ELAWaves

Team Name

The Cybernetic Republic of Elastoplastic

Timeline

Fall 2018 – Spring 2019

Students

Mason Beckham
Jimmy Chen
Brandon Tran
Grayson Ebarb
Charlie Wilson

Sponsor

Elastos

Abstract

The idea behind ELAWaves is to create a decentralized platform for text-based communication. With the primary goal of being a
chat platform that users can completely trust. It is to be transparent to its users, thus open source. This
project is one step towards bringing every day communication software and beyond into the hands of
the community.

Background

In 1995, there were less than 40 million users on the internet. Nearly 25 years later, there are almost 3
billion users worldwide. As the years have gone by, the internet has become more and more centralized.
Big companies such as Google and Facebook have taken over the Internet, hosting many of the services
that makes the Internet what it is today. What most users do not know is that when they sign up for these
accounts, they are agreeing to allow these big companies to sell their personal data to other companies
that sought out for them in order to make money. Another major issue with a centralized Internet is the
security risks. Because most of the user’s personal data are usually stored in one location, it makes it
easier for a hacker to target that particular location in order to get what they want.
Now, we introduce these concepts with the ideas of chat applications. In 2016, Roman Zaikan of
Check Point Software Technologies identified a flaw in Facebook Messenger that allowed an attacker to
modify or remove any sent message in a conversation they were a part of [1]. This could be extremely
dangerous because the attacker would be able to replace a simple message with a link to some kind
of ransomware. Although it might seem difficult for this to happen considering that the hacker must
first engage in a direct conversation with the target, the fact that it is possible makes centralized chat
applications that less attractive, which brings us to the reason for this project.

Elastos would like to eliminate this possibility of being hacked through instant messengers by cre-
ating a decentralized chat application on top of their blockchain. Through methods like encryption and

authentication, users can have a better sense of security and privacy while sending a message from
sender to receiver.

Project Requirements

A chat feature that utilizes Elastos carrier
Integrate with SPV wallet for ELA(currency) using the testnet
Each party uses the DID (Decentralized ID)
Chats are only between 2 persons and must be encrypted
Full conversations are stored on a local server
Save the hash of the conversation data on a dedicated sidechain for the DApp
All messages are only sent through Elastos Carrier
New keys should be generated for each conversation
Application must remember the login of the user on startup
The app has a register/login prompt at startup

System Overview

MESSAGING SYSTEM
The Messaging subsystem handles sending and receiving messages from DID’s over the Carrier network. It provides and interface for streaming messages to allow for asynchronous message receiving
and delivery.
The Cybernetic Republic of Elastoplastic – Fall 2018 page 7 of 30
COMMAND SYSTEM
The Command System routes commands sent from the user interface to their respective components as
well as handling parameters that are passed along side them.
PLUGIN SYSTEM
The Plugin System handles the API for other applications to add commands and hooks into the main
chat application.
UI COMPONENT
The UI component is the user interface. This is what the end user sees and interacts with. It communicates with the User Messaging Component, the Commands Component, and the Plugin Component.
ELA WALLET SYSTEM
The ELA Wallet System provides a means of transferring ELA currency from one DID’s wallet to another.
This system is called through the command system and is one of the only “plugins” that bypasses the
Plugin System.