**source: slashgear**
Dear Google,
We have been hearing of RCS messaging for a long while now. It has been touted as the future of native messaging with a bunch of telcos adopting the standard. Some of the early adopters are implementing their own servers and others are using 3rd party backend implementations. E.g. Reliance JIO in India is using WIT software for providing the messaging backend.
It is easy to follow your vision and see why mobile carriers would find it useful. They all dream of having their own messaging platform in a bid to gain control of the potential revenue pipeline that is currently usurped by products like Whatsapp or Snapchat. In fact there has been sporadic news about an increasing number of telcos jumping on board and many have either rolled out their support or are in the process.
There is certainly a feel good factor when we think about instant messaging (with all the bells and whistles) baked natively into any device we use. It conjures up grand visions of a single ubiquitous messaging moniker irrespective of the device we are on. It then becomes true universal messaging across the planet. But let us all hold our collective horses and ponder about the state of messaging today.
**There is absolutely no doubt that vanilla text messaging (SMS and its cronies) seems like Luke Skywalker carrying spare NiFe cells for his lightsaber and trying to change them mid-fight.**
Imagine this:
1. FaceBook Messenger and Whatsapp process more than 60 Billion messages per day which is 3 times the number of SMS messages (source: **FaceBook**)
2. Global SMS revenues are due to fall almost 25% by the end of 2018 (source: **Zdnet**)
3. Global chat traffic will go up to 1 trillion messages by 2019 (source: **Juniper Research**)
4. In terms of monthly active users, messaging apps have surpassed social networks (source: **Business Insider**)
So it is clear that messaging apps are consuming most of the text traffic. In fact many telcos have declared MMS as obsolete and dropped any kind of support.
## But the real kicker is that revenue from texting on Over-The-Top (OTT) apps is only 1% of the SMS revenue
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Where does that leave RCS? RCS faces a daunting landscape from established texting apps and with the explosion of AI bots, it gets even more difficult. We know that you are struggling with Allo and that you have hardly any grip on the messaging market. It is no wonder that you are solidly behind RCS as an alternative. Lately there have been talks of RCS emerging as a business texting app but companies like Slack are already leaders in that space. In addition you have your own legacy of Hangouts to overcome.
**Do you really feel that people will adopt RCS as the default texting app given that existing messaging apps have achieved social network status? Even if by chance they do it, what is the adoption curve and when will it achieve critical mass?**
*I have an alternative vision where native messaging can become such a powerful tool for all users. We all use dedicated apps for financial transactions. These apps provide internet banking, peer to peer (P2P) money transfer, currency exchange, electronic wallets, etc.*
Even though chat apps are trying to jump on to the P2P bandwagon, people generally find dedicated apps far more trustworthy when carrying out monetary transactions. But as digital payments grow and credit cards disappear, monetary transactions between individuals and businesses will mushroom. Every person will need to own a digital wallet and acquire crypto currency or redeemable asset backed crypto tokens.
I am sure that you are aware that digital payments will hit 3/4th of a trillion USD in a couple of years and emerging markets are driving serious changes within this ecosystem.
## Why not make RCS messaging the true blue digital transaction backbone across the world?
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There are immense benefits to this model:
1. Telcos are eyeing mobile money operations (MMO) as the next growth area and this is a natural fit
2. Prepaid mobile connections are actually the trend setter for digital credits and have a dominant market share. This means that the basic runaway for digital tokens is already in place
3. P2P money transfers desperately need a standardized communications channel shared across banks, vendors and consumers. Right now the digital payments app chaos is fragmenting the market and making digital payments cumbersome
4. Blockchain startups like Telcoin are all set to make telcos into financial store and forward hubs
5. A single financial network that spans the globe?
I am sure you are thinking that RCS can handle everything that is thrown at especially since it has dovetailed into the GSM Universal Profile standard. But it does lack specific features that make financial transactions possible:
* Integrate on demand with device based user identification challenge (fingerprint, facial recognition, password …)
* End to end encryption between sender and receiver
* Integration with a currency provider (crypto coins, crypto asset based tokens, crypto exchange or banking system)
* Desktop support
* Some way to sort/lookup messages by category, endpoint, peer address …
There is a serious incentive for different players to work together when money starts flowing through RCS. Everyone is a winner in this game given that we usher in universal payments. It is a virtual certainty that if such an interface is introduced, most of the currency providers will start working with telcos so that the consumer has a seamless experience. In fact many telcos might become payment banks (introduced in India) that are essentially financial service intermediaries between the consumer and the regular banking system. This also gives telcos a serious shot at monetizing RCS messaging. Finally and probably most importantly it might give Apple the incentive to integrate its devices into a worldwide payments system.
*How about crypto currency like Bitcoins, Etherium or others?*
If there was ever a perfect use case for digital payments messaging apps, it is crypto currency. Messaging is always transactional in nature and its integration with a blockchain provider is preordained. Imagine that we could buy bitcoins by just sending a message. Or trade BTC into ETH with another message. Better yet buy back my house token shares that I had sold earlier by powering up on Telco money. Start an online lottery by using a payment group. The possibilities are endless and we have not even tapped the B2B market yet.
### Please Google make it happen and create a financial backbone behemoth that will disrupt the entire payments system
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Thanks and regards
Adarsh Holavanahalli
hiveblocks