Famous cryptographer creates encrypted and private xx messenger
By: Robert Hoogendoorn
Tags: Encryption, Praxxis, Elixxer, Cryptography, David Lee Chaum

Famous cryptographer David Lee Chaum has released an early version of his end-to-end encrypted and completely private xx messenger. The xx messenger is the first decentralized app for smartphones running on the xx network. The app offers complete privacy by erasing, mixing and hiding user data to prevent observers from making a connection between sender and receiver. It will be ready for release in 2020.

The xx messenger shreds metadata from users while also using end-to-end encryption. Most messaging apps retain metadata, creating quite a lot of information about the user’s activities. Third parties might track this metadata and learn about the patterns and structure of a person’s life.

XX Network slowly growing

Currently the xx network is still in its alpha phase. It’s running on five global nodes spread across the globe. Currently it’s capable to scale towards 1000 up to 5000 transactions per second. All these messages are mixed together and scrambled. Chaum calls this technology cMix. Right now the network is moving into its beta phase, expanding its network to hundreds of nodes worldwide.

The xx network is one of the three main network created by David Lee Chaum. The other two are called Elixxir and Praxxis, and they all work in cohesion. Firstly Elixxer is blockchain network for payments and decentralized apps. This blockchain uses the cMix technology provided by the xx network, which for example allows private messaging. Next to that there’s Praxxis, which is a digital currency and quantum-resistant blockchain.

Introducing XX Coin

In addition the XX Collective announced the launch of a cryptocurrency called xx coin. This is a digital currency for decentralized payments, messaging and other apps on the Elixxer network. Technical details about xx coin will be revealed next week at the National Research Institute for Mathematics and Computer Science in Amsterdam. We do know that the xx coin serves as an incentive for running nodes on the xx network.

“The xx coin and xx network will serve smartphone users and dApp developers by harnessing both the metadata-shredding anonymity and privacy of Elixxir, as well as the security, speed, and scalability of Praxxis.” CEO David Chaum — press release (November 14th 2019)

Call for private messaging

Worldwide there are plenty of reasons why people want private messaging. Recently the Spanish police removed a protest app from Github. In addition the Chinese government searched all over social media to follow people involved in the Hong Kong protests, forcing protesters to embrace privacy oriented apps like Telegram. Even Telegram isn’t completely secure, that’s why they are building the TON blockchain. Decentralized servers store encrypted data, and not servers that can be confiscated by for example the FBI.

In addition to the rebellion against the system, there’s also a growing worry among the population. Companies like Google and Facebook are getting access to a lot of user data. Having these companies snooping around in your private messages, seeing who you contact, and when, is not something everybody likes. That’s the reason why decentralized messenger apps and they way they encrypt and store data is so important for your privacy.

There are plenty of apps that provide end-to-end encryption, take Signal and Telegram as obvious examples. The crypto and blockchain community is also answering the call. This month Dutch programmer Joost Jager build a messaging application on the Bitcoin Lightning Network. On the EOS blockchain there’s an application called Sense Chat, while the Ethereum blockchain has Guildchat and Status for example.