Maybe the secret why the #deltachat project with "just" a dozen active contributors succeeds in delivering cross-platform apps, instigating the #chatmail server network and spearheading the #webxdc app paradigm, lies in asking the right questions:

- Is it really needed?

- Can we not do it?

- Is there a simpler way that requires less changes?

- What is the interesting next impl step that is already interesting itself for users, without requiring first completing a big refactoring project?

Third time is a charm!

Watch us tirelessly explaining to Roskomnadzor how e-mail works! The three innovations in our third reply are that we

a) request the international law their request is grounded on (as if they would care)

b) communicate that their assumptions, even according to russian laws, are wrong (as if they would care)

c) state explicitly that Delta Chat is unlike WhatsApp, Signal or Telegram (doh!)

#chatcontrol-delenda-est

Great, so #chatcontrol was not moving forward today thanks also to various interventions from folks around the fediverse .... In particular thanks @Mer__edith for the clear take from Signals side. But it's clearly not canceled and Hungary will retry getting it through, and France, having elections soon, might drop out of opposing it? Let's stay vigilant about #chatcontrol and help eg @netzpolitik_feed and @edri and other groups to help us working against authoritarian #chatcontrol fantasies.

As you know, governmental forces within the EU, the US, the UK, Russia and others are in a hot competition on who gets to be the first to subvert end-to-end encryption. A few days ago, we got another letter from Roskomnadzor, the #russia telco authority, to help them get at user data or metadata for #deltachat users. But there is no central registry of e-mail addresses, messages or decryption keys. So we declined. Sorry, not sorry.

While we do have criticisms of its centralized architecture and other choices we highly regard Signal for ushering in a decade of popularizing end-to-end encryption. We particularly appreciate @Mer__edith doing excellent communication work there. It's disingenuous that tech-billionaires Musk/Dorsey fuel attacks on her and another female colleague, hinting at Telegram as a more secure messenger. Comparing security of Signal with Telegram simply results in "Type Error: incompatible arguments".

Delta Chat is an in-between project: often ignored as a messenger by e-mail companies/experts and then ignored by messenger companies/experts because of its use and interoperability with e-mail. As Heinz von Foerster once said: "If you are doing something genuinely new then don't ask the experts. If you do something that has already been done, then, by all means, ask the experts." FWIW many experts have verified Delta Chat's security mechanics https://delta.chat/en/help#security-audits :)

The default setup of #chatmail is for open signups (anyone can get an address) but some operators implement a private signup protocol and that's fine and easy enough to do because https://github.com/deltachat/chatmail/ is a small machine.

Chatmail addresses should be abundant and safe to use for anyone , and cheap to operate with basic skills .... A few thousand chatmail routers might already cover adresses for 10 billion people, with less resource/energy usage than a single VC funded LLM startup :)

#deltachat just got four major usability improvements as the 1.44 releases are rolling out
💗 Reactions on all platforms
💗 iOS Push notifications
💗 Multi-account desktop sidebar
💗 share invite links via other messengers. Enjoy :)
https://delta.chat/en/2024-03-12-jumbo44

Given the experiences of the last decade it's healthy to distrust #decentralized tech if

- it's mainly developed by a centralized power structure
- the involved technology is very complex
- there is coin or VC funding involved

#deltachat has 1/100th, if even that, of what other popular messenging projects have in terms of moneys. But our distributed top-notch expertise in UI, crypto, networking tech and our federated collaborative practises across these concerns, try to make up for it ...

Reclaiming Peer-to-Peer Web technology with #webxdc out of the ashes of "Web3": our 2024 opening post on the topic :) https://delta.chat/en/2024-02-15-webxdc-m3

Psst: we are looking for more folks experienced with Web app development with a knack for P2P technology .... #deltachat

Today, we are unveiling chatmail services, making onboarding with #deltachat a breeze, with peace of mind.

#chatmail marks a major milestone, answering the practical question of "where can i get a deltachat-ready account" for myself and friends?

Read more on https://delta.chat/en/2023-12-13-chatmail

The 1.42 app releases are rolling into the stores, providing a major security upgrade that was long in the brewing and testing: guaranteed end-to-end encryption, protecting against compromised servers or networks (MITM attacks). The releases also enable multi-device synchronization of pinned/accepted/blocked/muted chat states, a new global gallery for desktop and many bug fixes and little improvements .... #deltachat https://delta.chat/en/2023-11-23-jumbo-42

If you like delta chat and know somebody experienced with iOS developments please send them our way, retoots welcome.

With all other platforms.we have at least two devs engaged but would like to up our iOS game .... Even advising on a day-per-week or loose pro-bono basis could be helpful but someone who gets their hand dirty would be even better. Remote paid job available. For more background see https://delta.chat/en/2022-12-15-uidevjob and adjacent recent blog posts.