The Network
Most messengers run on one company's servers. DNA Connect runs on Nodus — a network of independent computers that cooperate to store and deliver encrypted data, with no company in the middle.
No central server
When you send a message, it doesn't go to a corporate data center. It travels across Nodus nodes, which hold it — encrypted — until your friend's device picks it up. No single machine is special: data is copied across several nodes, so the network keeps working even when some machines go down.
What the network can and cannot see
Nodes store and forward locked boxes. They can tell that boxes are moving — that is what delivering them requires — but they cannot open them. Your messages are readable only on your device and the recipient's. There are no usernames or passwords on the network — your keys speak for you — and nothing a node holds for delivery or backup is readable by the node.
What Nodus does for you, quietly
- Delivers messages — including holding encrypted messages up to 7 days for offline friends
- Keeps the name directory — the record that says which keys alice belongs to, signed by its owner
- Serves profiles — avatars, bios, and the Wall
- Connects the app to DNA Chain — wallet balances and transactions flow through the same network
Built for the quantum era
The connection between your app and the network is protected with new-generation, quantum-resistant cryptography, and so are the links nodes use to hand your data to each other. Coordination traffic between nodes is cryptographically signed with the same standard — the whole DNA ecosystem is built on it.
Who runs the nodes?
Today the network is operated by the project as it grows. It is designed for community operation: the long-term goal is a network of nodes run by independent people, the same way the code is already open for anyone to inspect at gitlab.cpunk.io/cpunk/dna.