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Money in Secret Messages

You want to write a message to a friend. But you don't want to leave any trail leading to her. It is important that your message does not include her address. You have to leave your message at a secret place so that she can pick it up later.

I have created a secret messaging place Blindtalk.net.

As a software developer I cannot run away from cryptocurrency. I studied Bitcoin's whitepaper and its source code. Being so serious about it I managed to extract Bitcoin's message verification code into a standalone library. While many people are focusing too much on the blockchain I'm focusing on the signing algorithm.

Cryptocurrency leads me to Blindtalk. But I'm not using Bitcoin or the signing algorithm. Instead, I'm using the Waves platform. I've created Blindtalk token based on Waves, which is the easiest part.

Blindtalk is a repository where the senders post messages and the receivers search for them. But it is not a regular posting. A sender has to send a token to Blindtalk. And Blindtalk will verify the token's transaction before a message is accepted into the repository. It is actually a paid posting in Blindtalk tokens.

I was experimenting token-based payment in Blindtalk using the Waves platform.

While cryptocurrency is promising, the speculation on its values is out of hands. The exchanges are the avenues for speculators and manipulators. Even though speculation has nothing to do with software development still I have to dirt my hands into it. Because I have to understand every aspect of cryptocurrency.

The Waves client has a built-in decentralized exchange (DEX). I use the DEX as the market place for Blindtalk tokens. You can buy and sell Blindtalk tokens in the DEX.

Blindtalk tokens will not have a value if no one trades them. Thus, I have to stimulate the Blindtalk token DEX. I set a rule that if you want to post a message in Blindtalk you have to hold 1000 Blindtalk tokens. It means you have to buy 1000 Blindtalk tokens, post a message, and then sell back the remaining tokens. You can hold the tokens indefinitely. As the rule of thumb you should buy the tokens at a lower price and sell them back at a higher price. If you are lucky you will make money by posting messages in Blindtalk.

The key point here is that if you want to accept tokens as payment then you should enforce holding certain amount of the tokens during the transaction so that the tokens have value through buys and sells.

On the other hand, charging for postings in Blindtalk will deter spamming and reduce noise. And since the value of the tokens is expected to be very small so the charging fee will be insignificant. One of the cryptocurrecy usages is micropayment. Blindtalk is implementing micropayment.

Finally I'm having a repository of secret messages. I'm going to take a peek into your secret messages. And I hope you make money.

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