FAQ

What do I do to use DDD mail?

Just install the apps.

Why don’t I need to register to be a transport?

DDD is based on the idea of using a network of untrusted transports to move data between connected and unconnected areas. Since we don’t trust the transports, we have to do end-to-end encryption between clients and our internet server. We also need to hide as much information as possible about the clients and their activity from the transports. Because we do that anyone can be a transport. Since transports just need to install our software to become active, we can quickly build a network of transports.

Are you absolutely sure that this service is 100% secure?

Absolutely NOT! No software system is 100% secure. This software is new and written by a bunch of students and a professor. We build on strong theory and mature libraries like Signal’s double ratchet, but there are bound to be bugs. We also have not had an independent security audit. Please let us know if you find any problems.

How do I get started?

Check out the “Getting started” link above.

Why Android?

Android phones have the largest market share in most parts of the world. There is a rich ecosystem of people who can maintain Android phones all over the world. Android also exposes Wi-Fi direct functionality to us in a way that isn’t available with iOS. We should be able to get DDD working on villager iPhones in the future. It also shouldn’t be hard to get DDD working on villager Linux/Windows/Mac computers.

What version of Android do you require?

We support Android 13 and above.

Who wrote all this code?

The Signal crypto library comes from the Signal open-source project. Over the last couple of years, many students and a professor from SJSU have written the rest. We were fortunate to receive some initial funding from Meta to fund some of the work, but most of it has been done by volunteers.