Tether, Holepunch launch peer-to-peer chat dApp Keet Mobile

Keet Mobile is a fully encrypted, P2P chat dApp for mobile devices lsunched in alpha mode with instant messaging.
Tether, Bitfinex and Holepunch announced Keet for desktop in July last year.
Keet Mobile is device agnostic and powered by Lightning Network.

Holepunch has officially launched Keet Mobile, a free, fully encrypted peer-to-peer (P2P) instant messaging application. 

The device-agnostic application is a collaboration of Hypercore-backed Holepunch, stablecoin firm Tether and crypto exchange and trading platform Bitfinex.

Keet Mobile will also support call and video chat

The P2P app’s alpha release comes a few months after the three companies announced Keet, a peer-to-peer app designed to integrate Tether (USDT), and support Lightning Network for micropayments.

Keet Mobile, which brings the app’s capabilities to mobile users, fully removes the need for a centralized entity.

According to a press release shared with CoinJournal on Monday, Keet Mobile is Holepunch’s first peer-to-peer application in a series of apps designed to “put control back into the hands of people.” Basically, users of Keet can send text, call or video chat without having to go through a third party server or operating system.

As noted above, the alpha release will initially be limited to texting only. However, the developer team aims to add audio or video calls functionality within the next few months.

Tether CTO Paolo Ardoino noted that the launch of Keet Mobile is a landmark achievement that was “unthinkable” before the Holepunch team made it a reality. Bringing the team’s p2p communication tech to mobile devices completely disrupts the idea of traditional mobile communication.

“The idea that you must give up your private data to big tech companies to do something as simple as talk to another person on a mobile device is dead,” Ardoino, also the CSO of Holepunch, added in a statement.

Tether and co announced Keet in July 2022, with the team behind the P2P project noting that the app doesn’t rely on any blockchain. Rather, as noted above, the built-in payments API will be powered by Lightning Network.

Keet Mobile Alpha is available on both the Apple App Store and the GooglePlay Store.