No time? Here's the TL;DR.

chatnet is a launchpad/explorer web3 app allowing people to create and browse custom, on-chain, open-source, and decentralized chat rooms/message boards via the avalanche blockchain. chats are inspired by the earlier days of the internet, and are open-source, allowing anyone to plug & play their own custom frontend for their chat, or even release their own custom explorer client to browse & contribute to all chats with. chat creators are entitled to a portion of fees generated by their chats.

$CHAT is the ecosystem token for the platform. in some chats, users will have to pay a $CHAT fee to post. Chat creators can choose to include this fee in their chat, or not. They can also choose to accept custom ERC-20 tokens for tips/message fees. this $CHAT fee then gets redistributed to the chat creator, $CHAT stakers and the chatnet treasury.

The Problem, & Our Solution

Current message boards and social forums suffer from an entrenched layer of centralization that limits user agency, censors content arbitrarily, and concentrates power – and profits – among a handful of large platforms. With centralized platforms like Reddit, decisions about moderation, platform rules, or monetization often happen behind closed doors, leaving communities at the mercy of corporate interests. Early internet forums, by contrast, were freer, more open, and community-driven, enabling users to shape their own digital public squares without fear of being &quotdigitally gentrified&quot. ChatNet aims to revive this spirit of decentralization by providing a launchpad for anyone to create on-chain, open-source, token-gated, and community-owned chat spaces. By placing governance, ownership, and data transparency in the hands of the participants, ChatNet reclaims the original promise of the internet as a free, fair, and openly accessible commons.

The Rundown

Chats are decentralized forums, or message/image boards inspired by the earlier days of reddit and the decentralized nature of early internet forums and message boards. The main site will include an explorer to browse the chats with, and a launchpad for users to launch their own chat and earn fees from it.
Anyone can create their own chat by paying a fee in $CHAT, and earn fees when users post (if the launcher chooses to include messagefees on their board). The chat launcher can also allow custom ERC-20 tokens to be accepted for fees, tips, and token-gating. ERC-721 token-gated chats will also be an option. This way, an NFT community can allow their holders to exclusvely post, and others would have to pay a fee to post.
Contracts will also be open-source, so anyone can plug & play their own custom frontend for their chat, or even release their own custom explorer client. Ease of use will be a core ideal for this project, we want to make it as simple as possible for devs to incorporate chats into existing or developing applications.
Within a chat, users can post, like, dislike, reply, to, and tip messages, all on-chain. Tipping and message fees will be natively possible with $AVAX, but also supported with other popular tokens, and/or a custom ERC-20 token inputted with the launch of the chat.
Users will initially register a username to connect to their wallet, and sign up. There will be a small sign-up fee to reduce bots and mitigate airdrop farming. This username will be the same across all chats, and will be connected to the user's wallet address. This will allow users to have a unique identity across all chats, and will be a core feature of the chatnet platform.
Users will be able to create a profile page, which will include their username, avatar, and a link to chats they have created, if they want to display them. We are hoping to add numerous ways for users to customize their profile pages. ChatNet should feel like myspace 2.0, with the added benefits of blockchain technology.

The $CHAT Token - What, Why, & How

$CHAT is a token (to-be-launched) which will fuel the chat economy.

$CHAT will be used for:

50% of $CHAT fees collected will always be burned. The rest is split between $CHAT stakers in a revenue sharing system, and a treasury used for marketing (airdrops, partnerships DEX, etc), research & development, and other general costs like X premium and potential upkeep of the main website.

Tokenomics

Total Supply: 100,000,000 $CHAT

Conclusion

An existing basic proof of concept app has been released. Users of this app will have their usernames merged into the new contracts and given special early adopter badges. This will be open for entry until launch. Expected time to MVP launch is 1–2 months. I am a solo-developer taking the plunge, trying to make this my career. All feedback is appreciated! AMA!

disclaimer

this whitepaper is potentially subject to change. development is still underway, and (mostly creative) decisions may shift before launch. additionally, not all features will necessarily be available at the time of launch.