OpenChat is a comprehensive, decentralized messaging platform built on the Internet Computer blockchain. It offers direct messaging and private groups comparable to WhatsApp and Signal, public channels similar to Telegram, and “communities” that function like Slack workspaces or Discord servers.

As a responsive progressive web application (PWA), it adapts to any screen size and integrates with devices much like native apps, supporting features such as push notifications. The full development roadmap is available for review.

The application is open source and operates as a suite of canister smart contracts. Users can inspect the code executing on any canister at any time, with links provided to the specific version in source control for independent verification.

Each user is assigned a dedicated canister that stores their direct message history, tracks their group and community memberships, and acts as a wallet for holding and managing tokens. Every group and “community” also runs as its own canister. This design aims to support scaling to 100s of millions of users.

Users can exchange messages containing tokens like ICP, ckBTC, and ckETH, with ckUSDT planned for future support, enabling global remittance capabilities. The primary distinction between OpenChat and comparable applications is its governance structure as a DAO.

OpenChat utilizes a utility token known as CHAT.

• Holders can stake these tokens as neurons, a mechanism closely resembling ICP neurons. This enables participation in OpenChat governance through voting on SNS proposals, which yields voting rewards. These incentives grow with longer staking periods, encouraging holders to prioritize the long-term well-being of the platform.
• Users may spend CHAT to access Diamond membership and other premium functionalities within OpenChat.
• The token serves to reward efforts that contribute to the service's growth or evolution, distributed either via automated user rewards or through SNS proposals.

The initial supply stands at 100M tokens. Each year, 2.5% of the total supply is minted to compensate neuron holders for their governance voting activity. CHAT tokens can also be burned to lower the circulating supply. As revenue from premium features collected in CHAT increases over time, the team anticipates that the burn rate will match or surpass the minting rate, potentially making the supply stable or even deflationary.

The OpenChat DAO manages and directs OpenChat via an on-chain automated framework known as an SNS.

Adjustments to the OpenChat SNS DAO, encompassing the treasury of ICP and CHAT tokens, various tokenomic parameters, and the OpenChat dapp itself, are exclusively performed by the OpenChat SNS governance canister following the successful execution of proposals voted on by 10000s of CHAT neuron holders.

The OpenChat SNS DAO was automatically formed when the Internet Computer's automated governance system, the NNS, adopted the relevant proposal. It launched a public swap event on the 3rd of March 2023, during which 2,375 participants deposited a total of 1M ICP tokens to the SNS in exchange for 25M CHAT tokens. The OpenChat SNS DAO became active upon the conclusion of this swap.

The initial distribution of CHAT tokens was structured as follows:

• 52%: Reserved for the SNS treasury & under control of the OpenChat DAO
• 25%: Distributed to the public by the NNS run swap event
• 15%: Allocated to the OpenChat dev team which vests over 4 years
• 8%: Allocated to DFINITY for providing seed funding which vests over 2 years

A small proportion of the treasury has been transferred (by proposal) to liquidity pools on various decentralized exchanges, leaving the large majority to fund on-going development and other contributions, and to algorithmically reward OpenChat users. By rewarding 100,000s of engaged users with CHAT tokens and neurons, the aspiration is to create a huge team of advocates incentivised by the success of OpenChat.

OpenChat was founded by 3 software developers: Matt Grogan, Hamish Peebles, and Julian Jelfs. They first met and collaborated for several years while constructing a platform for online travel agencies.

Matt connected with Dominic Williams, the founder and Chief Scientist of DFINITY, in the 1990s and worked with him on various software ventures for many years. In 2020, Dom asked Matt if he wanted to build apps on the Internet Computer. Matt subsequently invited Hamish and Julian to form a team, which led to the birth of OpenChat.

Matt has worked as a software developer for nearly 30 years across a wide range of industries and tech stacks, generally involving web technologies. He holds a masters degree in Engineering and Computer Science from the University of Oxford.

After graduating with a masters degree in Mathematics from Cambridge University, Hamish moved into software engineering, focusing primarily on high throughput, low latency cloud based systems.

Julian has been involved in software engineering for the last 25 years or so. His industry background is varied, ranging from defence to risk management, e-commerce to education technology, and travel to chat. He has developed a penchant for functional front ends and holds a masters degree in Politics, Philosophy & Economics from the University of Oxford.

As of now, you can purchase CHAT tokens using ICP on several Decentralised Exchanges (DEXes), including:

• ICDex
• ICPSwap
• Sonic

The team indicates that support for the Rosetta API is planned, which would facilitate simpler integration with Centralised Exchanges (CEXes). Once this occurs, it appears likely that CHAT will become tradable on CEXes against ICP or USDT.