just discovered that there is finally a bitmessage client for Android, with the name abit. One interesting thing about bitmessage is you can run it as a backend only, and add any interface front end. Bitmessage has personal addresses and broadcast addresses. There is no reason I can think of why it could not be adapted to create something other than just email.

As currently implemented, it is intentionally too slow for instant messaging, but maybe in the future shorter, low latency message blocks could be added.

But my subject for this post is a distributed contact database.

At present there is no proper messaging system built into Steem. But all that is required is a way to create verified bindings between a bitmessage address and a steem user ID. This could be done with the hypothetical frontend I mentioned before, a signed memo, say 0.01 steem payment with a code signed by the bitmessage key matching the address, and then this binding can be certified by other nodes.

Then we would have a distributed messaging platform that links with Steem. But you can go further. Firstly, it would be very useful if you could make it known what is your nearest large City and the country, and your known languages.

Using signed messages broadcasted to a particular address, nodes can assemble a database of user/bitmessage bindings, with additional optional fields, like location and languages.

Basically, what I am talking about is using Bitmessage as a transport for a blockchain queries. It is perfect for the job, its latency is low enough, and it comes with a built in cryptographic addressing system and multicast addresses.

So the idea would be to have a blockchain, really just a log of transactions posted and certified signatures from multiple peers, and then this is assembled into a sqlite flat file for queries.

The flat file containing the optimised database can also be distributed, and certified, providing a secondary means for lighter nodes to acquire the database.

The end result is a means of email messages between Steem users, as well as basic contact information, enabling easier organising of meetups, and eventually forming the basis for a market promotion channel, with a special class of messages carrying signed offers, and a stock level notification interface for inventories.

Bitmessage is basically the combination of proof of work and a flat, expiring blockchain where each message is a block. It would be simple to add all kinds of parsers and protocols to allow it to be used as the distribution protocol for a distributed database, so long as it is relatively lightweight data. Messages could include requests for blocks no longer in BM caches, and establish a connection for file transfers, for syncing the blockchain, using a protocol like BitTorrent.

But to start, and since it is fairly simple, I am going to look into controlling the BM backend and building a meetup database system and email for Steem users.

For me, this is a viable and simple application that leverages an existing platform and adds something that can easily be migrated across platforms, I suppose I will write it in Python. It could be made into a browser extension also.

I will have to see how I can get along with my laptop 's broken screen, but I probably can manage something.

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We can't stop here! This is Whale country!

_{Loki was born in Australia, now is wandering Amsterdam again after 9 months in Sofia, Bulgaria. IT generalist, physics theorist, futurist and cyber-agorist. Loki's life mission is to establish a secure, distributed layer atop the internet, and enable space migration, preferably while living in a beautiful mountain house somewhere with a good woman, and lots of farm animals and gardens, where he can also go hunting and camping.}

_{I'm a thoughtocaster, a conundrummer in a band called Life Puzzler. I've flipped more lids than a monkey in a soup kitchen, of the mind. - Xavier, Renegade Angel}

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