The 4thTech Project Whitepaper

Abstract--The internet changed the way we live, it opened the highway to unlimited communication and revolutionized access to information, but it failed greatly regarding our digital freedom. Instead of providing a safe environment for online communication (i.e. emailing, messaging, data exchange) that we depend on every day, the internet evolved into a system of centralized intermediaries which trade the ease of access for mass surveillance and user data mining. While the majority of users have no problems accessing legacy email, messaging, or data file-sharing platforms, the “permissioned access” issue remains. Enforced usually based on censorship misbehaviour, de-platforming cases are well known leading to various cases of access restrictions. The fact remains, that the current legacy communication platforms are designed to grant permission for every email or message that we send based on pre-approval mechanics. There is also the matter of data ownership. Did you know that the moment you attach any data file to an email attachment or share it via any “free” messaging service or data file-sharing app there is a big data ownership loss possibility? Blockchain always offered the promise of enabling permissionless, secure, non-custodial, immutable communication with uninterrupted up-time, while retaining data and identity ownership, it is by design the right tool for the job. 4thTech addressed this issue already in 2017 when the “on-chain” communication R&D started. The solution presented itself in the form of an OCC (i.e. on-chain communication) framework accompanied by a dedicated SDK (i.e. software development kit).

Keywords: blockchain technology, decentralization, encryption, immutability, on-chain communication, permissionless communication, peer-to-peer communication, peer-to-peer communication wallet-to-wallet communication, non-custodial communication, encrypted communication