Max Hillebrand and Jeff Gardner presented White Noise. “We aim to solve the critical issues of private conversations on Nostr,” Hillebrand stated to Atlas21 microphones.
During an interview with Atlas21, Max Hillebrand, founder of Sound Money Solutions, former CEO of zkSNACKs and the figure behind the White Noise project, commented on the current limitations of private messaging and outlined the vision carried forward by the application launched together with developer Jeff Gardner. “Our main objective is to solve the current security and privacy problems related to private messages on Nostr,” he explained, highlighting the absence of robust encryption for groups and the danger of centralization in traditional platforms.
According to Hillebrand, existing platforms like Signal have demonstrated the need for secure messaging tools, but have also shown limitations. “Signal has excellent encryption in traditional contexts, but the protocol is not scalable with large group chats.” This is where the White Noise app comes in, which is based on a combination of Nostr and the security offered by MLS (Messaging Layer Security), a security protocol designed to provide efficient end-to-end encryption and to work on a large scale. “The encryption system used by White Noise (MLS) is similar to that of Signal, but it is more scalable. Its design was specifically studied for large groups, potentially even for millions of people. Specifically, to manage groups MLS introduces a binary tree structure.”
For the founder of Sound Money Solutions, White Noise’s decentralized design will avoid the typical problems associated with centralization. “One of Signal’s weaknesses is the need to have a phone number to register. If you only have a laptop you can’t create a Signal account. This limits privacy, makes the system dependent on centralized infrastructures and not scalable,” the developer added. In contrast, Nostr uses public and private keys to identify users, eliminating the obligation to provide personal data.
White Noise addresses the centralization issue by using decentralized relays to ensure message transmission. Thanks to the characteristics of the Nostr network, each group can define specific relays, with the possibility of dynamic updates in case of censorship. “In case a message were censored by a relay, group members would not realize it, since the message would still be delivered through other relays,” Hillebrand stated. “Anyone can manage a relay, even on their own smartphone.”
For the former CEO of zkSNACKs, one of White Noise’s objectives is to establish new standards for decentralized communication, usable by other developers. “Our intent is to create an interoperable protocol. Anyone will be able to exploit it by implementing MLS for messaging.” In the future, White Noise’s functionalities could also be integrated into other popular apps: “for example the Nostr client Primal could integrate MLS and, subsequently, end users will be able to communicate with White Noise users.”
Among the features planned for the app’s future is integration with Bitcoin through Lightning Network and Nostr zaps. This innovation will introduce native payments within chats, a functionality that current competitors lack. “We plan to add payments through LN. Integrating money into a messaging platform radically changes the user experience,” Hillebrand declared.
White Noise’s code will be made public on GitHub. The app will be available on Nostr’s Zap Store and, once approved, also on the Google Play Store. For Apple devices, it can initially be downloaded via TestFlight and on Freedom Store, a new platform that allows installing apps without having to go through Apple’s controls.
Regarding the European Chat Control 2.0 proposal, Hillebrand specified: “We have no control over either the client or the server. By only publishing open source code on GitHub and not managing a backend, we cannot intercept or modify users’ messages.” The architecture without backend, together with compliance with standards like MLS, eliminates any possibility of introducing backdoors or similar mechanisms, the developer argued.
The project is still in alpha phase: “The initial target audience will be Nostr users and bitcoiners, but the goal is to make it accessible to everyone. We would like it to become a community tool for large groups, Telegram-style, but with native encryption,” explained the founder of Sound Money Solutions. Precisely for this reason the team wants to gather feedback directly from the community. “We aim to get feedback from the Bitcoin community and Nostr users in order to constantly improve White Noise,” Hillebrand concluded.
