Introducing Sygnet: Freedom from Surveillance, Finally

Your messages belong to you. Not Meta. Not Apple. Not your phone company. You.

We built Sygnet because every existing messenger makes a compromise you shouldn't have to accept: they tie your identity to something someone else controls. A phone number. A server account. An email address. And when you hand over that control, you hand over your privacy.

The Problem with Phone Numbers

Signal requires a phone number. WhatsApp requires a phone number. iMessage requires an Apple ID tied to your phone or email.

Why does this matter?

Because phone numbers identify you. Your carrier controls them. Governments can compel carriers to reveal who owns a number. Port your number to a new carrier? Your message history vanishes. Lose access to that number? Your identity is gone.

Phone numbers were designed for billing, not privacy. Yet we've built our most intimate communication tools on top of them.

How Sygnet Works Differently

Sygnet binds your identity to encryption keys you control. Not a phone number. Not a server. Keys that live on your device—or optionally, in a hardware security key that never leaves your pocket.

Your Sygnet identity is a fingerprint like this:

841e-94f7-8447-b506-6723-323e-4161-8fa3

No one can take it from you. No one can reassign it. No one can impersonate you.

The identity proves itself—if you hold the keys, you are that identity. No company needs to vouch for you. Period.

Three Guarantees

1. Your Identity Is Irrevocable

Create your identity once. It's yours forever. Back it up with a recovery phrase. Store it in hardware. Sync it across devices. But no company, no government, no adversary can revoke it.

2. Your Metadata Is Invisible

Every message routes through Tor by default. Not "optionally." Not "for advanced users." By default.

Sygnet relays only see scrambled data bouncing through the network. They don't know who's talking to whom. They don't know when. They can't build a map of your contacts.

Even we can't surveil you.

And because Sygnet depends on Tor, we're putting skin in the game: we run middle relay nodes to contribute bandwidth back to the Tor network. We don't just consume privacy infrastructure. We invest in it.

3. Your Network Is Yours

No phone number means no centralized contact discovery. You can't search for "everyone who installed Sygnet." You build your network deliberately:

• Exchange identity fingerprints in person (QR codes, copy-paste)
• Verify by comparing a short code in person or over a call
• Get introduced by trusted contacts

Yes, this means you can't find your entire phone's contact list in one tap. That's the point. Your list of contacts is sensitive. We don't collect it, because we can't.

What You Can Do Today

Messages: End-to-end encrypted, with reactions, edits, and deletes.

Rings (Groups): Encrypted group messaging with trust verification for every member. No phone numbers required. No group admin can read your messages.

Forums: Public discussion spaces where you post under a chosen name, not your real identity. No central server to shut down.

Calls (Coming in v1.1): Encrypted voice and video calls. Your identity is verified on every call—no phone number needed.

Workspaces: Encrypted team channels where each conversation has its own lock. Owner, Admin, Member, and Read-Only roles. When someone leaves, the locks change automatically—they lose access to future messages. Built for teams and organizations that need the same privacy guarantees as individual messaging. Scales to ~1,000 members.

What We Don't Do

We don't serve ads. You're not the product. We don't monetize your attention or your data because we don't collect it.

We don't decide what you see. Want a curated feed? Subscribe to a curator—an AI-powered service that monitors news sources, sorts content into topics, and posts to forums you follow. You choose which curators to trust and which topics to subscribe to. Want chronological? That's the default. Don't like a curator? Unsubscribe. Run your own. Your feed is a feature you control, not a business model that controls you.

We don't require phone numbers, email addresses, or personal information. Ever.

Who Sygnet Is For

Sygnet is for anyone tired of being the product.

If you're exhausted by:

• Surveillance capitalism — your data mined for profit, your attention sold to advertisers
• Algorithmic manipulation — feeds designed to keep you scrolling, not informed
• Corporate control — platforms that can deplatform you, read your messages, or change the rules overnight
• Phone number requirements — tying your identity to something a carrier controls

Sygnet is your escape route.

You don't need to be a security expert. You just need to be tired of Meta reading your messages, Google knowing who you talk to, or Apple deciding what features you deserve.

Sygnet is also for teams and organizations that take privacy seriously:

• Crypto teams building in adversarial environments
• Journalists protecting sources and communication
• Human rights workers operating where surveillance is weaponized
• Activists organizing without corporate or government oversight
• Campaigns and nonprofits that need secure team coordination without corporate surveillance
• Any organization that refuses to let Slack, Teams, or Google read their internal communications

Workspaces give these teams encrypted channels with role-based access. When someone leaves, the locks change automatically—the same privacy guarantees individuals get, scaled to organizations.

If you've ever worried that your messenger could be compelled to reveal your contacts, your metadata, or your identity—Sygnet is for you.

Whether you're escaping surveillance capitalism or state surveillance, the architecture is the same: no phone number, no central authority, no compromises.

Technical Foundations

We're not inventing cryptography. We're using battle-tested building blocks. For the security-minded among you:

• Identity: Ed25519 keys (the identity is the proof)
• Encryption: X25519 + XChaCha20-Poly1305 with forward secrecy
• Transport: TLS 1.3 over Tor (encrypted, authenticated, metadata-private)
• Storage: SQLCipher (local database encryption)
• Backup: Optional hardware security key storage

No proprietary protocols. No "trust us" magic. Published specs. Auditable. Verifiable.

Current Status: Private Alpha

Sygnet is in private alpha. We're testing with small cohorts (10-30 people) who need secure communication now.

We're not ready for mass adoption. The rough edges are real:

• Tor connections take 60-90 seconds on first launch
• No push notifications yet (messaging requires keeping the app open)
• UI polish is minimal (we prioritized security over aesthetics)
• Desktop and mobile are at different levels of maturity

But the foundation is solid. The encryption works. The network is operational. Messages are private. Your identity is yours.

If you're willing to deal with alpha software in exchange for real privacy, we want to talk.

Why "Sygnet"?

A signet ring: a personal seal that proves your identity. Historically used to sign documents and letters with wax, proving authenticity without requiring a trusted third party.

That's what we're building. A digital signet ring. Your identity. Your seal. Your messages.

No phone company required.

What's Next

We're building Sygnet in public. Our roadmap:

February 2026: iOS TestFlight (messaging + groups + forums)
March 2026: Android alpha (feature parity with iOS)
April-May 2026: Push notifications, multi-device sync, voice calls
Summer 2026: Public beta (open signups)

We're not rushing. We're building for the long term. Privacy isn't a feature you bolt on later—it's the foundation.

Get Involved

For Alpha Testers:

Email us at sysop@getsygnet.com with:

• Why you need Sygnet
• What privacy concerns you're trying to solve
• Your cohort (who else will join with you)

We prioritize real groups (teams, communities, organizations) over individual signups.

For Developers:

Sygnet is built on published, well-studied cryptographic protocols. Interested in the details? Email sysop@getsygnet.com for developer access.

We welcome:

• Security audits (especially cryptography and network transport)
• Protocol feedback (we're iterating on trust rings and forums)
• UI/UX feedback (design for privacy-conscious users is hard)

For Everyone Else:

Watch this space. Follow our progress at https://getsygnet.com.

We're building the messenger you deserve. One that doesn't compromise on privacy because someone else decided your phone number was "good enough."

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Frequently Asked Questions

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