Vector Open Beta (v0.2.1) - Private & Decentralized E2EE Messenger. Free & Open-Source

About 6 years ago, both JSKitty and I wanted to build a privacy messenger app due to our frustrations with the growing non-consensual violation of privacy with mainstream messenger apps. Unfortunately, at that time we did not have the technical knowledge nor were there as many tools as there are available today. Largely, thanks to Nostr, Marmot, and MLS protocol we were able to create a sound and decentralized foundation for end-to-end encryption and privacy. Now, our goal is to make the user experience (UX) actually fun and enjoyable, like in many popular mainstream apps that lack true privacy. Many privacy-focused apps nowadays have a powerful encryption protocol and privacy-first infrastructure, but don't possess a simple, seamless, and fun UX because most of their skills and attention is on the foundation. There is nothing wrong with this, but the journey does not end there. What is important is being able to get these tools into the hands of the people. You could create the best cure for cancer, but if you can't get it in the hands of the users, well then you didn't really cure anyone of cancer. Thanks to the larger Vector community, we have a lot of talented developers as well as designers who specialize in UX/UI. During this Open Beta stage, we will be working with small, niche communities to help provide them a new home for private communications in Vector as well as gathering as much feedback, suggestions, and bug reporting as possible to continue to make the UX more efficient and enjoyable. Privacy is a basic human right. Every human being deserves to have this right honored, but most of it is stripped from us the moment we use some popular, mainstream app or service. Large corporations understand the value of data and view it more valuable than gold. Therefore, companies are financially incentivized to scrape, prod, and gather as much as they can to use it internally and even sell to other third-party services. Morals and values are often lost in the face greed and that is the exact example we are looking at, beyond just messenger apps. Our metadata is collected everywhere, our digital footprint shows where we have been, what we did, how long we did it, and so on. In a society where this information poses no real benefit or interest, we might not be having this same conversation. Though in reality, the current state of things, people value the idea of power and financial gain over basic human rights and freedom. Though it may say dark and dooming (it really is if the course doesn't change), I remain optimistic in soul and largely thanks to free and open-source software (FOSS). Open-source culture is what has truly manifested some of the best qualities of the collective and united efforts of humans into a positive direction. That is why we will continue to build, contribute, and grow with open-source culture and communities.