- Bitfinex and Tether introduce Keet, a new peer-to-peer digital communication app
- The two companies worked in collaboration with the Hypercore company
- Bitfinex and Tether invested $10M to help in the new project
The sister companies formed a trio with Hypercore and together they launched a new company and protocol, Holepunch. The protocol later facilitated the launching of the P2P encrypted video calling app, Keet.
Keet will focus on providing services such as audio scheduling, video calls and sending and receiving of text chats for free.
The launching of the alpha version of Keet is said to be today on 25th July 2022, as the mobile version is set to be launched later on by November 2022.
A 5-year trio
The three companies established a new technology, Distributed Holepunching (DHT), on which the Holepunch protocol runs.
“So what we have been working towards is to create a platform that would allow users to access applications that are unstoppable and provide freedom of speech,” said Paolo Ardoino CTO of the two companies.
It took the trio five years before actually launching the technology and now it gives users a wide variety of usage.
The DHT technology incorporates cryptographic key pairs which when authorized users can locate and connect with each other.
In the five years, Bitfinex and Tether expanded their investment. The two invested a huge amount of money, $10M, that facilitated the creation of Holepunch and Keet.
Even after the huge investment, both companies are open to throwing in more money approximately $50M- $100M. The funding will lead to the creation of more P2P applications.
Holepunch protocol and Keet
The crypto exchange platform, Bitfinex, and the stablecoin issuer, Tether, launched Holepunch as a closed source protocol. However, the protocol is expected to shift to open source code by December 2022.
Users can launch their applications on the protocol once it shifts to open source. The application will even enable the users to earn money.
The Trio also plans to integrate the Lightning Network and the Tether stablecoin in the Holepunch protocol. The integration will help create a system of default payments.
The three companies also intend to incorporate Bitcoin into the platform. Users can therefore make their payments through bitcoin and also stream BTC to the content creators,
“Holepunch offers a range of easy-to-use, collaborative, P2P data structures allowing developers to mainly focus on building great apps rather than having to be networking or P2P experts,” Paolo Ardoino and Mathias Buus, CEO of Holepunch explained.
