FOURim, Solana Instant Messaging protocol Main Event Countdown
One DEV update away from Solana MainNet deployment!
In this day of age, privacy is becoming more and more important. We depend on online communication as it’s becoming a normal part of our lives.
Privacy in online communication is a fundamental right of every person.
Exchanging private instant messages securely over the internet should be easy and accessible to all.
Blockchain technology proposes the ideal foundation to enable this solution. Up to now, on-chain instant messaging deployment would be hard to achieve due to slow blockchain network speed, congestion and transaction cost.
With the arrival of the Solana blockchain on-chain, instant messaging is becoming a reality.
To address this issue the 4thpillar Technologies (i.e., 4thTech), developed a unique, safe, fast Solana-based solution, which leverages blockchain trust and provides a secure, immutable, instant wallet to wallet messaging application.
Intro to 4thTech
4thpillar Technologies or short 4thTech is the next-gen multi-blockchain ecosystem, platform, cryptocurrency, and a suite of decentralized applications that enable users to exchange data files and instant messages from wallet to wallet in a secure and decentralized manner.
In 2017, 4thTech proposed and later developed a set of fully working solutions, which leverage trust provided by the blockchain to enable:
- FOURdx - Secure, immutable wallet to wallet data file exchange
- FOURid - Digital identity (private key management and wallet address verification of individual or organization using X.509 EU certificate standard)
- FOURns - Data origin verification or short (i.e., provides unique digital data timestamp and file checksum authenticity verification).
With the multi-blockchain deployment and support of Ethereum, HashNet, Polkadot Edgeware and now Solana, 4thTech provide a variety of options for a user to choose when exchanging digital information over the blockchain, whether from the interoperability perspective, transaction cost or speed.
FOURim (on-chain instant messaging) is 4thTech latest deployment, developed specifically for the fast blockchain 3.0 networks.
Aim & Objective
The aim and project objective is to enable; (1) a secure affordable »on-chain« instant messaging solution; (2) wider adoption of blockchain technology, and; (3) to pioneer the future of on-chain messaging.
User Control
With FOURim, the users gain control over their messages, the messages are end-to-end encrypted and stored on the Solana Blockchain.
Messages are not stored on a company server! Every message is signed with the receiver’s public key.
Your Solana wallet address serves as your on-chain identity.
When the 4thTech platform reaches full decentralization, it will not matter if the project is here or not, all control will be in the user’s hands.
FOURim, Instant Messaging On-chain Protocol
The FOURim protocol leverages the Solana blockchain to serve as an immutable ledger exchanging encrypted messages from FOURwaL wallet SOL address A to FOURwaL wallet SOL address B.
FOURim utilizes RSA encryption to secure immutable blockchain instant message exchange.
The messages are encrypted with the asymmetric algorithm (i.e., RSA), which is used to encrypt the instant message with the public key of the receiver.
This design does not allow an attacker to infer relationships between segments of the encrypted message.
To speed up the message loading process, caching was enabled to prevent repeatedly loading all data from a blockchain that was already retrieved in the past.
Due to a short send message delay on behalf of the encryption and network transaction execution, a pre-transaction message snapshot is created, that displays the send a message in light colour before the colour changes to darker which represents the final on-chain message execution.
All data on the Solana blockchain is saved in the PDA accounts. PDA accounts are owned by the FOURim program (smart contract).
*Read more about the FOURim technical solution
The 4thTech identity mechanism (i.e., FOURid) connects both the wallet of the message sender and the wallet of the message receiver and serves as the public key exchange point between both users (i.e., the sender needs a public key of the receiver).
According to Solana, the average transaction confirmation is 0.89s, with up to 50.000 TPS capacity and transaction (i.e., TX) price of 0.00025$ (21.12.2021), which enables almost real-time on-chain messages to exchange with low TX cost. Testing is enabled on Solana DevNet.
The FOURim DEV roadmap
Q4 2021, FOURwaL update (version 1.1)
FOURwaL 1.1.0 update adds the Solana account support
Q4 2021, 4thTech web platform update (version 2.1)
As a part of the 2.1 update, the 4thTech web platform adds Solana blockchain support and enables the FOURim protocol.
Q4 2021, FOURim protocol Solana DevNet deployment
In October 2021, the FOURim (Solana instant messaging protocol) was deployed on Solana DevNet
Q4 2021, FOURwaL update (version 1.1.1)
FOURwaL 1.1.1 update enables FOURim message cashing and encryption
Q4 2021, 4thTech web platform update (version 2.1.1)
The 2.1.1 update enables message encryption. The messages are now encrypted with the asymmetric algorithm (i.e., RSA), which is used to encrypt the instant message with the public key of the receiver. To speed up the message loading process this update also enables caching to prevent repeatedly loading all data from a blockchain that was already retrieved in the past.
Q4 2021, 4thTech web platform update (version 2.1.2)
2.1.2 update enables pre-transaction message snapshots, that are created due to a short send message delay. Short message delay appears on behalf of the encryption and network transaction execution. A pre-transaction message snapshot is created, that displays the send a message in light colour before the colour changes to darker which represents the final on-chain message execution.
Q4 2021, FOURim protocol Solana MainNet deployment
The FOURim (Solana instant messaging protocol) deployment on Solana MainNet will be announced soon.
How to use it?
To exchange instant messages from one FOURwaL DevNet SOL address to another FOURwaL DevNet SOL address, please follow the instructions and links below:
(1) DL 4thTech FOURwaL;
(2) Log in to the 4thTech Web Platform;
(3) Transfer SOL to FOURwaL SOL account;
(4) Click the “instant messaging” TAB;
(5) Add new contact by pasting the FOURwaL DevNet SOL recipient address (available in the friends FOURwaL account section);
(6) Start chatting;
(7) Check your transactions by clicking on a Solana Explorer link.
🔗 FOURwaL DL (Google Chrome Store)
🔗 FOURwaL DL (Mozilla Store):
Solana MainNet
⚙️ (coming)
Solana DevNet
⚙️ SOL DevNet Airdrop (choose the DevNet option)
⚙️ FOURim SC DevNet Solana Explorer link
Note: In order to enable the lowest possible transaction price, the on-chain messages are deleted every 7 days. A permanent decentralized storage solution will be enabled in the future.
Solution Components
The 4thTech instant messaging protocol (i.e., FOURim) main components are; (1) 4thTech Chromium[3] and Firefox[4] add-on wallet (i.e., FOURwaL) with added Solana blockchain support; (2) 4thTech digital identity mechanism (i.e., FOURid) serves as a public key exchange point between both users; (3) 4thTech web Platform[5], UI for digital data file exchange, instant messaging service and other 4thTech protocols; (5) FOUR token[6], a multi-blockchain asset that as a locked (staked) asset acts as an enabler activating the instant messaging feature inside the 4thTech web platform client.
[3] link [accessed 20 December 2021]
[4] link [accessed 20 December 2021]
[5] link [accessed 20 December 2021]
[6] link [accessed 18 December 2021]
Specifications
The solution technical and function specification breakdown can be specified as follows;
(1) Deployment: Solana DevNet and Solana MainNet
(2) Wallet: FOURwaL
(3) Web Platform: 4thTech web platform
(4) Activation: FOUR token staking (i.e., tier 3 staking, coming in Q1 2022)
(5) Transaction payment; SOL token
(6) Programming languages: JS, PHP, Rust
(7) On-chain deployment: FOURim program
(8) Encryption: RSA (i.e. Rivest–Shamir–Adleman algorithm)
Wallet (i.e., FOURwaL)
With a single purpose, FOURwaL serves as a blockchain gateway, a tool for 4thTech services access.
It provides the simplest but secure way to connect via Firefox and Chromium-based browsers to the 4thTech blockchain applications (i.e., FOURid, FOURdx, FOURns and now FOURim) as it contains a pair of public and private cryptographic keys.
A public key allows for other wallets to execute 4thTech services to the desired wallet’s address, whereas a private key enables the decryption of instant messages.[7]
[7] link [accessed 20 May 2021]
4thTech Web Platform Client
The 4thTech web platform serves as an onboarding HUB accessed by the user via a Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox web browser with an installed FOURwaL blockchain wallet add-on. The platform combines several services and solutions; (1) blockchain identity mechanism or short FOURid (status: active); (2) digital data file exchange or short FOURdx (status: active); (3) digital data verification (i.e., notarisation) service or short FOURns (status: active); (4) digital data file encryption service (status: active); (5) off-chain database and repository (status: active); (6) JSON metadata schema (status: active); (7) transaction fee mechanism (status: partly active, partly in development), and; (8) Solana blockchain instant messaging service or short FOURim (status: active).
Conclusion
Blockchain already establishes its technology and its decentralized advantages. Now it is on us to develop useful use cases such as FOURim, and in our case enable online privacy of data and communication. As the use of decentralized applications tends to cause confusion and difficulties we have worked hard to develop an efficient and jet simple wallet to wallet data file exchange and chat user interface, which manifested itself in the form of a 4thTech wallet and web platform client.
*Read more about the 4thTech project:
https://twitter.com/4thtechProject
https://medium.com/the4thpillar
Data provided by Coingecko