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Editor | Lu Xiaoming
The blockchain communication project BCM completed investment from venture capital institutions such as Hillhouse, Morningside, Junlian, and Bertelsmann at the end of 2018. BCM communication focuses on blockchain + extreme privacy and security social networking, mainly for users who have strong needs for communication security, and has just been in operation for one year. Odaily interviewed the co-founder of the project.
BCM believes that, from a global perspective, the field of instant messaging is fragmented. Users on WeChat alone contribute 3.5 billion messages every day. Telegram, under the banner of privacy protection, was revealed by netizens to secretly activate the camera on the VIVO NEX mobile phone to steal user images.
The IM market has always been proven to be a single-dimensional acquaintance relationship. The acquaintance relationship between people is constantly being strengthened because of the current IM software. What we call the most familiar needs of strangers has been ignored. , it is difficult to break out of this circle, and it is also difficult to establish a multi-level interpersonal relationship between people, especially when users have privacy needs.” Yuan Zhennan, co-founder of BCM, told Odaily.
Yuan Zhennan is the co-founder of BCM Communication. Founded Tutu P2P downloading software in 2007, with a total download volume of more than 35 million in three years, and received investment from Jinshan and Kuaiche flashget. Later, it entered the field of intelligent routing and developed WIT-FII intelligent routing. In 2015, in strategic cooperation with Foxconn, successfully launched the private cloud storage device WIT-FLEX.
BCM-IM, a social product designed by BCM Communications, does not require users to bind mobile phone numbers. Users can randomly generate a pair of keys when using them. The private key is kept by the user and can be backed up on BCM-IM. However, once the private key is lost, Even the BCM-IM operator cant find it for you.
No one can delete the users account because the account is on the blockchain. It is worth noting that BCM-IM only records the users account on the blockchain, and the chat content between users will not be recorded on the blockchain.
Peer-to-peer and group chat information are all encrypted, and no one can crack them, including BCM-IM itself. Yuan Zhennan said.
The chat content between users will not be uploaded to the chain, and there is no record in the BCM background. Although the privacy of users is guaranteed, it also brings some inconvenience. Once the user account is lost, the chat history will be lost and the user will have to reapply. An account that tells people who you are again.
For users, this is indeed inconvenient. There is no way. It is currently impossible to achieve convenience and safety. Convenience and privacy are always contradictory. Yuan Zhennan explained.
Most of the current encryption software or platforms on the market are centralized, and user data and communication data can be tampered with and deleted. The encryption method dare not be disclosed, because there is a possibility of being cracked.
The communication encryption method of BCM-IM has been disclosed in the white paper, and has not been cracked in the current demonstrable encryption method.
The BCM-IM communication uses a double-ratchet encryption algorithm, and the key is different for each message sent. Even if a message in the middle is captured and deciphered, other messages cannot be deciphered with the same key.
The Odaily reporter personally experienced the functions of BCM-IM. Users can encrypt the chat content, and the chat content can be automatically destroyed within the specified time, the previous chat records of both parties can be destroyed with one click, and the chat information can also be deleted in both directions at regular intervals. BCM-IM also browses overseas websites, and can watch overseas video broadcasts while chatting.
Overseas users pay more attention to privacy protection requirements. In the words of Yuan Zhennan, BCM-IM targets social products such as Telegram, but the combination of blockchain + privacy social networking has been common since the beginning of blockchain, and so far, no very successful products and Case, in the words of an insider, Blockchain privacy socialization still has a long way to go.
More importantly, the current social network is still monopolized by industry giants. There are Facebook and Twitter in foreign countries, and WeChat and Weibo in China. Social products are inseparable from product experience and customer acquisition. For those who are used to these main conveniences For the Chinese who have social products, will BCM-IM quickly gain user traffic and occupy a certain market share in the social product market?
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Ecological Story: WeChat + Mini Programs
BCM communication has an ABC pyramid structure, including A - the underlying AME blockchain, the middle layer B - BCM-IM (Blockchain Messenger) and the top layer C -CUBE game platform. CUBE is still in the concept version. Based on BCM-IM products, it builds a mini-program ecosystem, which is somewhat similar to the relationship between WeChat and WeChat mini-programs. Yuan Zhennan said that the game mode of WeChat and WeChat mini-programs will become more and more mainstream. Standalone game apps are not very convenient for users, and not all users have them. CUBE connects users and game developers through a reward mechanism. Users will get some token rewards for using this software, and then use tokens as encouragement for game developers to communicate with BCM for mutual benefit and win-win.
In order to link these three layers of ecology, a set of CFEs two-layer economic model has been established to realize the respective economic closed loops of the two tokens (ABIT and ABC). ABIT is a token that is used during the transaction. ABIT is visible in the users BCM-IM wallet. User chat will consume ABIT. The CUBE game platform to be developed later will also need ABIT to play; ABC is the AME blockchain Rewards for node miners, who will participate in ACP consensus bookkeeping. ABC can be converted into ABIT for use, but ABIT cannot be converted back to ABC, which can protect the value of ABC, encourage miners to participate in consensus bookkeeping, and prevent the impact of ABCs value fluctuations on the ecology.
Yuan Zhennan also said, The economic model of double-layer tokens and one-way flow can ensure the good operation of AMEs internal ecology to the greatest extent.
Users are the basis for attracting developers, and the applications developed by developers bring more users. Generally speaking, BCMs strategy is to attract users through the BCM-IM application, and then attract developers to develop small programs through the number of users, which is similar to the ecological thinking of WeChat. Im afraid socializing is never an easy track.
At present, BCM-IM is still in the internal testing stage, and the related ecological stories will take longer to build.
