ARK Messenger, a fully autonomous and secure chat service built entirely on ARK technology is now officially complete! Built by Community member and Delegate Lemii, ARK Messenger(AM) runs on its own customized bridgechain. In addition, AM also makes use of ARK’s Generic Transaction Interface(GTI) to handle the processing of chat messages.

Lemii is an ARK community member, developer and an ARK Delegate (creator of ARK Relay website). He is quite familiar with ARK and DPoS, and already a top earner on the bounty leader board. Lemii brought this idea and his full proposal to the ARK team to fund his development and once he was approved an ARK Grant, he immediately set out working on a Proof of Concept and a full outline.

Try out ARK Messenger at https://ARKmessenger.io

ARK Messenger development was completely funded using ARK Grants. Formally known as Tier 0, ARK Grants is a program that empowers developers to build applications, plug-ins, and/or proof of concepts for the ARK Ecosystem.

Proof of concepts in blockchain are necessary because they provide a feasible and practical use of blockchain technology in a manner that is easy to visualize. Developers like Lemii who come to the ARK ecosystem are always looking for ways to contribute and demonstrate what is possible with ARK.

We are extremely excited to present his work to the world and add more use-cases to the ARK Ecosystem. Now let’s take a deeper look at the completed version of ARK Messenger (AM).

What is ARK Messenger?

Simply put, the ARK Messenger is a fully autonomous and secure chat service built entirely on ARK technology. Proof-of-Concepts for communication services are becoming increasingly necessary in an age where users are paying closer attention to how their private data is being shared by centralized corporations. The benefits of having a chat service that runs on a blockchain allows users to stay in control of their private data. AM users are not required to supply any sensitive personal information such as name, email address or phone number when creating their account.

Code is open-sourced and is available on https://github.com/ArkEcosystem/poc-ark-messenger

Upon creating your account, you will have the ability to either join a channel or create a channel. Joining a channel only requires you to input the channel’s passphrase and submit. If you wish to create a channel, you will click “Create Channel” and the application will generate a new channel along with that specific channel’s passphrase. This passphrase can be shared with other users which they can use to join your channel and start messaging. All messages sent to the channel are encrypted and decrypted using the channel’s password as the seed. Sensitive data is never broadcasted, and all data is handled by the user’s local client. Now that you know what AM is, let’s see it in action!

How to Use ARK Messenger

Using ARK Messenger is quick and easy. In order to use the app go to ARKmessenger.io.

Step 1: From there you will be asked to create an account. Click on the “Create Account” button to get started.

Step 2: Next you are going to want to choose your unique username and hit “Create”

Step 3: Copy your secret passphrase and click the “Log In” button.

Step 4: From here, enter your secret passphrase and click “Log In”

Step 5: Once you are logged in, you can select to join a channel if you have been given a passphrase. All you need to do is enter the passphrase and click “Join Channel”. Alternatively, you can create your own channel and share the passphrase with others you wish to have in your channel.

Step 6: After creating a channel you will be asked to save your passphrase. Note: this passphrase can be shared with others you wish to join your channel.

Step 7: Once your channel is created, it will be saved on the left-hand side under the “Channels’ section. You can click the copy icon to copy the channel’s passphrase so you can invite others. You can also click the edit icon to change the channel name

Step 8: Start messaging!

Still More to Come

In the near future, we will be releasing a series of tutorials that will guide you through all the steps necessary to build this type of communication service on ARK. In the meantime, check out ARKmessenger.io and see how this proof-of-concept came together.

Do you have a cool idea or proof-of-concept you want to build on ARK? Contact us!