If you're seeing this, then you've heard of the BlockChain using Steemit and scrolling through the thousands of articles about BitCoin and the fact the whole principle of Steemit runs on a BlockChain. What is a better way to build a BlockChain then actually make one yourself?!
If you've never heard of Python, it's a programming language based off C that's very helpful for anything from Scientific research, BitCoin trading, and web applications like what we're going to be doing. This article will assume you've done some kind of programming, but python experience not required.
Pretty small list, with links to help
sudo apt install pip if you aren't using a debian package and can't figure it out for your own distro Google works great.The operating system you use doesn't matter; Windows, MacOS, and Linux distributions all have support for everything listed above.
So blockchains are the basis for crypto-currencies and that's what most people think of when talking about blockchains. Crypto-currencies are great, but let's think outside the box and make a distributed texting application. Each "Transaction" will have a to and from address, with the data being the message encrypted to prevent everyone on the network from reading your private messages.
We need to program a node, or a web application where users can login, and keep a address book and send messages via a web interface with mining and a database to prevent the RAM from filling up like most other python blockchain tutorials out there. Nodes should be able to connect to other nodes easily so anyone can download from github and start their own node and connect to the network.
Why would we want a blockchain texting service? Using blockchain and making it open source creates a de-centralized services. This means there's no central point to fail, and no one is in charge. It is uncensored, and we can make it operate on the Tor network for anonymity, plus encryption which makes it hopefully secure. No government or company can change or control it, lawless texting.
What is the application for such a concept? People could undoubtedly abuse the system, and creating a plugin manager for anti-spam and anti-porn filters that users could enable would help solve the problem. It is a form of censorship, but making them optionally available to users kinda makes it not censorship while removing a good amount of the childish programmer problem. People in countries where mass surveillance and over policing could use it for rebellious acts, reporters in hostile countries could communicate with the outside world with the ability to connect to many nodes and send messages without threat of the services being taken down, and people who are forward thinking and don't want their data to be a part of a plot by big business such as the recent Facebook incident.
We will call it BlockChat, and fallow me and this series to developing the open source platform where I will put it on GitHub for all to enjoy! Videos on YouTube coming soon to combine parts one and two then every part after!
GitHub Repo Here even tho there isn't much there at the time of writing this article.
Up Next: Coding and testing the concept model, installing flask and creating our blockchain