The public beta for KimDotcom’s MegaChat service has been announced, promising end-to-end encryption for video and audio communication.

The project is considered a “Skype killer” as it relies on complete encryption of the stream exchanged between the users, implying that Mega, or any authority, does not have access to the keys decrypting the communication.

“The only key that MEGA requires to be stored on the user side is the login password, in the user's brain. This password unlocks the master key, which in turn unlocks the file/folder/share/private keys,” a post on Mega informed upon launching the service in 2013.

If this is true, then users should have a chance against snooping from government authorities, unless no error occurs or a backdoor is planted in the service.

MegaChat is in public trial at the moment, which means that some wrinkles may need to be ironed out. Despite this, it appears that the service has more than 15 million users at the moment, according to a tweet from KimDotcom, who hopes to reach the 100 million mark by the end of 2015.

He also said on Twitter that in just a few hours from making the service public there were over 500,000 calls recorded.

Kim Dotcom


#Mega has over 15 million registered users now. I think #MegaChat could elevate us to 100+ million users by the end of 2015. #Prediction