It is worth noting that the potential of blockchains is indeed much greater than it may initially appear. At the moment, such networks are indeed used primarily to interact with cryptocurrencies, platforms from the world of decentralised finance, and NFT tokens. But the latter can also be used in different ways.

For example, in July 2021, it became known about the launch of a show called Stoner Cats, with characters voiced by Mila Kunis, Ashton Kutcher and Vitalik Buterin. In that case, NFT acted as a kind of pass for watching episodes of the show. Essentially, people who were interested had to purchase a token, send it to their own ETH address, then log on to the appropriate website with this authorization method and proceed to watch. Read more about the innovation in a separate piece.


Now blockchain has been decided to be used for messaging. It is important to note that it has been possible to add a signature to transactions for a long time, and hackers have been particularly active in using this when dealing with a victim of hacking. They add signatures to transfers and thus maintain their privacy. For example, this is what a message from one of the hackers looks like.

The hacker’s transaction signature

Blockchain-based chat

According to the Blockscan homepage, “Blockscan Chat is a messaging platform that allows users to simply and instantly send messages to each other from wallet to wallet. To use the chat, you need to connect to the site using an Etherium wallet – such as MetaMask. The recipient of the message will receive a notification via the blockchain browser, and the message itself will be private.

This means that other people will not be able to access its contents. Accordingly, only the owner of the private key of the address to which the message is sent will be able to see the text. This is the best protection for the privacy of the correspondence.

Blockscan Chat

According to Decrypt, some people are already unofficially calling this tool “Ethereum Instant Messenger”, which is a sort of reference to AOL Instant Messenger (AIM). Recall, AIM is an Internet instant messaging program offered by AOL or America ON-Line back in 1997.

It would seem that messaging via blockchain could be a great alternative to modern messengers for those who want to maintain their privacy and decentralisation. However, this is not quite the case. The platform runs on Etherscan servers, meaning users’ messages are not stored on the blockchain. In short, the blockchain messenger does not have the advantages of decentralising the network it is based on.

Blockscan Chat interface

And here’s a quote from the product’s terms of service, which makes the situation with the new platform clearer.

In the event of force majeure, a breach of these Terms and Conditions or any other event that would make it commercially unreasonable for us to provide the service, we may at our sole discretion and without liability to you – with or without prior notice – suspend your access to all or part of our services.

In other words, the new Blockscan project is only good as a demonstration of the versatility of the Etherium blockchain. As a messenger service, it is not as convenient as traditional messengers, and it has no other advantages over them.

The developers of Ethereum


We think the idea seems interesting, as blockchain is great for messaging on a decentralised basis. Now we just have to wait for the developers to create another platform for such, but make it more independent. In that case, however, the cost of sending an email remains an open question. If it is too high, then people are likely to continue using Telegram along with other secure messengers.