Twetch continues to expand its blockchain-based social media platform that focuses on providing users with a Twitter alternative that focuses on privacy, data monetization and control, and archiving. The latest addition to the project is Twetch Chat, which a press release from the company called a “fully encrypted messaging platform” for users of the growing app.
The feature was released this week and gives individuals control over the privacy of their messages, which are fully encrypted using Bitcoin (BSV), AES, and ECIES and only accessible to those who have permission to do so. After providing others with permission to decrypt their messages, individuals can also revoke permission, which deletes them and renders them inaccessible. The development comes months after Twitter was hacked by fraudsters who were able to view the private messages of 36 prominent accounts, BBC reported.
Twetch content is stored on the blockchain forever and relies on micro-transactions to post, share, and comment. When media is liked or shared, its owner receives payment. The private messaging feature allows people to send payments to others using the app.
“With the release of Twetch Chat, users now have the ability to find people they want to work or collaborate with in the public domain, engage with them to narrow down the details of their deal in private, and /pay them for their work,” Twetch wrote in a statement.
“They can chat privately to protect their arrangement or post publicly to signal to others that they have done a good job, boosting the network effect of both parties and encouraging others to work with them.”
The new feature appears to be another step in the company’s goal of creating an immutable social platform that frees user content and helps individuals profit from their media. According to the press release, the new Twetch Encryption protects people not just from third parties that notoriously collaborate with social platforms to secure a profit, but from Twetch itself.
Twetch seeks to distinguish itself from Twitter with the control it provides each person on the app over the information they post. This distinction comes in a time when Big Tech companies like Facebook, YouTube, and Google continue to face scrutiny for their data harvesting and third-party monetization of user information.
The development of the decentralized social network also comes as social media companies face scrutiny for de-platforming , which renders content inaccessible to those who are banned from the social network in question. Conversely, Twetch gives anyone on the service access to copies of their information at all times.
“This is the solution to nefarious data collection and de-platforming we see on social media today,” Twetch wrote.
