White Noise, a brand new privacy-centric messaging app, launched its alpha v0.1.0 in public beta. Constructed on Nostr’s Bitcoin-native, decentralized id system and the Messaging Layer Security (MLS) protocol, White Noise introduces an anonymization protocol to the rising Nostr social media ecosystem that hides delicate metadata. Paired with end-to-end encrypted group chats and direct messages (DMs), it guarantees to take Nostr from an early-adopter, hobbyist know-how to a viable different on the planet of privacy-branded messaging apps like Whatsapp, Sign, or, Telegram.
Nostr, quick for “Notes and Different Stuff Transmitted by Relays,” is a decentralized, open-source protocol launched in 2021 to allow censorship-resistant communication and social networking. In contrast to centralized platforms like Twitter or WhatsApp, Nostr operates on an open community of impartial relays — servers that retailer and ahead messages — permitting customers to publish posts, ship personal messages, and share knowledge with out relying on a single firm.
The protocol is cryptographically native: Customers authenticate with personal keys and public keys that may also be utilized in Bitcoin for funds and require no identifiable person data to perform. The protocol supplies customers a lot larger management over their id without having to reveal emails or telephone numbers. Whereas it has gained vital reputation amongst Bitcoin customers, it lacked the suitable instruments for personal group chats and anonymized direct messages.
“We began this mission as a result of we noticed no alternate options,” Max Hillebrand, founding father of White Noise and former contributor to Wasabi Pockets, informed Bitcoin Journal. “Present encrypted apps fail at scale: Including 100 folks to a bunch chat slows encryption to a crawl. Decentralized platforms lack personal messaging. In the meantime, Nostr’s open relay community lets anybody broadcast concepts, however direct messages stay woefully underprotected. We realized: To guard freedom, we wanted to merge these techniques.”
White Noise addresses these issues in Nostr privateness with using MLS, the “Messaging Layer Safety” encryption commonplace developed by the Web Engineering Job Pressure (IETF), which was based in 1986, and is a premier requirements growth group for the web.
In contrast to Nostr DMs and public posts immediately, White Noise’s app guarantees to obfuscate who’s sending what to whom, utilizing the mature MLS encryption scheme — just like the one utilized by Sign, a preferred privateness messaging app.
The open source alpha invitations audits and suggestions from the privateness and Bitcoin neighborhood. Customers can discover particulars concerning the app at whitenoise.chat or connect with them on X.