Tether, a stablecoin provider, and crypto exchange Bitfinex have announced the debut of Keet, a video chat tool, in the social media sphere.
Keet, a completely encrypted cryptocurrency, is a creation of Bitfinex, Tether, and software firm Hypercore. Currently only available on desktop, a mobile app with “amazing” video quality will be released soon.
The three businesses today also introduced Holepunch, a platform that enables developers to create Web3 applications, and the messenger is the first application created on it.
Holepunch, which is now closed-source but is anticipated to become open-source later this year, will make use of the Lightning Network, a “second-layer solution” that speeds up Bitcoin transactions while lowering costs, rather than operating on a blockchain. Therefore, using Lightning, individuals who wish to develop, let’s say, a payment app based on Holepunch, will be able to do so.
The $10 million that Tether, Bitfinex, and Hypercore invested in Holepunch might attract other investments totaling tens of millions of dollars, they said.
So why would the firm that runs a cryptocurrency exchange, USDT, the largest stablecoin in the world, enter the competitive chat app market? The CTO of Tether, Bitfinex, and the CSO of Holepunch, Paolo Ardoino, are doing it in the interest of freedom of speech.
“You know that funny meme where people ask if you are ‘in it for the tech’ in the Bitcoin space, mocking the fact that of course everyone is in it for the money? Actually, we at Tether and Bitfinex—and this is the great alignment we have—we are actually in the blockchain space for the tech.”
He further added:
“One of the main concepts is that individual sovereignty cannot be reached if you only have financial freedom but you don’t have freedom of speech. Sometimes you have to give back and push forward.”
It is claimed that the software, combined with Holepunch, will be more private and secure than Web2 centralized peers like Zoom or Google Meet. This is due to the fact that Keet users can call other people’s computers directly without any data being kept on a server. Also, it will be free to use!