03 — Capability
Private messaging that does not depend on trusting us.
We build on Matrix, an open federated protocol with a published encryption design. That choice is deliberate: the security of your conversations should rest on cryptography and on infrastructure you control, not on a promise from a vendor.
Properties
What the architecture guarantees.
End-to-end encrypted
Message content is encrypted on the sending device and decrypted on the receiving one. The homeserver stores ciphertext it cannot read — including when the homeserver is ours.
Cross-signed devices
Each device carries its own identity key, signed into a chain the user controls. Adding a device is a visible, verifiable event rather than a silent one.
Self-hosted by default
The homeserver runs on infrastructure you own. Deployment, backups, and key material stay inside your boundary, and we hand over the runbooks with it.
Federated, or not
Speak to partners on other homeservers over the open protocol, restrict federation to an allowlist, or disable it entirely. It is a configuration decision, not a product tier.
Deployment
What a rollout consists of.
- Homeserver
- Synapse, containerised, on dedicated infrastructure
- Identity
- Apex-domain delegation, so user IDs stay short and portable
- Media
- Separate object storage with its own retention policy
- Clients
- Custom desktop and mobile builds, or hardened upstream clients
- Bridges
- Optional, per-network, and off unless explicitly requested
- Operations
- Monitoring, upgrade path, and disaster recovery documented
An honest note
What encryption does not solve.
End-to-end encryption protects message content in transit and at rest on the server. It does not protect a compromised endpoint, it does not hide metadata about who talks to whom and when, and it does not stop someone from screenshotting a conversation.
Any vendor telling you otherwise is selling something. We scope deployments against a real threat model — including device management and metadata exposure — and tell you plainly which risks remain.
Want messaging inside your own boundary?
Tell us the team size, the regulatory constraints, and whether you need to federate outward. We will come back with a deployment shape and what it costs to run.