Vibeo

As a result of the increased global use of smartphones, which has surpassed the use of the conventional desktop and continues to increase, an increasing number of highly public social media networks are moving to private micro-networks to carry out their day-to-day communication. This group of people have adopted messengers as a primary means of digital communication, and with this increasing adoption comes the potential of making messaging platforms the novel portals to economic transactions.

Mobile messaging platforms now have more users than web 2.0 social networks, higher retention rates than these platforms, and have more smartphone users spend their time on the platforms than with other mobile applications. This presents the opportunity for developing messaging platforms beyond nodes for interpersonal conversations, but to communities of sub-cultures, economy and trends thrive.

In China, WeChat pay is used by over 90% of WeChat users to make offline purchases in Chinese cities. The WeChat App has been developed to be highly integrated into the day-to-day living of Chinese people. From social life, banking, transportation et cetera, almost all forms of payments can be made from within the messaging platform. One major problem however exists within the application. It is a closed-source, proprietary app which is subject to security risks, coercion and corruption as a result of its lack of a decentralised architecture. Other globally leading messaging platforms have not embraced the economic gateway potential of the large user base of such platforms (like WeChat has) and even if they do, they all face the same issue that results from their centralised architecture.

Vibeo aims to mitigate the current inherent deficiencies of instant messaging apps by building a mobile messaging application with a decentralised architecture on the Ethereum blockchain. It would create communities where merchants can receive payments from users securely via the application; users can carry out financial exchanges; merchants can securely interact with customers and carry out transactions, and; users and merchants can build a stronger community around the blockchain.

The Vibeo protocol is designed to build the feeling of community among all users. The app incorporates a map location feature where you can discover a fully decentralised economy; find merchants and other Vibeo users in your locality and choose to engage with them. This motivates users and merchants alike to exchange currency, exchange ideas and even render services within the platform thus helping the movement for decentralisation grow and develop more. The protocol also incorporates key security features, not only within the app's technology, but also in its application, to ensure that users can be safe both within the app and in real life. The security comes in sending payments within chats, and default encryption on all messages that is based on peer-to-peer protocols from decentralised servers. Key features such as the Safe Trip feature also ensures security in real life.