In September, we put out a challenge to the Blockstack Community to create an Encrypted Token Portfolio app on Blockstack to give users ultimate privacy and control when tracking their token holdings.
Since then we’ve received dozens of submissions for our first request: a private, encrypted Token Portfolio Management app that allows you the user to (1) sign in with an identity you own, and (2) gives you the privacy to input and view your cryptocurrency/token balances on your own encrypted cloud storage provider.
Feel free to check out the recap of the community-created app submissions here.
Apps like the Token Portfolio Management app described above are what we call single-player decentralized apps, in that the data lives with you and can only be accessed by you. The logical next step for our community is to build multi-player decentralized apps, where users not only own their own data, but also control access and share it with friends without the need for a third party.
We’ll take one step closer to that reality with our next communication-themed global bounty detailed below. This new Signature Bounty consists of $50,000 in prizes to further decentralize and secure communication for teams and individuals around the world. Participants must choose one of the two tracks below.
Build a Community Messaging App
It has become clear over the past several months that Slack cannot be the permanent home for community communication for open source projects like Blockstack. Slack has taken a closed source approach to team chat, and that does not work for the decentralized community as a whole in order to defend attacks from bad actors or even store chat history in a reliable way. This is especially true of phishing attacks, as any user can modify their profile to be identical to that of another user. As a result we’re challenging our community to come up with a group messaging application that uses Blockstack auth for secure login and identity verification. This mutes many of the problems with current platforms such as not being able to confirm a user’s identity. In addition, Blockstack can enable features previously not possible, now only limited to your creativity as a developer. The Blockstack Signature Fund will award $25,000 to the team with the best messaging app using Blockstack Auth.
Register for the community message bounty
Build a P2P Encrypted Messaging App
Encrypted messaging apps have gained significant use and traction in recent years, with popular offerings including Signal and WhatsApp. With Blockstack, users own their own identity and data, including any and all encrypted communication. Data never touches any central server, and chat could even be configured to work over a local network, avoiding potential costs imposed by repeal of net neutrality, for instance. Such an app will offer significant security improvements over current alternatives. The Blockstack Signature Fund will award $25,000 to the team that creates the best P2P encrypted messaging app.
Register for the p2p encrypted messaging bounty
If you are interested in hearing about future bounties, sign up here. If you are interested in running your own bounty, contact [email protected].