Concept

Encryption first, distributed by design.

Pixelmine is an end-to-end-encrypted social network. Anything you share privately — messages, follower-only posts, and their files — is encrypted on your device, then stored across a network of independently operated nodes that replicate it without ever being able to read it. Public posts stay public, because that is what they are for. A lightweight coordination service links it all together, and never sees your private content.

Why it exists

Built on three
commitments.

Pixelmine starts from a straightforward idea: the tools people use to connect should belong to the people using them. Every design decision follows from three commitments — the ones the product is named for.

Decentralized

Your data lives across many independently run nodes rather than in one place, so the network has no single owner and no off-switch. It stays available even when individual nodes do not.

Fair

The value a community generates is meant to return to it. Each community decides how its revenue is shared among the people and nodes that keep it running.

Truly yours

Your identity, content, and audience are yours to hold. A private key you control unlocks your account, and client-side encryption keeps your content private — even from the operators hosting it.

The core idea

Separate the experience
from the infrastructure.

The application is where content is created and encrypted. Beneath it, a distributed system of nodes stores and replicates that encrypted data. Because the two are kept apart, the people running the infrastructure never hold the keys to the content.

01 · Privacy

Operator-blind encryption

Anything you share privately is locked on your device before it is ever sent. The nodes that store and pass it along hold only scrambled content — never anything they can read. The lock opens only for the people you meant to reach, on their own devices.

Even someone running a node, with full access to its database, cannot read your messages or see who you are talking to.
Only the people a post or message is meant for can unlock it.
If a node’s data were ever leaked or stolen, it would be useless to whoever took it — just unreadable content.

02 · Security

Future-proof encryption

Encryption is a moving target: what is secure today can be broken tomorrow as computers grow more powerful. Pixelmine is built to stay ahead of that curve, using protection designed to hold up for years — not only for now.

It is built on recognized modern standards, so your data stays protected for the long term.
The same protection covers your posts, messages, and files alike.
Content saved today cannot simply be unlocked later by a more powerful machine.

03 · Resilience

Distributed & replicated

Most services keep everything in one company’s data center. Pixelmine spreads your data across many independently run nodes instead, each holding its own copy — so the network never depends on a single machine, company, or place.

If a node goes offline, the rest of the network keeps your content available.
Nodes keep each other up to date on their own, sharing only what has actually changed.
New nodes can join at any time, and the network grows more resilient as they do.

04 · Integrity

Tamper-evident

In a shared network, you need to know that what you see is genuine. Pixelmine makes tampering detectable: every record is signed by whoever created it, and nodes continually check each other’s copies for any discrepancy.

Nodes constantly check one another, and any mismatch is flagged.
Records are signed, so no one can forge or rewrite someone else’s data.
What you see has been verified across the network, not simply taken on trust.

How it fits together

Three parts, one network.

Your device

The Pixelmine app

Holds your keys and encrypts every post, message, and file before it is sent.

↓

Storage network

Storer nodes

Independently run nodes replicate your encrypted data among themselves, keeping it available across the network.

↓

Coordination

Connective service

A thin service routes messages and delivers wrapped keys between users — without ever seeing their contents.

In everyday terms

What happens when
you post.

The ideas above come together in a simple sequence — the same one, whether you are sharing a post, sending a message, or making a call.

STEP 01

You create it

You write a post or message in the app, on your own device.

STEP 02

It gets locked

If it is meant for a limited audience, it is encrypted before it leaves your device so only they can open it.

STEP 03

The network holds it

Nodes across the network keep copies of the locked content and carry it wherever it needs to go.

STEP 04

Your people open it

The people you shared it with unlock it on their devices. To everyone else — nodes included — it stays unreadable.

Privacy properties

What operators can —
and can’t — see.

Because content is encrypted before it reaches the network, the people hosting Pixelmine are left with routing information only. The social graph, and everything within it, stays private.

Operators cannot see

Message, post, and file content
Who belongs to a channel
Who sent a given message
Who has read what
The social graph as a whole

Operators can see

That a channel exists, by its ID
How many messages it holds
Public keys used for routing

“A leaked database backup doesn’t expose social graphs, message content, or user activity.”Pixelmine design documentation

In the interest of transparency

What Pixelmine doesn’t
claim to be.

Strong privacy comes with honest limits. These are the trade-offs built into the design, stated plainly — a system is only as trustworthy as its clarity about what it cannot do.

Architecture

Hybrid, not fully decentralized

Content storage is distributed across independent nodes, but a lightweight coordination service and the live-streaming server are central. Neither can read your content — yet they are single services the network relies on.

Metadata

Some routing data is visible

Your content is encrypted, but delivery needs plain identifiers. Channel IDs can be correlated, and which nodes replicate with which is observable. What’s inside stays private; that something exists is not fully hidden.

Trade-off

A practical trade-off

For everyday convenience, two people’s messages are protected by a shared key that stays consistent rather than changing with every single message. Group chats refresh their key whenever the membership changes.

Trust model

Operators are honest-but-curious

The design assumes node operators are not actively malicious — while the cryptography ensures they cannot read content even if they were. It is availability, not confidentiality, that leans on operators acting in good faith.

Incentives

Sustained by the people
who run it.

Nodes are recognized for verifiable work — replicating data, storing files, and staying online — each contribution signed so it cannot be faked. And each community decides how much of its revenue flows back into the network that supports it.

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