Introducing Push Chat: Secure messaging for web3

[pranshurastogi]

Greetings everyone,

We are excited to announce the launch of Push Chat, a seamless and secure communication tool for the web3 community. The goal of Push Chat is to provide a user-centric approach to chat and prevent spam.

Push Chat has two types of message groups: Inbox and Request. To start a conversation with a new peer, an address must send a chat request. This request will not land directly in the peer's Inbox but instead in their Request box. The user then has the option to accept or ignore the request. This user-approval mechanism helps to prevent spam messages from random addresses.

All chat messages are encrypted using PGP encryption and sent between addresses via Push Nodes, which validate and dispatch the messages. Our vision is for the Push Nodes to be run by the community and rewarded for their contribution to the network's decentralization. Currently, the nodes are run by Push Protocol, but the team is working towards decentralization.

We encourage all members to integrate and contribute to Push Chat by exploring its features and sharing your feedback with us. Together, we can create a seamless and standardized communication protocol for the web3 community.

Integrating Push chat
Push chat docs

[gograce]

Hey @pranshurastogi
Just saw this discussion thread, so I thought this would be a great place to share the project that my team built using PUSH Chat for SpaceWarp Hackathon

https://ethglobal.com/showcase/fvm-bot-23bdw
https://github.com/gograce/FVM-Bot
https://fvm-bot-frontend-44feb6.spheron.app/

FVM Bot is a simple chat Bot built on top of Filecoin HyperSpace Network using PUSH Chat.

The project is split into 3 main parts

Backend Server - Built using bulletproof Nodejs using typescript. The role of the backend server is to define various bot commands such as /latestBlock - To get latest Block of the HyperSpace Network or /accTx - To get all the transactions of an Fil Account or /ethToFil - To convert a eth address to its corresponding FIL address etc. The backend server uses rpc providers (glif) and Zondax APIs to fulfil these command requests.

WebHook - The webhook is the key element which connects to the PUSH CHAT sockets and keeps on listening for the chat / intents coming to the BOT_ADDRESS. As soon as any chat is detected it is decrypted and the msg is sent to backend server for getting the result for this chat. The webhook then gets the result of this msg/command from backend, encrypts it and push it to PUSH CHAT.

Frontend - A simple react frontend is also created using PUSH CHAT UI to demonstrate the bot's working. Please note that this bot can be interacted from any frontend using PUSH Chat.

[pranshurastogi]

Hey @gograce !!

Thank you for sharing your experience and feedback with Push Chat. We appreciate your support and contributions to the project. Your project, "FVM Bot" built on top of the Filecoin HyperSpace Network, is an excellent example of how Push Chat can be integrated and used for various purposes.

[gograce]

Also a couple of feedbacks from experience with PUSH Chat

1. Docs kind of were not much helpful and sounded a bit vague at certain places.
2. The chat is quite slow. ( I am comparing this to the web2 chat systems telegram / discord ).
3. Geting pgp keys, decrypting them, encrypting / decrypting msgs was the biggest challange that we faced.. but its kind of a good thing since we could literaly see that its quite secure.

[pranshurastogi]

Thanks for this feedback @gograce -

1. We apologize for any confusion and frustration it may have caused. We will make sure to review and improve the docs to provide clearer and more comprehensive support in the future. We encourage you to provide detailed feedback either on discord - https://discord.com/channels/717089384838594695/855469021973839882
   Feel free to reach out to any of us also.

2. As for the chat speed, we are always striving for improvement and optimization, and your feedback will help us reach our goal of providing a seamless user experience.

3. On the bright side, we are glad to hear your thoughts on PGP keys, and encrypting/decrypting messages was a positive experience as it highlights the security of Push Chat. Security is of utmost importance in the web3 community, and we are proud to offer a secure communication tool to our users. In the future, we will try to make UX more seamless.

Once again, thank you for your feedback and support. We look forward to continuing our journey toward a seamless and secure communication protocol for the web3 community.