According to an Aug. 2 statement, blockchain messaging tool OpenChat now allows users to create “Communities,” which are Discord-like servers.
OpenChat is a blockchain-powered chat application that runs on the Internet Computer (ICP) Network. It essentially handles crypto-oriented chat rooms, some of which have thousands of users.
OpenChat groups include LootMoneyArmy (3,201 members), Magnetic (2,703 members), and DFinityVN (2,597 members).
The Communities feature was first introduced by the app’s development team in February. At the time, they saw that people were using OpenChat for purposes other than those expected.
While the app’s makers planned for Communities to be utilized as an instant messaging tool akin to WhatsApp or Signal, end users appeared to be more keen on utilizing it to form public groups and create communities.
While the creators appreciated the attention, they also stated that OpenChat lacked the hierarchical framework found in apps such as Discord or Slack.
This hindered group administrators from using it to form subgroups to keep the conversation concentrated on specific themes, thus making OpenChat groups less efficient than they could be.
The team committed to addressing this issue by integrating Communities in the future, making the app more appealing to users who are considering joining groups.
The proposed feature would replace existing groups with “communities” and allow administrators to form “groups” within these communities, comparable to how Discord has channels within servers.
Admins would also be able to make their communities secret, similar to a Slack group, according to the post.
According to the Aug. 2 statement, Communities is officially debuted and can be accessed within the app.
Julian Jeffs, the co-founder of OpenChat, commented that Communities will ultimately enable crypto protocols to develop communities right on their own websites, removing the need to download other tools like Discord or Telegram.
“Another notable thing on the Communities roadmap is providing integrations to other apps in the ecosystem as well,” Jeffs noted.
“There are a lot of other apps that would like to have a chat function within their app but don’t necessarily want to send their users outside their website or app.”
Jeffs went on to say that the team is now testing various ideas for this future “Communities integration” solution.
One idea is to enable “server-to-server synchronization” between OpenChat and each project, while another is to develop a set of front-end components that projects can “drop in” to their interfaces.
In both scenarios, the connection would enable Web3 protocol users to interact with other users and seek technical support from administrators without leaving the apps they’re using.
The developers highlighted that the “integrations” functionality will not be included in Communities at launch, but will be added in a later version.
Discord and Telegram are the two most popular messaging apps in the crypto world, however, users cannot publish messages using their Web3 identities on these Web2 platforms.
This can result in consumers being duped by people pretending to be the owners of wallets they don’t truly own.
One project attempting to address this issue is OpenChat. Grill.chat, which operates on the Polkadot chain but enables Ethereum wallet holders to talk using their Ethereum usernames, is yet another instance.
The new messaging function in the Coinbase wallet is yet another example of the rising drive to enable wallet-based discussion.
This article appeared first on CoinTelegraph.
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