Decentralized Open Source Comms & Digital Privacy
This list has been created to help people avoid being tracked, traced, spied-on and sold online. (flip ur phone horizontal if youre on mobile)
Communication(chat, email, social media)
Signal – End-to-End encrypted messaging (centralized servers)
Matrix – Decentralized Fediverse protocol
Element – Encrypted messaging w unlimited voice+video(built on top of Matrix protocol)
Mastodon – Decentralized Fediverse client
Protonmail – End-to-End encrypted email
Tutanota – End-to-End encrypted email
Urbit – Decentralized self-hosted p2p server-based communication protocol with apps including microbloggers built on top
NOSTR(Notes + Other Stuff Transmitted by Relays) Protocol – Decentralized twitter, reddit, and more
Media(video tubes, streaming, torrents etc)
LBRY – Decentralized + Censorship-resistant video tubes
Odysee – Decentralized + Censorship-resistant video tube client built on LBRY
BitTube – Decentralized, censorship-resistant video tubes
BitChute – Decentralized, censorship-resistant video tubes
QBittorrent – Torrenting app
Privacy
GPG Suite – PGP encryption tools(MAC)
TOR(The Onion Router) – Used to mask location/I.P. & access the undernet, end of august 2023 the long awaited POW upgrade was implemented, aiming to mitigate the intense ddos attacks to the network
Cleopatra – PGP encryption tools(PC)
Monero – Anonymous and secure P2P currency
Secret Network – Privacy-based Layer-1 built w the Cosmos SDK
Automata – Privacy middleware for the ETH/DOT ecosystems
i2pd – i2p(invisible internet project) client/browser
Tails OS – Portable, private + censorship resistant operating system that fits on a usb stick
Bitcoin(wallets, explorers, payment processors, )
BTC Pay Server – Open source bitcoin payment gateway node
Samourai Wallet – Open source privacy focused mobile bitcoin wallet
Lightning Network Plus – Simple liquidity swaps for setting up Lightning Network channels
Impervious – Layer 3 Bitcoin P2P internet browser(runs atop the lightning network)
Zeus Wallet – Mobile lightning network wallet
Nodes, Servers and Fortresses
Raspiblitz – Open source bitcoin lightning payment gateway node
Start9 – Lightweight personal + private server
Ronin Dojo – Open source full bitcoin node, coinmixer + advanced privacy tool suite
Bitcoin L2, Sidechains, “L3” apps and Bitcoin “Plug-ins”
Stacks – Smart contracts on the lightning network(backed by blockstack)
Leather Wallet(Formerly HIRO wallet) – Bitcoin wallet for Layer 2’s + 3’s(backed by trustmachines)
Taproot Assets(Formerly TARO) – Asset issuing on the lightning network built by lightning labs
RGB – Smart contracts on the lightning network, originally based on colored coins project
Mercury L2 statechain protocol and coinswap-enabled wallet(backed by commerceblock(UK))
Ark L2 protocol attempting to address the LN’s inbound liquidity problem w vTXOs + ASP nodes(backed by vulpen ventures(Estonia))
Fedimint(L3) – Decentralized open-source protocol built to custody and transact Bitcoin(+LN, and more) in a federated communal context
Fedi – A startup company building a federated communal app on top of the Fedimint protocol (bitcoin, chat, internet community guardian apps)
Cashu(L3) – Chaumian cash protocol similar to fedimint only non federated, w a focus on family + friend guilds over larger federated communities
Civkit(L3) – A P2P marketplace framework built on nostr and lightning with a focus on privacy and security
Bitmaps – A new standard for building on the bitcoin metaverse
Bitcoin Stamps – An alternative bitcoin nft standard in which image data is stored within the utxo instead of inscribing them onto individual sats which can be pruned from nodes(Secure Tradeable Art Maintained Permanently)
Dorsey social media projects focused on solving decentralized identity
Web5 – Decentralized protocol & proposed standard focusing on digital identity & personal data nodes that are self-custodied & can be easily transferred between various platforms(funded by Jack Dorsey)
Zion – A social media app built on Web5 and using its standards
Bluesky – A decentralized twitter rival built specifically to systematically decentralize pieces of twitter, one by one(funded by Jack Dorsey)
The AT Protocol – The decentralized, federated social media protocol built by Bluesky, aiming to solve the problem of digital identity & personal info interoperability found in traditional centralized silos
Other (immutable data, sideloading/jailbreaking, open source)
The Uncensored Library – A library of various government-banned articles hosted in-game on minecraft servers(backed by reporters w/o borders)
Sci-Hub – Access to millions of paywalled research papers and books
IPFS(Interplanetary File System) – Decentralized disk storage+hosting
Open Bazaar – Decentralized marketplace(forked to “Mobazha”)
Open-Source game development engine
Side Quest – Unofficial Oculus Quest 2 app side-loader
AI
Hugging Face – Open-source AI community hub featuring tools, models and general discussion + experimentation
Oobabooga – Open-source front-end UI for LLMs capable of creative writing, translation and text generation
Pinokio – An “AI Browser” that allows installing of any AI and easily adding any automation scripts on top of it (by cocktail peanut)
ALEX(L2 focusing on AMMing + BRC-20 based defi built on stacks, singapore-based, backed by R2: Trustmachines, Hivemind and Gossamer capital, Seed: Whitestar/OK Blockchain/Cultur3 capital, GBIC, SeaX ventures)
Velar(L2 defi protocol built on Stacks, UEA-based, backed by Mithil Thakore of Terasurge capital)
Trust Machines(heavily invested in and building out Stacks ecosystem), new york based, backed by Union Square/Tykhe Block/Tess ventures, Hivemind/Breyer capital, Goldentree asset management + Digital Currency Group
Rootstock(RSK)
Liquid(backed by blockstream)
Layer-2 generally relies on the security of the mainchain (L1)
Sidechains have their own security model
Unified metaverse positioning system(proposed by bitoshi blockamoto):
