CryptoPigeon

Honorable Mention Award at the 11th Annual DifferenceMaker $50,000 Idea Challenge

Team CryptoPigeon is made up of two graduate Computer Science Students, Akshay Kolli, Anveshak Rathore, and Computer Science Junior, Shivam Patel. They are working on a decentralized messaging service. With all the recent issues regarding privacy, these students wanted to find a way to allow people to send messages without the interception from large companies. The team won the Honorable Mention award of $2,000 at the 11th Annual DifferenceMaker $50,000 Idea Challenge.

During their pitch, Team CryptoPigeon explained how they are working to develop a service which allows users to send messages without relying on large companies and leverages a corresponding new cryptocurrency. The platform allows for a dependable messaging app that is not controlled by any one single entity, corporate or government, therefore, providing a messaging app that is free from third party surveillance. To accomplish this, it uses crypto currency to pay for its messages and uses smart contracts to ensure accurate payments and incentivize servers to join the network and actively provide service to all other members of the network. The three teammates are passionate about this idea because they believe no one should be dependent on third parties which have commercial interests for their right to communicate. They are building the platform off the idea that the ability to communicate should be truly free and fundamentally available to all people. With the funding they received from the Idea Challenge, they plan to construct the app and develop a website for users to download.