White Noise, a new privacy-centric messaging app, launched its alpha v0.1.0 in public beta. Built on Nostr’s Bitcoin-native, decentralized identity system and the Messaging Layer Security (MLS) protocol, White Noise introduces an anonymization protocol to the growing Nostr social media ecosystem that hides sensitive metadata. Paired with end-to-end encrypted group chats and direct messages (DMs), it promises to take Nostr from an early-adopter, hobbyist technology to a viable alternative in the world of privacy-branded messaging apps like Whatsapp, Signal, or, Telegram.

Nostr, short for “Notes and Other Stuff Transmitted by Relays,” is a decentralized, open-source protocol launched in 2021 to enable censorship-resistant communication and social networking. Unlike centralized platforms like Twitter or WhatsApp, Nostr operates on an open network of independent relays — servers that store and forward messages — allowing users to publish posts, send private messages, and share data without depending on a single company. 

The protocol is cryptographically native: Users authenticate with private keys and public keys that can also be used in Bitcoin for payments and require no identifiable user information to function. The protocol provides users much greater control over their identity without needing to disclose emails or phone numbers. While it has gained significant popularity among Bitcoin users, it lacked the right tools for private group chats and anonymized direct messages. 

“We started this project because we saw no alternatives,” Max Hillebrand, founder of White Noise and former contributor to Wasabi Wallet, told Bitcoin Magazine. “Existing encrypted apps fail at scale: Adding 100 people to a group chat slows encryption to a crawl. Decentralized platforms lack private messaging. Meanwhile, Nostr’s open relay network lets anyone broadcast ideas, but direct messages remain woefully underprotected. We realized: To protect freedom, we needed to merge these systems.” 

White Noise addresses these problems in Nostr privacy with the use of MLS, the “Messaging Layer Security” encryption standard developed by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), which was founded in 1986, and is a premier standards development organization for the internet. 

Unlike Nostr DMs and public posts today, White Noise’s app promises to obfuscate who is sending what to whom, using the mature MLS encryption scheme — similar to the one used by Signal, a popular privacy messaging app. 

The open source alpha invites audits and feedback from the privacy and Bitcoin community. Users can find details about the app at whitenoise.chat or connect with them on X.