The Nostr propaganda is that the EU is introducing Internet age checks because it's a "commie union", and that this wouldn't be happening if it went back to being 27 separate states.

The first places to introduce such legislation were the UK, Australia, and Alabama.

Furthermore, 25 US states currently require age checks for accessing adult content online, and all of those states are considering expanding their laws to make the check for all social content.

⚡️🌎 NOW - The global internet is suffering today following the Cloudflare outage.

What is a Nostr app, relay or service you use (or you created yourself) that is underappreciated and you think deserves that more people try it?

It’s in the TestFlight for iOS I believe.

Privacy isn’t a crime fighting strategy. It’s a human right.

On Oct 14, EU governments are slated to vote on ‘Chat Control.’

The pitch is child protection. The reality is scanning everyone’s private messages and weakening end-to-end encryption.

679 scientists from 36 countries have signed an open letter explaining why this won’t work and will make us less safe.

Their bottom line:

- Large-scale CSAM (Child Sexual Abuse Material) detection cannot reach acceptable accuracy. It’s easy to evade and floods systems with false positives.

- On-device scanning breaks E2EE by design, creating single points of failure and new targets for abuse.

- Expanding “mitigations” (AI filters, age checks) adds complexity and risk, not security.

(Find the full letter in the comments)

Why mass scanning is the wrong tool:

1. It flips the presumption of innocence. Treating every citizen like a suspect is not “safety”. It’s surveillance.

2. It’s the bedroom-camera problem. Putting spyware on every phone to catch a few criminals is like installing cameras in every bedroom to prevent murders. We all want to stop harm. Violating the privacy of millions of innocents isn’t the way.

3. Function creep is inevitable. Once the scanning pipeline exists, it can be re-tuned for politics, speech, and power. Borders shift, laws change. What’s legal here may be criminal elsewhere. Who draws the line next year?

4. You can’t “re-secure” leaked data. Privacy is protective armor, not a PR setting. Once stripped, it’s gone.

👁️ The cypherpunk lesson:

As Eric Hughes wrote, “Privacy is necessary for an open society in the electronic age.”

Cypherpunks didn’t ask for permission. they wrote code so ordinary people could have the same defensive tech that institutions take for granted.

That’s not a niche hobby. It’s democratic hygiene.

🫶 Better ways to protect children (and everyone) :

Real protection doesn’t require blanket surveillance. It needs education, prevention, faster takedowns, resourced investigators (with warrants and due process), targeted operations (against offenders, not dragnet scans of the innocent).

These are exactly the pathways experts (and the UN) recommend: effective, proportionate, and rights-preserving.

💪 Build the free, private stack:

We already have tools that defend both safety and liberty without backdoors:

- Bitcoin for open, borderless payments.

- Nostr to own your identity and content.

- White Noise for truly private messaging: no phone numbers, no emails, end-to-end encryption with forward secrecy and post-compromise security.

This isn’t about ‘nothing to hide.’

It’s about the power to live, speak, organize, report, and dissent without pre-approval.

A controlled population is not a free population.

And a free society is the best long-term defense against abuse and corruption alike.

Anyone have recommendations for how regular users can decrypt an ncryptsec? Command line is out, dedicated web tools seem like a bad idea, most clients don't have support. Seems like best case would be for signer apps to universally support ncryptsec.

Benvenuto :)

We know the app had a rough patch.

And we’ve heard you. Your feedback has been invaluable, and we’ve been heads down fixing bugs, improving performance, and laying the groundwork for a smoother, more secure experience.

Last month was a milestone period for WhiteNoise, our secure messaging app built on the Nostr protocol and Message Layer Security (MLS).

Between significant product releases, major conference presentations, and ongoing development work, the team has been firing on all cylinders to advance the future of private communications.

The centerpiece of August was our [v0.1.3 release] (link in the comments), aptly titled "Decentralization is Hard."

This release focused squarely on addressing user-reported issues and improving the fundamental user experience around data fetching and relay management: core challenges that anyone building on decentralized infrastructure faces.

🎯 Major Features Added

1. Search & Discovery

We significantly enhanced how users find and connect with each other:

- Comprehensive chat search --> with message highlighting for finding conversations quickly

- Chat list search --> to navigate growing contact lists effortlessly

- Enhanced QR code functionality --> including login via QR code and improved safety with npub validation

2. User Profiles & Contact Management. The social layer got major improvements:

- Enhanced user profiles --> with copy npub functionality and better group member views

- Improved group management --> allowing admins to remove users and add members to existing groups

- Streamlined connection flows --> with redesigned profile sheets

3. Network & Relay Management

Perhaps most importantly for a decentralized app, we shipped a complete relay management system:

- Real-time relay status monitoring

- Add/edit relay options with validation

- Pull-to-refresh functionality

- Improved relay selection based on the outbox model

🔧 UI/UX Improvements

The release included dozens of polish improvements.

From consistent paste/copy buttons across inputs to fixed message content wrapping, scrollable bottom sheets, and enhanced reaction displays.

We also updated splash screens for both iOS and Android with proper dark mode support.

🐛 Stability & Bug Fixes. We tackled fundamental stability issues including:

- Major metadata cleanup --> standardizing on `displayName` throughout the app

- Authentication fixes --> for login flows and profile creation

- Relay management improvements --> fixing issues where existing relay lists were getting overwritten

- Enhanced error handling --> with proper mounted checks to prevent widget disposal errors

💪 Beyond the Release: Big Refactors and Performance Work

Since v0.1.3 shipped, the team hasn't slowed down.

We've been deep in major refactoring work focused on stabilizing the app's foundation and dramatically improving reliability and performance.

While this work isn't as immediately visible as new features, it's critical for building a messaging app that users can depend on daily.

A major catalyst for this work was our team meeting in Riga, where we came together in person to brainstorm and plan the next version of WhiteNoise.

There's something irreplaceable about having the whole team in the same room, discussing architecture decisions, and aligning on priorities.

The insights and momentum from those sessions have directly shaped our current development sprint.

The next release will showcase the fruits of this labor.

Expect superior reliability and performance that reflects our growing understanding of building production-ready applications on Nostr infrastructure.

White Noise v0.1.2 is released!

📥 QR scanner for easy connection

📥 Relay management and dev cache tools

📥 Confirm on sign-out

🗑️ Removed mute/search from group info

🛠️ Fixed profile pics, duplicates, iOS group issues

🛠️ Back navigation fixed

🛠️ Group creator no longer added as member

Download it, test it, keep giving us feedback.

whitenoise.chat/download