As Status rapidly approach the release of their V1 candidate, the buzz within the community is electric, tantamount to an apple keynote or better still, a kid in a candy shop.

Having been part of that community since the initial coin offering in June 2017 it’s certainly a welcome achievement.

Developing a messenger such as Status has not come without its challenges, both technical and financial but nonetheless the primary goal remains unchanged and the team unwavered.

As we continue to live in a world where personal freedoms and individual identities are continuously been squeezed and personal data/information mis-used and abused, I believe Status has arrived just in time to offer the people of the world a better choice.

There are many different mobile messengers and internet chat platforms out there, each offering their own unique user experience and competing to be the number one. But what many of these platforms share is their reliance on a centralised hub. It’s this centralised hub where more and more often your personal data and information is being mis-handled and monetised in a profit seeking arrangement.

Now I am not saying all centralised platforms are bad, I believe they have contributed positively to society and opened up many social avenues to a new generation of people. That being said however I do feel the personal information of those platforms' users is often not treated with the respect and security they do so deserve.

Cometh a new world

Enter a new world of social economic governance, a decentralised platform in the making. Status instant messenger offers a new way of interacting without giving up your personal rights and freedoms.

Built on the Ethereum blockchain where smart contracts are written and executed to form an immutable history and record of transactions, a distributed public ledger if you will where ‘code is law’.

Never have I been more excited about a technology and I certainly didn’t have the foresight to envisage such a technology coming into existence in my lifetime.

Status utilises this technology and builds upon the Ethereum blockchain using and improving on existing Ethereum protocols.

Status is a privacy focused messenger where a combination of encryption and routing messages forms an anonymous chat experience. No email or phone number or personal details are required in order to sign up and start using Status. Status also offers an inbuilt Ethereum wallet where you can store and transact with Cryptocurrency and Non Fungible Tokens. There is also an accessible dapp store and decentralised web url so you can access all your favourite dapps seamlessly.

This messenger truly is like no other, offering every person who uses it an opportunity to truly own their experience and interactions with no central hub gathering sensitive and private information and then selling it on, often at the cost to your freedom.

Centralised vs Decentralised

A buzzword often used within the Ethereum eco system is ‘banking the unbanked’ thus meaning to allow every individual on the planet who uses Ethereum and Blockchain technology to have their own digital crypto wallet and banking experience. But what about this, what about ‘unbanking the banked’ a terminology I recently saw on twitter. What if we step outside the box for a second and look inward from an outside perspective. It’s often too easy to forget the core roots of blockchain and cryptocurrency and whilst projects continue to build and strive towards interoperability with the centralised world I believe there can exist a world of two halves.

Choice is a fundamental human right, without choice there can be no freedom. Status offers this choice, a choice between a centralised messenger and traditional banking systems or a decentralised privacy focused messenger and access to decentralised finance. Now for what it’s worth I am a fan of both, I am not militant in my views, I see a world where there is a need and a will for both centralised and decentralised platforms.

It does not have to be us and them, decentralisation can interact with the centralised world and hopefully achieve in bringing about a more open and inclusive world rather than continue down the path of segregation between the societies of the world.

Blockchain, what was once built as many see as an anarchical platform to combat the ever increasing squeeze on individual freedoms, may just be the tool we need in order to bring worlds and opinions together, setting aside differences and creating an equal society. We don’t have to fight between centralised and decentralised anymore but what we can do is build technology that gives users that choice, that freedom to choose. Status offers that choice, it offers a freedom from data mis-use, a censorship resistant platform allowing people who use the Status network to also run and operate the network, an open source platform for a more inclusive world. Look out for V1 just over the horizon.

Anonymouswriter
Graphics: @enevve