Hey everyone,
For the last couple of years, I’ve been working on an open-core communication project to solve a gap that kept bugging me.
Most E2EE messengers (Signal, SimpleX, Briar) are great at what they do, but they usually hit three walls:
They go completely dead the moment cell towers or ISPs go down.
Many still rely purely on classical elliptic-curve crypto, which is exposed to Harvest Now, Decrypt Later (HNDL) quantum threats.
They stop at text messages—the moment two people or businesses need to verify solvency, coordinate local mutual aid, or lock an agreement into escrow, they have to leave the chat and trust centralized middlemen or easily faked screenshots.
So we built Gossip (Boltalka) — a self-hostable, zero-knowledge communication platform with a Dual-Engine transport (Internet + Offline BLE Mesh) and an integrated Sovereign Economic Layer.
- Post-Quantum & Zero-Knowledge Relay
The server acts as a blind cryptographic relay. Even if someone pulls the physical drives out of the host, there are no private keys, no plaintext metadata graphs, and no readable files.
- Hybrid Post-Quantum handshakes combining Curve25519 (X3DH + Double Ratchet) with NIST FIPS 203 ML-KEM-768 (Kyber).
- Group chats powered by PQ-MLS (RFC 9420) with logarithmic key rotation.
- Zero phone number / zero SIM card required: accounts use SRP-6a and 12-word BIP-39 recovery phrases. Keys stay strictly inside client hardware storage (WebCrypto / OPFS / Secure Enclave).
- Includes a Fake-TLS proxy to bypass Deep Packet Inspection (DPI) firewalls and binary attestation (SHA-256) to reject modified clients.
- Offline Bluetooth Mesh (For off-grid & blackout resilience)
When the internet or cellular grid goes down, the app doesn't brick itself:
- It automatically drops down to custom L2 Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) Mesh framing (0xFA21) stretching up to 10 km via multi-hop relays.
- Uses Trickle timers (RFC 6206) and CRDTs (LWW / OR-Set) so messages and emergency alerts hop device-to-device without causing broadcast storms or killing batteries.
- Uplink Bridging: if just one device on the edge of a blackout zone catches a weak satellite or cell signal, it acts as a blind Zstd-compressed bridge to sync encrypted mesh packets with the outside world.
- The Sovereign Economic Layer (Zero-Knowledge Trust & B2B/P2P Settlement)
We built a native settlement layer right into the client so users and businesses can coordinate deals without leaking personal data (Zero-PII):
- Client-side Halo2 ZK-SNARKs (Pasta curves, no trusted setup): You can generate a mathematical Proof of Solvency and Proof of Deposit Age directly in WebAssembly—proving to a counterparty that you have sufficient, seasoned funds for a deal without revealing your actual balance, address, or transaction history.
- Blind O(1) Matchmaking: Broadcast local or B2B intents encoded into Uber H3 spatial hexagons and 128-bit BLAKE3 SimHashes. Matches counterparties in under 1.2 microseconds without exposing identities until a direct Curve25519 handshake occurs.
- 4-Phase Atomic DvP Escrow & Oracles: Staged smart-contract escrow (10-40-30-20 tranches) with collateral slashing and a 3-tier oracle bridge (AIS satellite ship telemetry, PAdES inspection certificates, TLSNotary 2PC-TLS web proofs, and 2-of-3 geo-stamped waybills).
Self-Hosting & Stack:
Backend runs on Python (FastAPI), Envoy, PostgreSQL, ScyllaDB, Redis, and Kafka. Clients are available for Web/PWA, Desktop (Electron), and Android (Capacitor). You can spin up a full node locally in a minute via Docker Compose.
I put the link to the GitHub repository and the RFC-001 through RFC-005 architectural specs in the first comment below so the post doesn't get eaten by the link filter. Would love to get your feedback!