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  <h1>Hermes <span class="pill p-shipped" style="vertical-align:middle;font-size:12px;margin-left:.6rem;background:rgba(79,209,165,.12);color:#4fd1a5;padding:2px 10px;border-radius:999px">MVP · desktop</span></h1>
  <p class="tag">End-to-end encrypted DMs over Nostr, addressed by your
    <code class="inline">.bch</code> name instead of a public-key string. Same wallet
    is your identity — no email, no phone number, no company, no server that can delete
    your account.</p>
  <p class="tag" style="font-size:.95rem;margin-top:.8rem">
    Lives inside <a href="theseus"><b>Theseus</b></a>: open with the Hermes icon in the
    left sidebar, or <kbd style="background:rgba(255,255,255,.06);border:1px solid rgba(255,255,255,.12);border-radius:4px;padding:1px 6px;font-family:ui-monospace,monospace;font-size:12px">Ctrl</kbd>+<kbd style="background:rgba(255,255,255,.06);border:1px solid rgba(255,255,255,.12);border-radius:4px;padding:1px 6px;font-family:ui-monospace,monospace;font-size:12px">Shift</kbd>+<kbd style="background:rgba(255,255,255,.06);border:1px solid rgba(255,255,255,.12);border-radius:4px;padding:1px 6px;font-family:ui-monospace,monospace;font-size:12px">E</kbd>
    (E as in <i>Ermis</i>, the Greek spelling). Brand kit at
    <a href="hermes/branding"><code class="inline">/hermes/branding</code></a>.
  </p>
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<div class="wrap narrow">

<section class="plain">
  <h2>What ships today</h2>
  <p class="lede">The desktop MVP is live inside Theseus. Core messaging works
    end to end; polish and mobile follow.</p>
  <div class="grid">
    <div class="card">
      <h3>Threaded chat <span class="src s-chain">live</span></h3>
      <p>Contact list on the left (search + unread badges), selected conversation
         on the right with bubbles + inline reply. Enter to send, Shift-Enter for
         newline.</p>
    </div>
    <div class="card">
      <h3>Send &amp; receive by name <span class="src s-chain">live</span></h3>
      <p>Type <code class="inline">alice.bch</code> — the client resolves on-chain,
         wraps NIP-17, publishes to the recipient's declared relays. Sealed-sender:
         the relay never sees who sent what to whom.</p>
    </div>
    <div class="card">
      <h3>Address book <span class="src s-chain">live</span></h3>
      <p>Named contacts stored locally. Optional vCard import for existing
         address books — opt-in, nothing uploaded, you preview who gets added.</p>
    </div>
    <div class="card">
      <h3>History on your device <span class="src s-chain">live</span></h3>
      <p>Messages persist to disk (per identity) so close-reopen keeps your
         threads. Unread marks survive restarts.</p>
    </div>
    <div class="card">
      <h3>Mobile <span class="src s-chain">next</span></h3>
      <p>Shipping inside Ariadne mobile (same wallet seed, same Nostr identity,
         zero extra onboarding).</p>
    </div>
    <div class="card">
      <h3>Tor transport <span class="src s-chain">planned</span></h3>
      <p>Relay traffic over the Tor exit Theseus already runs, so even connection
         IP leaves the relay.</p>
    </div>
  </div>
</section>

<section class="plain">
  <h2>The one idea that makes this different</h2>
  <p class="lede">Every existing Nostr client has the same wart: identity is
    <code class="inline">npub1q8s7f3k…</code> gibberish. The human-name fix — NIP-05 —
    resolves <code class="inline">alice@example.com</code> through a DNS domain and a
    web server. That is exactly the ICANN + server chain Silent Mode exists to escape.
    Decentralized messaging bolted onto centralized identity.</p>

  <div class="note"><b>The Hermes pitch.</b><br>
    <code class="inline">alice.bch</code> publishes her Nostr pubkey as an on-chain
    record. Her name certificate <i>is</i> her verified, seizure-resistant identity.
    Message anyone by their <code class="inline">.bch</code> name — no phone number, no
    email, no ICANN, no company, no server that can delete your account.</div>
</section>

<section>
  <h2>How it works</h2>
  <ol class="steps">
    <li><b>Your name owns your key.</b>
        <span>Register any name you like on the chain (or reuse one you already own),
        publish your Nostr pubkey to it as a new <code class="inline">np</code> record.
        The key is derived from the same wallet seed as the name itself, so one seed
        backs both.</span></li>
    <li><b>Find people by name.</b>
        <span>Type <code class="inline">bob.bch</code>. The client resolves it against
        the chain, pulls <code class="inline">np</code> (Nostr pubkey) and
        <code class="inline">nr</code> (preferred relays). No directory server involved.</span></li>
    <li><b>Send the message sealed.</b>
        <span>NIP-17 gift-wrapped DMs — the relay sees neither sender nor content, only
        that a wrap addressed to some pubkey exists. Route over Tor to also hide your
        IP; Theseus already can.</span></li>
    <li><b>The name shows, not the pubkey.</b>
        <span>Incoming messages reverse-resolve pubkey → name where possible, so your
        chat list looks like a normal chat list — not a wall of hex.</span></li>
  </ol>
</section>

<section>
  <h2>Where it will live</h2>
  <div class="grid">
    <div class="card">
      <h3>In Theseus <span class="src s-chain">desktop</span></h3>
      <p>A Messages panel inside the browser you already have. Routes relay traffic over
         Tor. Reuses the built-in wallet's seed as the messaging identity.</p>
    </div>
    <div class="card">
      <h3>In Ariadne mobile <span class="src s-chain">phone</span></h3>
      <p>A Messages screen in the existing Android app. Same seed, same identity — you
         can message from either device without a linked-account handshake.</p>
    </div>
  </div>
</section>

<section>
  <h2>Where your history lives</h2>
  <p class="lede">Three modes, one toggle. The default assumes no cloud at all — every
    later option is opt-in, and none of them let anyone but you read your messages.</p>
  <div class="grid">
    <div class="card">
      <h3>Local only <span class="src s-chain">default</span></h3>
      <p>The client keeps your message history on the device. Nothing else knows it
         exists. Same seed on Theseus and Ariadne gives you two-device redundancy for
         free — lose one, restore from the other. Lose both, history is gone. Signal's
         model, on purpose.</p>
    </div>
    <div class="card">
      <h3>Silent Mode cloud backup <span class="src s-chain">opt-in</span></h3>
      <p>Toggle on and the client encrypts your message history with a key derived
         from your wallet seed, then backs it up to decentralized cloud storage on
         the Sia network. Only you can read it. <b>Text messages only</b> — no
         pictures, no video, no attachments.</p>
    </div>
    <div class="card">
      <h3>Your own Sia account <span class="src s-chain">advanced</span></h3>
      <p>Prefer to own the storage yourself? Hermes sets up your own Sia account
         and routes your backups there instead. Same encryption from your wallet
         seed — and this time media backup is on the table too.</p>
    </div>
  </div>
</section>

<section>
  <h2>Honest boundaries</h2>
  <div class="grid">
    <div class="card">
      <h3>Messaging, not email</h3>
      <p>No Gmail interop — by design. A separate anonymous-mailbox product covers
         "sign up on services without leaking a real address."</p>
    </div>
    <div class="card">
      <h3>Metadata resistance is good, not perfect</h3>
      <p>NIP-17 hides sender and content from relays. Relays still see the recipient
         pubkey, timing, and your connection IP unless you route over Tor. The UI will
         tell you when it's on.</p>
    </div>
    <div class="card">
      <h3>Relays are Nostr's soft spot</h3>
      <p>A message lives only while some relay keeps it. Silent Mode runs one relay on
         the same anonymous VPS as the gateway, and writes to a few public relays for
         reach and redundancy.</p>
    </div>
  </div>
</section>

<div class="note warn"><b>Status: designed, not built.</b> The full protocol design is
  in <a href="https://github.com/deviant"><code class="inline">Hermes/DESIGN-hermes.md</code></a>
  (mirror). Nothing to install yet — this page exists to say what is coming, and to
  make it possible to ask for updates in the messaging panel of a future Theseus or
  Ariadne build.</div>

</div>

<footer>
  <div>Silent Mode — a Deviant project.</div>
  <div class="fine">Named for the messenger of the gods. Not yet built. Contents subject
    to change until the first client ships.</div>
</footer>

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