HashBox Mail - The Smart Contract

General
1

Hi there!

My name is Silvio Guedes, the creator of HashBox Mail (https://hashbox.app).

  • What is HashBox Mail?

It’s a mail built on the blockchain using smart contracts to send and receive messages and files, eliminating the need for middlemen controlling the data. Without intermediaries, data cannot be changed or censored by a company.

  • What kind of problem is solved?

Due to the nature of the blockchain that all data on it is public, anyone who knows a user’s wallet address can know how much money the user has. If it is an exorbitant amount, this information could put that person’s safety at risk if a criminal knows where the user lives or goes to.

For this reason, no user should link his personal information (SSN, home address, telephone number or workplace address) to his wallet address. A criminal knowing someone’s email address, can easily discover his home address or sensitive information from a resume posted online.

The solution removes this need for the user to expose personal information, using only his wallet address to communicate, to receive information or files from a company or another user. An online platform only needs to know the user’s wallet address - if he has the necessary amount or if he has already paid for the product/service offered.

  • Why is this application so important?

It’s important because this is one of the few applications on the blockchain that is not:

  • A coin project (Bitcoin for example);
  • A token project (to exchange business, intellectual property or private property rights);
  • An NFT project (to exchange image, video, audio, text or game character);
  • A DeFi project (to exchange tokens);
  • A DNS project (to translate hexadecimal address into a human-readable name).

This is a project for communication: Communication on the blockchain.

Many apps work like this:

a) User A sends a message to the App;
b) The App resends the message to User B.

The core of HashBox Mail is to remove the “App”.

The “App” is not needed with the blockchain and the smart contracts, everything is peer-to-peer (P2P).

With the core of this project, you can build:

  • A decentralized Uber - user asks driver for ride on the blockchain without the Uber;
  • A decentralized DoorDash - user requests a delivery on the blockchain without the DoorDash;
  • A decentralized AirBnb - user rents a house on the blockchain without the AirBnb.

With all the rules written using smart contracts. Immutable, forever.

“Blockchain Day By Day” - This is HashBox’s motto.

Note: This project can be used by people even in the bear market, because this is a utility project not tied to the crypto market.

  • Did you receive any investment from VCs?

No. I built the project with my own money. I spent almost 3 years and over 20K dollars to build the protocol.

The main objective is to create a utility project not linked to the cryptocurrency market: you don’t need to know how much 1 Bitcoin costs if you have to communicate with someone. If you need to communicate, you’ll do it without worrying about the price of Bitcoin.

If the project is successful, I support the project by selling the credits (HBMs).

  • Do you have a team?

The project was developed only by me (Silvio Guedes). This is my first blockchain project.

Search for “Silvio Guedes Santana” on LinkedIn for more information.

  • What are the differences between HashBox Mail and other “blockchain mail” solutions?

This is a 100% blockchain solution: All emails are registered on the blockchain, all rules are executed on the blockchain and written using smart contracts.

Nobody can censor the protocol, nobody can change the rules of the protocol, nobody can stop the protocol. Including me, the creator.

  • What kind of features are there in this protocol and why are they important?

A great feature is the ability to get paid when you receive an email. No more SPAMs!

Example:

If you set a fee of 1 Bitcoin (1 WBTC), you will always receive 1 BTC for any email, message or file from anyone any time you receive an email. Your attention will always be rewarded.

“Pay Attention” never made so much sense.

  • What kind of integration can be done with this protocol?

You can integrate the HashBox Mail with others dApps, like:

  • A decentralized marketplace that sends notifications to users about delivery status;
  • A DeFi protocol that communicates with users about newly created liquidity pools and rewards;
  • Create a decentralized OTC (Over The Counter) for users to trade cryptocurrencies directly with sellers privately;
  • To create a decentralized “heritage network” for crypto (including Bitcoin);
  • To be used as a communication layer for DAOs;
  • To be used as a communication layer for blockchain games;
  • A protocol token (GNO) can be used as the “email fee” and so on.

Requested Grant: $50,000

  • Why do I need grants?

a) Porting the solution to Gnosis Chain (the solution is currently working on the Polygon Network);
b) To rent a better server (current has only 2GB of RAM);
c) To rent a better RPC server (I’m using a free tier);
d) To fix few issues about paging results;
e) To improve UI/UX for Feeds Settings;
f) To create responsive pages;
g) To create a UI for sending multiple emails and so on.

  • Budget breakdown:

10% - To help me pay all the costs of having a company: you cannot create a blockchain project without first creating a company in Brazil;
40% - To be used to solve future problems (medical, legal, accounting, and so on);
50% - Getting a salary after almost 3 years working on this project to help my family.

  • Milestones:

Porting the current solution to another network: 7 days.
Other features: 6 months.

  • If you didn’t work on this project, what would you work on instead?

I would work on a “decentralized Uber”, solving the main problem: the rules change all the time for the company (Uber) and they don’t ask their users (drivers) if the change is good for them.

If Uber was powered by smart contracts, this problem would not happen.

  • What was my main challenge in this project?

The main challenge was to create all the rules using smart contracts with the lowest possible gas expense.

That’s it for now.
Thanks for your attention.

If you have any questions, please ask me.
If you want to thank me, please send an email on the blockchain (Fee 1 MATIC): https://mail.hashbox.app/address/0x55555E09bc39767C48Eb02863029Cb0838a80f2B.

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Thanks for building this, although you have chosen polygon for your first deployment and, at least my impression after reading your whitpaper, might have learned about xDAI/gnosischain just recently;-). But nothing wrong with this, it’s so much going on and I must admit I have also never heard from Hashbox too.

So I tried it out and it worked fine for me (although it didn’t detect metamask in my chrome browser, with firefox and edge it worked well).

How long are you running on polygon already? Looking at the onchain data I found not much action besides my own (HashBox Mail (MAIL) Token Tracker | PolygonScan)?

Regarding the Data storage I wonder if it’s possible to connect Hashbox to my own ipfs node, I couldn’t find this in the settings. Or is all data routed through your server first?

Although I like the concept and the app very much, I wonder if it will be used much, cause we all have so many different communication channels that another one on top, even if it’s superior on censorship resistance and privacy terms, might not be used as much as it should, especially if it introduces another barrier for usage (having web3 wallet and making an account). But for sure it’s much more likely I will use it if it’s deployed on gnosischain.

If someone else here likes to play with Hashbox, I can send you some HBM Token that are, besides $Matic, necessary to test it out. It’s just 8 Matic for 1k but just for testing purposes not everyone might like to spend it. And I won’t need the 1000 I bought, at least not in the near time.

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Hello Refri!

I’ll answer your questions:

“Thanks for building this, although you have chosen polygon for your first deployment and, at least my impression after reading your whitpaper, might have learned about xDAI/gnosischain just recently;-).”

You’re welcome!
You’re right, Gnosischain has a value for gas very low and I didn’t know it in that time.

“But nothing wrong with this, it’s so much going on and I must admit I have also never heard from Hashbox too.”

I just created the company in May, so this is the first dApp.

“So I tried it out and it worked fine for me (although it didn’t detect metamask in my chrome browser, with firefox and edge it worked well).”

I tried in Chrome (version 115.0.5790.102 64 bits) and it worked well. I don’t know what happened. What is your Chrome version?

" How long are you running on polygon already? Looking at the onchain data I found not much action besides my own (HashBox Mail (MAIL) Token Tracker | PolygonScan)?"

Since July 9.
You’re the first user!

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“Although I like the concept and the app very much, I wonder if it will be used much, cause we all have so many different communication channels that another one on top”

The app is necessary because the technology can be used to create contracts in “daily apps” to solve some of their problems.

What are the daily apps?
They are apps you use in your smartphone daily, like: Uber, DoorDash, AirBnb and etc.

These apps have a problem: the rules.
Rules are changed every time and users complain about this.

Examples:

https://www.thestreet.com/restaurants/doordash-makes-a-change-customers-will-not-like

If you could create applications with all the rules written by smart contracts and run on the blockchain with the open source for everyone to audit, that would solve a lot of problems.

Today you cannot create “daily apps” on the blockchain because the data can be viewed by anyone using a block explorer.

Examples using the current blockchain:
If you create an Uber on the blockchain, anyone can know the driver information (car, license plate and driver photo).
If you create an DoorDash on the blockchain, anyone will know the user order.
If you create an AirBnb on the blockchain, everyone will see the tenant’s information (photo and location).

Examples using the solution for communication on the blockchain:
If you create an Uber, only the passenger will know the driver information (car, license plate and driver photo), because the driver encrypted the information and only the passenger can decrypt it.
If you create a DoorDash, only the restaurant can know the user order, because the user encrypted the information and only the restaurant can decrypt it.
If you create an AirBnb, only the renter can know the tenant’s information, because the tenant encrypted the information and only the renter can decrypt it.

With this technology (communication on the blockchain) you can create any apps like these without any intermediary:
You can ask for a ride P2P, you can order a delivery P2P, you can rent a house P2P, and much more.

“especially if it introduces another barrier for usage (having web3 wallet and making an account)”

The account is totally necessary because this is the process of creating your public and private key to receive and send encrypted messages. Without an account, everyone can read your messages on the blockchain.

“But for sure it’s much more likely I will use it if it’s deployed on gnosischain.”

I’ll try to deploy on Gnosischain.

Note: I sent you a message with the answers to your questions.

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Thanks for all you answers, I am really convinced that this could become a valuable piece of web3 ecosystem.

However, although you are totally right when you say

I am not sure if this can be solved this easy. All the resources these companies get are necessary to become large enough, and they get these cause others like to make profits. If there isn’t a way to change the rules they might never have become that large, and ofc apps like those you mention need a certain customer base to be useful. Anyway I would be glad to see the world became different, and having the tools is a value per se.

But despite this I wonder why there isn’t more resonance here. For me your dapp was really something new and I would be pleased to hear from others here what they are thinking about it. Might be some are tired after ETHCC or busy with other projects.

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“I am really convinced that this could become a valuable piece of web3 ecosystem.”

Thanks for your words!
I tried to make something valuable for everyone.

“All the resources these companies get are necessary to become large enough, and they get these cause others like to make profits. If there isn’t a way to change the rules they might never have become that large, and ofc apps like those you mention need a certain customer base to be useful.”

No problem when the rule changed is good for the user and also good for the company, example:

Less problem for the owner, more profit for the company.

The problem is when the changed rule is bad for both (user and company):

“From January 1, all private-hire vehicles licensed for the first time must now be “zero-emission-capable”, meaning either electric vehicles or plug-in hybrids. Mr Farrar says that this regulation and rising costs of electricity are forcing drivers to work “longer and longer hours”.”

It means most costs, less drivers, less passengers, less profit for the drivers and also for the company.

“Anyway I would be glad to see the world became different, and having the tools is a value per se.”

Me too!
What if drivers and passengers do not agree with this law and use a decentralized Uber (dUber)?
Drivers and passengers could download the Android app from a decentralized Android store.
Drivers can work however they want and with the cars they want.
Passengers can travel however they want to wherever they want.
The dUber company could profit from dUber tokens, without worrying about any laws in another country.

“But despite this I wonder why there isn’t more resonance here. For me your dapp was really something new and I would be pleased to hear from others here what they are thinking about it. Might be some are tired after ETHCC or busy with other projects.”

Thanks again for your words!
I didn’t have any investors, I built it and I’m still building it with my own money. So if you know someone from the Gnosis team and can show them the project, I would appreciate it.
I will deploy the project on Gnosis chain until next Thursday.

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Hello Refri!

As I promised, I deployed the project on Gnosis Chain: https://nftwebmail.com.
Note: I’m using an old VPS server that I used for tests (it only has 1GB of RAM).

The token price is 0.001 xDAI and the minimum amount to buy is 10,000 tokens.

You can send me a message to test (fee 0.1 xDAI): https://mail.nftwebmail.com/address/0x55555E09bc39767C48Eb02863029Cb0838a80f2B

Test it and tell me if it worked. :slightly_smiling_face:

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great :pray:, will try it out next weekend.

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works, thanks for it!

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To all here that like to try it out:

Make a new eoa address (or some if you like to write back and forth), or use one you already have.

Fund at Gnosis Chain xDAI Faucet if you need some xDAI and don’t want to expose your other addresses.

Visist https://mail.nftwebmail.com/ to sign in Hashbox mail.

Post the address here (or send me dm) and I will send you some HBM (1 token for each mail needed).

3 Likes