Techlore Talks The Messaging App With No User IDs (SimpleX Interview)
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Jan 24, 2026 Evgeny Poberezkin, founder of SimpleX Chat and privacy-focused protocol designer, builds a messaging network with no user identifiers. He explains unidirectional message pipes, how servers can be oblivious to users, comparisons to Signal and Session, scaling and usability tradeoffs, IP and metadata protections, and plans for redundancy, multi-device sync, and community-hosted operators.
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Unidirectional Pipes Replace User IDs
- SimpleX uses unidirectional messaging pipes so connections are built from paired one-way queues rather than user IDs.
- This flips traditional design so servers only handle pipes and never need to know user identities.
Platform As A Privacy-Preserving Fabric
- SimpleX is a network fabric, not a centralized service, aiming to let people own content and audience connections.
- The team builds client and server software but sees themselves as user-agent providers, not owners of users or content.
Network Formed By Users, Not Servers
- SimpleX is not federation: servers don't own user clusters and users decide network structure and operators.
- Connections can rotate across multiple operators for redundancy while servers only see pipes, not network topology.