Inspiration
I began this project to empower individuals with privacy to confidently engage with others without exposing their Personal Identifiable Information to yet another entity. I also identified some pain points in the NFT community... mainly, the lack of variety in the current stock of utility for NFTs, and that some project teams need to reach out to their community but don't have everyone's contact information...only the wallet addresses of holders.
I saw what I perceive to be too many "cookie-cutter" projects, all offering a variation of the same thing: access to a community, and some sort of scheme to engage the community, usually more tokens or some social games. I believe that those type of project models should expand their utility offering to keep pace with innovation and to advance the adoption of the XRPL.
Finally, in my journey exploring the XRPL, I've met some interesting people across the world, and I chat with them on different platforms...turns out many people in the space do, so a communications platform that unifies all my private chats means I don't miss out on opportunities, and I don't have to switch between apps just to talk to a truly global team.
What it does
TextRP is a messaging application that consolidates personal messages from various platforms, using the XRPL as an identity system to create a cohesive self-issued personal identity. Users can send messages securely to any XRP address without sharing personal information. Our use of NFTs empower users to customize their messaging experience by enabling only the functionality they find useful. Leveraging the open source XRPL and protocol, TextRP provides a private and seamless messaging experience. With our NFT methodology, users have ownership of their messaging capabilities in innovative new ways, making TextRP an indispensable tool for interpersonal communication. Current prototype features:
Basic System Diagram
XUMM login.
Detects specific NFTs for enabling custom features.
Sends SMS messages to any mobile phone (US/Canada numbers only for now).
Creates payloads for user signature to purchase messaging credits.
Upgrades user and assigns private virtual phone number for Send/Receive feature.
Routes received SMS messages to upgraded users.
Credits/Debits users' messaging credits.
Send/Receive messages in-app between users with no credit consumption (free).
When a user sends a message to an XRP address, the system first checks if the address belongs to an active user, and routes the message to the user if found. If the XRP address has no account, the system stores the message, sends microtransaction via XRPL with Message Notification in memo field (and whether the sender is kyc-verified via XUMM). When receiver logs in the system onboards the account seamlessly and the receiver can read/respond to the message, where now the conversation is in-app (free) and off the XRPL to prevent needlessly burdening the network.
XRPL Message Relay
Capabilities for the Production Version:
- APIs to additional private messaging channels (Twitter, Discord, LinkedIn, Slack, etc.) to unify all users' favorite private chat methods under one UI.
- NFTs will serve a KEY role here, as users will be empowered to customize their chat interface by holding specific NFTs. For example, hold a Slack and Twitter NFTs to enable those channels in the UI. This gives users complete control of their experience.
Challenges we ran into
The initial challenge is that I don't have full-stack experience and am a lone developer. So I used a combination of the Bubble no-code platform and back-end scripts in node.js to complete this prototype.
How we built it
We created a chat messaging framework using the Bubble platform, added Xumm wallet login workflow and connected various APIs for XRPL and SMS messaging on a separate machine running an Express.js back-end, implemented message credit consumption workflow, and added NFT detection.
Accomplishments that we're proud of
Our project gained the public endorsement from Mr. Bob Way, co-creator of the XRPL, who is now advisor to the project. I've been able to attract a team of developers with rich experience who are now building the production version of the application. And the capabilities we've discovered with NFTs can bring in a new wave of utility to the current NFT ecosystem, I'll explain what we learned...
What we learned
We learned that when channels of communication are opened, there are more use cases than we can come up with! So our supporters have been discovering new ways in which they could use this versatile messaging application:
Use Case 1-Communicating with Community
Use Case 3-NFTs for multiple accounts
Use Case 4-NFTs for chat features
Use Case 5-NFTs to unify messaging
We learned that we can integrate existing NFTs to enable chat features accessible only to those holders, meaning that we can bring added utility to other NFT projects in the form of, as an example, a project-branded sticker set that users who hold that project's NFT can access in the messaging UI. This brings opportunity for those projects to spread their brand outside of the crypto space and into other messaging channels while bringing added value to their NFT holders.
We've prepared a Solutions Deck explaining our proposition to existing NFT projects.
What's next for TextRP
We have now a team that consists of 2 full-stack developers and a front-end developer who are taking the prototype to production. We will be implementing the open-source Matrix protocol for added messaging functionality, security, and for future cross-chain bridging functions.
Built With
- bubble
- express.js
- heroku
- node.js
- twilio
- xrpl
- xumm
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