#deltachat works despite some ongoing state level blocking and is used by people in bad network situations. That is all fine. But does it also work in german ICE train wifi?

Happy to report:
Yes, not only message sending and receiving work reliably in the train but we could also instantly use a webxdc realtime app between different trains, with peer-to-peer connections :)

Greetings and good travels everyone!

#38c3

On the occasion of Russia today testing regional blocks of telegram and other apps (especially in eastern Russia) and #WhatsApp down or flaky in many countries the last hours ... Allow us to note that it is very hard to block or bring down #deltachat apps on any larger scale because

A) it's hard to block the planetary email server network

B) #chatmail servers have some extras :)

C) DNS blocks won't work

D) you can use shadowsocks/socks5 proxies easily on android/iOS

Sorry not sorry :)

major milestones with #deltachat in 2024 so far:

- addressed security analysis issues from Applied Crypto Group at ETH Zurich for hardened guaranteed end-to-end encryption

- instant onboarding with #chatmail servers (likely the fastest, most secure and reliable e-mail servers you can find on this planet)

- push notifications on Android/iOS with all #chatmail servers

- introduction of #P2P networking with #webxdc realtime channels

- and ❤️ reactions!

... and the year is not over yet :)

We are an in-between project. #deltachat is in-between traditional messengers and email apps and #p2p paradigms, #chatmail is in between the massive email server network and #webxdc is in-between e-mail, @xmpp and the web ecosystem (but outlaws central platforms) ... Our approach is rhizomatic, i.e. based on, and changes with, various collaborations and joining contributors. We don't have stable funding and need to regularly apply for public funds ... And are surrounded by VC funded projects

Those of you who have to work through Google, Apple and other store's compliance, we feel you! Maintaining around 16+ target distribution sites for cross platform apps takes a constant toll on us.

One of the giant features of #webxdc app developments is precisely that no store is needed. You can just write an index.html, a .js file and pack into a zip file and everyone can use this as an app in their chats, no store needed for permission and distribution.

https://webxdc.org/docs/

We just boosted a report from someone (we don't know) summarizing and reporting about recent court happenings in Moscow against us. We confirm these legal proceedings are indeed happening and we are represented by a lawyer there ... https://wetdry.world/@cybertailor/113519933644061097

There are rumours that a theater play work-titled "how to arrest a protocol?" will be presented at #38c3 btw :)

Are you interested in enshittification-resistant application development?

After almost two years of collaboration with the wonderful @n0iroh team, we are happy to announce that #deltachat 1.48 apps on all platforms contain top-notch Peer-to-Peer networking support, including hole-punching and forward-secret end-to-end encryption. It is exposed through the new #webxdc realtime APIs and there are some nice initial showcase apps 🎉

https://delta.chat/en/2024-11-20-webxdc-realtime

With our #deltachat #chatmail and #webxdc efforts we put all intelligence on the end devices, and architecutally separate it from a transport layer that routes safely and fast but knows nothing.

There are a dozen or more #chatmail servers across many jurisdictions, all safely interopable with each other and classic servers.

Turned out we can dumb down email servers by relying on cryptography instead of IP reputation and ai/spam filtering. And have 200ms delivery times. We are not done :)

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