Key Highlights
- Vitalik Buterin donated 128 ETH each to Session and SimpleX Chat to support digital privacy.
- Both apps focus on metadata privacy, avoiding phone numbers and central servers.
- Experts say global awareness and decentralization are key to protecting private messaging.
Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has donated approximately $760,000 worth of Ethereum (ETH) to two decentralized messaging apps, Session and SimpleX Chat, which he believes are pushing the boundaries of digital privacy.
In a post on X on Wednesday, Buterin said encrypted messaging apps like these are “important for preserving our digital privacy.” He added that the next steps for private messaging should include allowing people to create accounts without asking for personal information and protecting metadata, which is data about who you message and when.
New tools for digital privacy
Session and SimpleX Chat are different from normal messaging apps. Session does not use phone numbers and does not rely on central servers, while SimpleX Chat also avoids phone numbers and does not give users an identifiable ID. Both apps help people keep their communication private.
Buterin noted that the apps are still improving. “Sybil / DoS resistance, both in the message routing network and on the user side, without forcing phone number dependence, adds further difficulty. These problems need more eyes on them,” he said.
Why privacy matters
Privacy in messaging has become a big topic in today’s digital world. The debate over digital privacy is heating up as the European Union advances its ‘Chat Control.’
The proposed regulation has sparked a major backlash from privacy advocates who warn it will mandate a form of mass surveillance and effectively dismantle end-to-end encryption (E2EE) in private messaging apps. This rule would have required messaging apps to let authorities read messages before they are encrypted.
Alexander Linton, president of the Session Technology Foundation, said Vitalik’s support is very timely and helpful.
“Unfortunately, regulatory and technical developments are currently threatening the future of private messaging. However, the challenges private messaging faces are solvable, and I think Vitalik clearly understands the importance of decentralization in this fight,” he said.
Awareness and global adoption
Session co-founder Chris McCabe, in a statement, highlighted the importance of global awareness for private messaging. He said that “People are unconscious of what is going on with their data behind the scenes, and Session is a shining light to be like HEY! — You can actually have trustless privacy, it’s here now.”
The Signal app has started rolling out secure backups on iOS, while Android users have had encrypted backups since September. Meanwhile, researchers have warned about malware that can capture messages after they are decrypted on a screen, but the encryption itself has not been broken.
Vitalik Buterin, with a net worth of about $737 million, has a history of supporting projects that match Ethereum’s values and donating to charities. He also shared ideas for Ethereum’s future, saying the network will focus on “targeted, goal-driven scaling” to make it faster and more efficient.
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