The Journal Protocol Stack

Open protocols for privacy-first applications.

Surveillance platforms failed to protect us. Journal Foundation stewards infrastructure that keeps sensitive data in personal custody, minimizes metadata, and lets anyone build AI-ready apps without surrendering control to an intermediary.

Existing "decentralized" solutions stop at removing a central company. As software dissolves into intent, they still rarely solve custody, metadata exposure, or selective collaboration with frontier AI.

Three Layers

Infrastructure primitives that work together—but can evolve independently.

📦 Layer 1: Journal Vault

What: Encrypted, graph-aware personal data storage

Purpose: Where your data lives

  • Encrypted at rest with AES-256-GCM
  • Segmented access control across graph nodes
  • Optimized for AI/RAG workloads and large media
  • Self-hostable on commodity hardware

🔒 Layer 2: Cipherlot

What: Network access layer with capability-based sharing

Purpose: How data is shared safely

  • Scoped, expiring, revocable capability tokens
  • Blind relays using Oblivious HTTP for metadata protection
  • NAT traversal—no static IP required
  • Selective exfiltration to prevent bulk data seizure

📱 Layer 3: Apps (Client Layer)

What: User-facing applications

Purpose: How humans interact with their data

Apps are swappable—your data stays in your vault.

Example apps developers could build:

  • Private messaging
  • Photo sharing without platform custody
  • Social networking with capability-scoped posts
  • Voice memos that stay in your vault
  • AI chat grounded in personal history

Visualizing the Stack

Picture three layers of stewardship: Vaults hold data (local or mirrored with peers you trust), Cipherlots govern how encrypted packets leave, and apps request temporary capabilities. Each layer is independently auditable and open specification.

1

Vault

Encrypted knowledge graph with segmented indexes and large-object storage.

2

Cipherlot

Capability broker issuing scoped tokens and routing traffic through blind relays.

3

Apps

Interfaces—mobile, desktop, or agents—that request capabilities and render experiences.

Why Anonymization Matters

Decentralization isn't enough.

The Critical Insight

You can't just decentralize—you have to anonymize.

Mastodon and other federated systems solved centralization but created new surveillance vectors.

❌ What Decentralization Alone Gives You

  • Your data on your server (good!)
  • Metadata still exposed to network observers
  • Traffic patterns reveal who you talk to
  • IP addresses correlate to real identity
  • Encrypted data can be seized and stored
  • Quantum computers will eventually decrypt it

✓ What Anonymization Adds

  • Metadata minimization: Blind relays can't see who's talking
  • Traffic obfuscation: OHTTP hides patterns
  • Capability tokens: No central identity registry
  • Selective exfiltration: Prevents bulk data seizure
  • Forward secrecy: Keys rotate; old data becomes unrecoverable
"Even though the data is encrypted, you still don't want it shared with everyone on the Internet. You don't want a state-level adversary to vacuum it up today, wait for new decryption capabilities, and unlock everything you've ever said."
  • Selective exfiltration: Vaults only share encrypted data with authorized capability holders.
  • Rate limiting: Stops bulk download attacks.
  • Blind relays: Aggregators can't correlate who sent what.
  • Forward secrecy: Key rotation limits future decryption.

Current Status

Track where each layer sits in the development cycle.

Layer Description Status
Journal Vault Specification drafting, reference storage engine in progress Draft
Cipherlot Core RFC published, networking reference implementation prototyping Alpha
Apps & SDKs CLI tooling available; community client projects forming Early access

Get Started

Choose the path that fits your role.

🛠️ Developers

Prototype apps on open protocols with end-to-end custody.

  • Review specifications and RFCs
  • Use reference SDKs
  • Participate in technical forums

💰 Funders & Advisors

Support protocol development with radical transparency.

  • View open financial dashboards
  • Join governance discussions
  • Fund targeted research

📚 Privacy Learners

Build literacy in surveillance, metadata, and digital sovereignty.

  • Understand core concepts
  • Explore practical guides
  • Share knowledge with your community