Data and security breaches are becoming increasingly common, highlighting the vulnerabilities of existing messaging and communications platforms. Devising computational tools and systems that better protect sensitive data against malicious attacks is therefore of utmost importance.

Researchers from several institutes worldwide recently developed Quarks, a new, decentralized messaging network based on blockchain technology. Their proposed system could overcome the limitations of most commonly used messaging platforms, allowing users to retain control over their personal data and other information they share online.

  • ryan
    31•1 year ago

    retain control

    Notably, in Quarks, every user operation and information exchange that takes part on a channel is carried out via the ledger’s so-called smart contract. In practice, this means that no-one outside of a channel should be able to send or read messages on it. In addition, all messages on the channels cannot be altered or edited, yet they can be audited, meaning that users should be able to derive information about when they were created, sent, delivered, and so on.

    Ah, yes. I definitely want anyone in the world to figure out who I’m communicating with by checking the timestamps of when various messages were delivered. Much like how the “anonymous” Bitcoin could be pretty easily de-anonymized just by checking where various bitcoins go and inferring who those wallets likely belonged to.

    • @FlowVoid@midwest.socialEnglish
      0•1 year ago

      Unlike Bitcoin this ledger is not open to the public, it only exists on the nodes containing group members.

      And everything in the ledger is encrypted except the timestamp. So without a decryption key, you could tell when messages were sent but not who sent them.

      • ryan
        1•1 year ago

        Ah, gotcha, I may not have read carefully enough. I do see how an auditable decentralized trail of messages and any edits made might be useful for certain very sensitive communications then.