GIPHY