Shakedown Social

Delta ChatGood news! Our developments are back into full swing with major new releases expected throughout 2025 🥳After the shock February dry-up of funding grants we recently secured substantial private donations, wonderfully helping to hit the ground running 🧡<a href="https://chaos.social/tags/deltachat" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#deltachat</a> <a href="https://chaos.social/tags/chatmail" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#chatmail</a> and <a href="https://chaos.social/tags/webxdc" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#webxdc</a> developments currently use ~600k EUR per year to support a dozen experts and contributors, to in turn help the wider contributor communities, as well as to realize major new features. <a href="https://delta.chat/en/donate" rel="nofollow noopener" translate="no" target="_blank">https://delta.chat/en/donate</a>

Delta ChatTwo of our teams just gave talks at the <a href="https://infosec.exchange/@passthesaltcon" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">@passthesaltcon</a> 2025 conference in Lille: <a href="https://mastodon.ml/@Xeniax" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">@Xeniax</a> tells the story of "federated messaging" waves and her usable security research, emphasizing "availability" as a key issue <a href="https://passthesalt.ubicast.tv/videos/always-more-secure-analyzing-user-migrations-to-federated-e2ee-messaging-apps-trimmed/" rel="nofollow noopener" translate="no" target="_blank">https://passthesalt.ubicast.tv/videos/always-more-secure-analyzing-user-migrations-to-federated-e2ee-messaging-apps-trimmed/</a> -- <a href="https://chaos.social/@hpk" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">@hpk</a> starts off with prioritizing usable security and walks through <a href="https://chaos.social/tags/chatmail" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#chatmail</a> transport layer security goals and <a href="https://chaos.social/tags/deltachat" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#deltachat</a> end-point security status, upcoming releases and prospective work on improving metadata and other goals <a href="https://passthesalt.ubicast.tv/videos/usable-end-to-end-security-with-delta-chat-and-chatmail/" rel="nofollow noopener" translate="no" target="_blank">https://passthesalt.ubicast.tv/videos/usable-end-to-end-security-with-delta-chat-and-chatmail/</a>

Delta ChatInternet fragmentation is real in many countries and regions today but did you know that this "Sometimes-Internet" was the reality of the 1980ties when <a href="https://chaos.social/tags/email" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#email</a> evolved? <a href="https://chaos.social/tags/chatmail" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#chatmail</a> relays are cheap, secure, fast, ephemeral and resilient server setups for the growing Sometimes-Internet, using cryptography for planetary-scale interop:- E2EE-only, strict TLS+DKIM - no spam-check magic - delay/cut-off tolerant - messages removed after download - addresses removed if stale - push notifications

Delta Chat<a href="https://chaos.social/tags/DeltaChat" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#DeltaChat</a> evolved according to needs of people under repression and continues to do so. The more ignorant and exchangeable we make <a href="https://chaos.social/tags/chatmail" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#chatmail</a> relays, the less their operators have to worry. Having metadata-less, fast and cheap instant messaging relays, that can also operate when 99% of the Internet vanishes in a region, is a key goal. Some way to go still but, already now, is there any other real-world solution that provides better service in internet-repressed regions in 2025?

Delta Chat<a href="https://ieji.de/@alandes" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">@alandes</a> Most <a href="https://chaos.social/tags/chatmail" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#chatmail</a> operators we know off will not hand out data without a fight. But there are other operators who are afraid of brutal prosecution and here it helps that there is not much data on disk in a chatmail server. No need to risk imprisonment or worse.

Alejandro Baez<a href="https://mastodon.blaede.family/@cassidy" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">@cassidy</a> have you tried <a href="https://fosstodon.org/tags/deltachat" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#deltachat</a>? Not affiliated, but has serve me pretty well. 😎Uses email as the protocol for communication. And barrier to entry is relatively low. If using what they call a <a href="https://fosstodon.org/tags/chatmail" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#chatmail</a> server anyway. 😅<a href="https://delta.chat/en/" rel="nofollow noopener" translate="no" target="_blank">https://delta.chat/en/</a>

Delta ChatWe'd like to remind everyone that a self-hosted <a href="https://chaos.social/tags/chatmail" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#chatmail</a> relay is best shared in some wider than family circles. In crisis situations everbody does better when helping others. A typical 1gb RAM chatmail relay VPS for 5-10 eur per month supports 50k+ daily users.chatmail VPSes are stateless. You can wipe all disk state, reinstall and chatting will resume. Conversely, <a href="https://chaos.social/tags/deltachat" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#deltachat</a> does not keep or depend on any server state .Operators under pressure do not need to feel bad to hand over data.

Delta ChatWe are basically doing what <a href="https://chaos.social/tags/signal" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#signal</a> and in particular moxie refused to do or declares impossible: federation. Both <a href="https://chaos.social/tags/email" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#email</a> and <a href="https://chaos.social/tags/activitypub" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#activitypub</a> ecosystems are all about federation. However, <a href="https://chaos.social/tags/deltachat" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#deltachat</a> is vertically centralized in that all UIs use the same <a href="https://chaos.social/tags/rust" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#rust</a> core which implements all networking, encryption, chat/group/message logic in a single centralized place. The now 40+ <a href="https://chaos.social/tags/chatmail" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#chatmail</a> mail relay network is driven from centralized code. At each level replication and federation is built in.

Delta ChatEveryone returns to email in the end. We are there already. <a href="https://chaos.social/tags/whatsapp" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#whatsapp</a> wants you to add your email to secure your account ... despite all the nay sayers and numerous well funded attempts and claims to kill <a href="https://chaos.social/tags/email" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#email</a> not even WA can do it. <a href="https://chaos.social/tags/deltachat" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#deltachat</a> <a href="https://chaos.social/tags/chatmail" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#chatmail</a> and <a href="https://chaos.social/tags/webxdc" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#webxdc</a> are about deep collab between people, projects and operators to evolve email from within. It is not just about SMTP and IMAP and MIME and OpenPGP which are all exchangeable and can be improved ... Which we set out to do. Cheers.

Delta ChatSince June 1st there is a big sudden surge of new Delta Chat users and so far things are going pretty smooth. We are happy that our <a href="https://chaos.social/tags/chatmail" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#chatmail</a> infrastructure is holding up and that there is growing recognition that <a href="https://chaos.social/tags/deltachat" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#deltachat</a> is a ready-to-use and resilient chat solution. Some stats from the last days, a brief discussion of centralization risks and what we plan to do about it, also introducing a brand-new chatmail OpenCollective with a european fiscal host.<a href="https://delta.chat/en/2025-06-04-surge-donations" rel="nofollow noopener" translate="no" target="_blank">https://delta.chat/en/2025-06-04-surge-donations</a>

Delta ChatComparing <a href="https://chaos.social/tags/XMPP" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#XMPP</a> against <a href="https://chaos.social/tags/email" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#email</a> protocols is too limited. What sets <a href="https://chaos.social/tags/deltachat" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#deltachat</a> apart is *vertical integration* and being driven by UI/UX considerations. Cross-platform Apps and Bots use the Rust core library which connects with <a href="https://chaos.social/tags/chatmail" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#chatmail</a> relays and classic email servers based on a higher level API -- abstracting over SMTP, MIME, <a href="https://chaos.social/tags/OpenPGP" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#OpenPGP</a> etc. See <a href="https://chatmail.at" rel="nofollow noopener" translate="no" target="_blank">https://chatmail.at</a> <a href="https://chaos.social/tags/webxdc" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#webxdc</a> apps in turn use an even higher level stable API abstracting over email/xmpp/... see <a href="https://webxdc.org/docs/" rel="nofollow noopener" translate="no" target="_blank">https://webxdc.org/docs/</a>

Delta ChatBy design, end-to-end-encrypting <a href="https://chaos.social/tags/deltachat" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#deltachat</a> and <a href="https://chaos.social/tags/webxdc" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#webxdc</a> apps only need ephemeral transport. It's a big deal. Let's compare:- <a href="https://chaos.social/tags/matrix" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#matrix</a> home servers maintain a cryptographic forever-chain of cleartext social-graph metadata. - <a href="https://chaos.social/tags/WhatsApp" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#WhatsApp</a> servers maintain cleartext metadata visible to Meta.- <a href="https://chaos.social/tags/Signal" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#Signal</a> keeps encrypted metadata, hosted at GAFAM<a href="https://chaos.social/tags/chatmail" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#chatmail</a> relays do not persist any social graph state, also not in encrypted form. A key goal of our designs: chatmail operators can sleep well at night :)

SteffoA cool thing about <a href="https://a.junimo.party/tags/Matrix" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#Matrix</a> is that there are lots of excellent bridges between it and other chat protocols, including proprietary ones, which makes it simpler to provide access to Matrix users to chats which cannot currently be fully migrated there.What's the bridging situation for other protocols, like <a href="https://a.junimo.party/tags/XMPP" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#XMPP</a> and <a href="https://a.junimo.party/tags/Chatmail" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#Chatmail</a>?

Delta ChatLast week four new <a href="https://chaos.social/tags/chatmail" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#chatmail</a> relays popped up from four different continents from four different entities. Permission-free interoperability based on <a href="https://chaos.social/tags/cryptography" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#cryptography</a> ... That's how we like it and how it generally is with the email system: separation of transport and apps. App developers can't access messages, and relay operators can not break e2ee encryption. Fwiw May 14th there is another round at a <a href="https://chaos.social/tags/Moscow" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#Moscow</a> court where our lawyers will convey this impossibility for <a href="https://chaos.social/tags/deltachat" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#deltachat</a> to hand over data.

Delta Chat23 is the number of currently active <a href="https://chaos.social/tags/chatmail" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#chatmail</a> relays we heart about by now. Only 6 are listed at <a href="https://chatmail.at/relays" rel="nofollow noopener" translate="no" target="_blank">https://chatmail.at/relays</a> to complicate ongoing state-level blocking attempts. Please keep setting up <a href="https://chaos.social/tags/chatmail" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#chatmail</a> relays -- and thanks to all the early adopters and carers!July 2025 some key contributors will do sessions in <a href="https://chaos.social/tags/Lille" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#Lille</a>, France at <a href="https://infosec.exchange/@passthesaltcon" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">@passthesaltcon</a> and discuss the state of efforts to scale <a href="https://chaos.social/tags/deltachat" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#deltachat</a> <a href="https://chaos.social/tags/chatmail" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#chatmail</a> and <a href="https://chaos.social/tags/webxdc" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#webxdc</a> to billions of people and bots, without any central points of control.

Delta ChatOrganizational note: It might appear that <a href="https://chaos.social/tags/deltachat" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#deltachat</a> <a href="https://chaos.social/tags/chatmail" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#chatmail</a> and <a href="https://chaos.social/tags/webxdc" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#webxdc</a> contributors are easily "on the same page". In fact, there are many ongoing controversial discussions in backrooms and public spaces. We are dealing with tons of user perspectives and feedback, researcher and developer stances, many UX/UI considerations, complex implementation and platform adaptation. We are internally allowing contradictions and complexity ... See also Ashby's requisite variety <a href="https://edgeofpossible.com/ashbys-law-variety-organisational-change/" rel="nofollow noopener" translate="no" target="_blank">https://edgeofpossible.com/ashbys-law-variety-organisational-change/</a>

Delta Chat<a href="https://chaos.social/tags/chatmail" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#chatmail</a> relays can serve 200k+ users on a small physical machine, are easy to setup and even easier to maintain. Chatmail relays enforce end-to-end encryption and rely on cryptographic verification for interoperability instead of IP reputation and spam checking magic. Tomorrow (Sunday) evening, <a href="https://chaos.social/@compl4xx" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">@compl4xx</a> will give a hands-on setup workshop in Hamburg <a href="https://cfp.eh22.easterhegg.eu/eh22/talk/NXTPXY/" rel="nofollow noopener" translate="no" target="_blank">https://cfp.eh22.easterhegg.eu/eh22/talk/NXTPXY/</a><a href="https://chaos.social/tags/easterhegg2025" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#easterhegg2025</a> <a href="https://chaos.social/tags/eh22" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#eh22</a>

Delta ChatThe trajectory of E2E-encryption is about de-platforming: There shall be no central machines that can control the edges/peers, and the social groups and virtual centers they freely form. Our <a href="https://chaos.social/tags/deltachat" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#deltachat</a> R&D around <a href="https://chaos.social/tags/chatmail" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#chatmail</a> relays and <a href="https://chaos.social/tags/webxdc" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#webxdc</a> apps all aim to realize such a "zero-platforms" fully E2E-encrypted interaction model. However, this is *not* just about cryptographic cleverness. Rather it is about usable anti-authoritarian designs, as explicitly stated in January <a href="https://delta.chat/en/2025-01-23-webxdc-no-billionaires" rel="nofollow noopener" translate="no" target="_blank">https://delta.chat/en/2025-01-23-webxdc-no-billionaires</a>

Delta ChatEaster/April offer 🐣 if you are onboarding a small group of family/friends to <a href="https://chaos.social/tags/deltachat" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#deltachat</a> and/or want to setup a insta-federated <a href="https://chaos.social/tags/chatmail" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#chatmail</a> relay let us know about any issues. Just post on fediverse and tag us. In case of bugs/issues we'll see to privately set up a support chat to help sort out any issues, or file accordingly to our development tracker. We want Delta to work flawlessly for private chatting and to better understand any remaining irritations or problems. Thanks and enjoy :)

Delta ChatIf you are using <a href="https://chaos.social/tags/deltachat" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#deltachat</a> with a <a href="https://chaos.social/tags/chatmail" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#chatmail</a> profile with private contacts there is no chance you are going to get spam. Why? 1) Spammers can't contact you based on your phone number like with other messengers. 2) Nobody knows your private address or cryptographic key except your contacts. Without that spammers/phishers can't contact you. 3) if joining a public group with unknown members better use a second chat profile which you can mute/remove as needed. Privacy and peace of mind.

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