Hi everyone,
So recently, I was in the shower just thinking of ideas when I remembered something? On my old Steemit account, I used to constantly get messages I'm my Steem memos asking to try this Steem app or follow that person for a follow back, and while those messages annoyed me at first, I was practically getting Free Steem Dollars so I didn't mind. I realized suddenly just how underutilized the Steemit memo system was. It allows for very cheap messaging that's verifiable.
(Sorry guys, I know this post is a lot of text, I just couldn't think of any pictures at time of posting)
This is just a thought experiment I might implement one day, but what if a messaging service was used that utilized the Steemit memo system. Transactions cost at a minimum 0.001 SBD (less than a tenth of a cent) and whenever someone messaged you back, you would get that SBD back anyway. Sounds cool, you may be asking yourself, but can't anyone view your Steemit memos? That's absolutely true, and while this may seem like a downside, it's actually a plus.
First off, the messages could use a public key encryption system like RSA to both verify that the messages came from you and to make sure no one can read said messages, while still proving you actually sent the messages. What about harassment? Well it would be very easy to verify that someone is sending harassment, and a system could be set in place where if you report a message for harassment, the other person just needs to decrypt that message with their private key and send it to a 3rd party (like a bot or me).
There could also b a tipping service in place, where a user could just send more than 0.001 SBD and it would be shown as a tip plus a message.
Another problem you may be thinking to yourself is "What if I want my messages/tips to be private, so that only me and the other person know that we're talking. Or what if I just want to send private messages?". Both of these could be done relatively easily, though in all honesty it wouldn't be 100% private.
The messaging system could work so that private messages could be made anonymous using a private key system. Messages would be sent to the bot using the bot's public key, and at the top of the message would be the username of the person the bot sends the message to. That way, it would be far more difficult for messages to be traceable. It would still be possible for messages to be traced via the timestamps of when people sent messages to the bot, but having a random delay would make this more difficult. Plus, the more people using the anonymous service, the more difficult it would be to trace. who is sending to who.
Hell if enough people went with it, people could 'rent out' their Steem accounts so that other people can use them to send messages to the bots in exchange for a small fee per private message. Of course, it would somehow have to be impossible for people to abuse their active key and steal their funds, so this is kind of a stretch.
This could also work when making public deals on Steemit. If you want to just send a message, but let everyone know what you said, you could simply verify that it was you who sent it.
A public contract system could be put into place. You develop an autonomous contract, send it to a bot, and both of you sign it by sending a specific encrypted message. Then, when the requirements of the contract have been met for both of you, the bot sends each of you the SBD you're owed, and if the deadline hits and the requirements aren't met, you're SBD are refunded.
Now I know this is just a concept, and there are probably numerous problems I can't even think of right now. But I truly believe this could move Steemit from just being a social media to something truly grand. I'm probably gonna make a GitHub repo for this idea soon, and of you want to help, that would be amazing!
(Bootlegbilly)