A secure chat using Blockchain technology: use case analysis
Chat messengers are essential applications for any mobile user, they are also prone to hackers as they have sensitive data. Major companies like Whatsapp, signal, sharechat etc provide security measures like end to end encryption, Https, file storage encryption, reinforce encryption, etc. All mechanisms have their own perks as well as drawbacks. We can assume there are three stages when a user sends a chat message to another user 1) A secure connection is made 2)user A sends the message 3) user B sends the acknowledgment as received. all the mechanisms mentioned concentrate on the first two stages alas the third stage where the user B accepts the message received is without any security measure. We need to identify if the sender is the same person we intend to chat once we receive the message. due to the new findings in cryptography, encryption measurements go out of standard every once in a while.
Hackers are able to find vulnerabilities that enable them to send a message as if it's from a person you know. We need a mechanism where we need to authenticate the sender based on the history of the chat you had with them. Blockchain addresses this kind of problem for its own reasons, It has a mechanism where the nodes in it validate other nodes based on proof of work and hashing of the previous data. you can check this diagram for better understanding.
The same approach can be used for a chat where the previous history of messages is taken into account to create a hash that can be validated by the receiver to confirm that the sender is intended. in case a hacker is able to capture the packet and alter it with malicious content then the receiver will compute the data + previous message hash to get a hash and will check whether it matches with the one that was sent by the sender. This mechanism will be useful in group chat also where every other member will validate when someone sends a message. The algorithm for hashing can be updated whenever needed. Hope you get the idea .
