Gua
gua.global ↗Gua is an end-to-end encrypted messaging platform built on Matrix. The mobile clients are its visible surface; much of my work is in the identity, routing, and operational systems behind them.
I build and operate Gua across its Java backend services, Kubernetes infrastructure, and iOS, Android, and web clients.
- The hard problem
- Making phone-number onboarding and contact discovery feel as familiar as a centralized messenger, on a decentralized network: contacts match through peppered hashes so address books never leave the phone, and accounts resolve to homeservers through a signed, transparency-logged roster with threshold trust, so no single operator controls the network map.
- Key decisions
- A from-scratch OpenID Connect provider bridges phone-first login into Matrix Authentication Service; account placement is declarative data in the signed roster, so an operator can claim its users without a redeploy; anyone can run a roster mirror; and account security is modeled on real SIM-swap attacks, with a PIN second factor, passkeys, and cooldowns on number changes.
- Operations
- Kubernetes with Helm, separate dev and production environments, environment-gated CI/CD, and Prometheus, Grafana, and Loki with alerts delivered over Matrix.
