This Blockchain-based Messaging App Is Providing Real Data Privacy - Entrepreneur

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Wispr stands out from competitors thanks to blockchain technology, which provides a censorship-resistant and fully transparent messaging app
Wispr is a messenger app that uses blockchain technology to provide a fully decentralized messaging service. One of its core missions is to tackle a common issue that everyday people face with these types of apps: the privacy dilemma.
Is your personal data safe when using popular messaging apps? What are the risks that individuals and businesses face when using WhatsApp, Telegram or other services that claim to provide users with peer-to-peer and encrypted messaging?
Today’s Privacy Issues With Messaging Apps
The rapid development of new technologies directly affects the way people communicate daily. We are more interconnected than ever, and social media and messaging apps play a vital role in today’s interwoven way of life. However, while most apps from the big tech players, such as WhatsApp and Telegram, use end-to-end encryption, they are not reliable platforms that guarantee data privacy to users.
We have already seen well-known tech companies causing uproar due to their lack of transparency regarding users’ data usage for profit. One famous example is Mark Zuckerberg’s Facebook, which allegedly sold sensitive user data to Cambridge Analytica throughout the 2010s. It’s a useful refresher to say that META owns Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, Messenger, and a lot more.
Messaging apps must comply with privacy regulations, including the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). This law came into effect in May 2018 to protect the data and privacy of countries within Europe and the European Economic Area. That year, the Data Protection Commission started an investigation into WhatsApp that ended in a fine of euro 225 million on the messaging app.
Wispr: A Blockchain-based Messenger App Taking Over the Market
Wispr stands out from competitors thanks to blockchain technology, which provides a censorship-resistant and fully transparent messaging app where all forms of communications—messages, calls, video conferences, file transfers— are encrypted. This is thanks to an innovative mechanism called VOBP (Voice Over Blockchain Protocol), a security system that leverages industry-standard protocols to enhance users’ security.
Wispr was launched by software startup CryptoDATA in collaboration with the Patentpool Group, a company with over 20 years of experience in funding innovation-focused startups.
“With Wispr, three things electrified us: The ambition to become the European market leader, absolute data security, and the goal of finally introducing functioning digital payment services, for which there is still no satisfactory solution in Europe,” said Dr Heiner Pollert, CEO and founder of Patentpool Group.
Wispr employs the latest encryption protocols, including AES – 256, so that no third party can have access to your messages or eavesdrop on your voice notes. Not even Wispr can read or hear your messages and calls. Technically, VOBP is a system that generates private keys that are exchanged between users when they start a conversation and are destroyed at the end of every session.
Wispr is available for Android and iOS devices. Once installed, the app can convert the user’s phone number into a code and gives them a Matrix ID, allowing them to connect with their partners while remaining anonymous. This is especially helpful since platforms such as WhatsApp are connected to your phone number, which scammers can send messages to or hack your second SIM card to gain access to backed-up conversations. On other platforms like Telegram, users can hide their phone numbers, but their username is always public, which poses a similar risk (it doesn’t use end-to-end encryption as well).
The next step in Wispr’s roadmap is to become Europe’s leading digital payment service, similar to WeChat Pay, a payment tool from the Chinese social media app WeChat.
Besides Wispr, CryptoDATA also offers a suite of blockchain-based devices made with encryption protocols, such as smartphones, routers, and encrypted notebooks.
Note: Investment in cryptocurrency and crypto assets is subject to financial risk and readers should do their own due diligence. Entrepreneur Media does not endorse any such investment.
Eric Samson
Gabrielle Bienasz
Sanchita Dash
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