Social networking has always been a popular track, and our daily life is inseparable from various social applications. But whether it is in Web2 or Web3, there are some problems in social applications.
In Web2, social applications such as Telegram, Sinal, Whatsapp, Facebook, Twitter, WeChat, etc., although the product experience is smooth, and some software can also realize communication encryption, but due to the centralized operation mode, it implies service suspension, content review, Risk of privacy breach.
In Web3, social applications such as Lenster, Link3, Ethereum World, and Farcaster have achieved decentralization, are more resistant to censorship and protect user privacy than Web2 social applications, but there are problems of delay, high cost, and multiple authorizations. affect user experience.
Recently, Odaily discovered an instant messaging app called Berty. Its not a new product that came out recently, but a different product that was constantly updated and only barely available until recently.
It is built based on IPFS. The Berty downloaded by each user is an IPFS node. It is both a client and a server. All Berty together form a point-to-point distributed network, thus realizing decentralization and anti-censorship. In addition, it also has the characteristics of end-to-end encrypted communication, identity-free registration, disconnected communication, and complete open source.
At the same time, in theWhat are the advantages of Berty compared to the other messengers?In , Berty believes that they surpass the worlds 16 mainstream instant messaging tools in 12 dimensions such as open source, distributed, phone number, anonymous use, end-to-end encryption, offline messaging, and multi-device communication.
tutorial
tutorial
first inOfficial website downloadApp, click create account after completion, you can directly create a Berty account without information.
Next, follow the novice guide to complete the whole process of account creation. The upper left corner is refresh, the upper right corner is settings, click the lower right corner to add friends and groups.
At present, Berty has fewer functions, and the operation is relatively simple. The following mainly demonstrates how Berty completes offline communication. We click the upper right corner to enter the setting interface, click offline communication and allow Bluetooth.
After completing the settings, we can turn off the network, and by turning on the Bluetooth, we can directly communicate with the nearby Berty clients that also turn on the Bluetooth, but the communication distance is relatively short, which is very tasteless.
question
question
After doing some basic communication and testing, we found that the obvious problem with Berty was that it was slow, very slow. When users send messages to friends and groups for the first time, it will take a lot of waiting time, and this time will be extended as the distance increases.
When establishing contact with another client for the first time, the shorter the physical distance, the longer it takes to wait for the initial message to be sent, and the subsequent communication delay will be greatly reduced. It takes about 40 seconds to establish a face-to-face connection for the first time. If the other client is too far away, it may take a very long time. I established the Internet for the first time in Beijing and my friends in Denmark. It took over an hour to get in touch, but it was ultimately unsuccessful.
Regarding the problem of slow network loading, the official optimization suggestion is to enable the IPv6 network of the router.
In addition to this, the slowness problem can be solved as the number of Berty users increases. Since Berty is an IPFS node, all Bertys together form a distributed network, and the speed of information dissemination on the network will increase with the increase of nodes. Therefore, when Berty users are more evenly distributed around the world, and the number reaches one million When the level is reached, the communication quality will be greatly improved. But at present, according to the official data of IPFS, there are only about 200,000 IPFS nodes in the world, and Bertys speed-up process has a long way to go.
secondary title
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In terms of experience, Berty is not as difficult to use as Web3 social applications, but not as easy to use as Web2 social applications, especially when sending small messages for the first time will take a lot of time.
In terms of mechanism, comparing social applications on the blockchain with Berty, social applications on the chain require consensus, Internet and verification waiting time, which will cause delays to user experience. And because finite blocks are costly, which increases the cost of use for users, blockchains are better suited to verifying transactions without a central authority than to anonymously exchanging messages with little to no economic benefit.
However, because of its distributed network design, Berty has been built with the concept of non-consensus from beginning to end, so it can run without Internet access or with only a few users. Blockchain social applications are more powerful.
Summarize
Summarize
Berty is an instant messaging tool developed based on IPFS. It is both a client and a server. It has the characteristics of end-to-end encrypted communication, identity-free registration, disconnected communication, and complete open source.
All Berty clients together form a distributed network to enable communication within the network. Berty is more censorship-resistant and less expensive to deploy on a distributed peer-to-peer network than a decentralized blockchain network.
Bertys current product is still very early, and the obvious disadvantage is that it is slow, and it takes a lot of waiting time for users to send messages for the first time. But this can be solved with the increase of the number of Berty users or the number of IPFS nodes.
