How Decentralized Dating Works
OpenDating is built on Nostr — a decentralized protocol for censorship-resistant communication. But here's the key insight: you never need to know that. The app looks and feels like any modern dating app. The decentralization is infrastructure, not UX.
What is open today
OpenDating uses an open wire protocol over Nostr, but the current profile, discovery, matching, policy, moderation, media, and deletion services are operated by OpenDating on Cloudflare. Profiles and relationship state are stored in first-party databases. Calling the current deployment “no central server” would be inaccurate.
The post-GA goal is provider interchangeability: signed manifests, portable exports, conformance tests, and multiple independent operators. Those capabilities do not exist in the current beta.
How OpenDating Protects Your Privacy
1. Encrypted Gift Wraps (NIP-59)
Every action you take — creating a profile, liking someone, reporting a user — is wrapped in multiple layers of encryption. The outer layer is addressed to a specific service (like the matcher or moderation service). The inner layer contains the actual message. Relay operators can see that you sent something, but not what you sent.
2. End-to-End Encrypted Messages (NIP-44 + NIP-17)
When you message a match, the content is encrypted on your device using NIP-44 — the same encryption standard used by secure messaging apps. Only your match's device can decrypt it. The relay enforces that only matched users can message each other, but it never sees the content.
3. Service Roles
OpenDating separates functionality by role — profile, discovery, matcher, DM policy, moderation, and deletion. Today those roles share one first-party operator, but the boundaries reduce accidental coupling and define the interfaces needed for future independent providers.
4. Relay Enforcement
The relay enforces rules at the protocol level: unmatched users can't message each other, blocked users can't discover the blocker, and reports are routed privately to moderation. These aren't app-level features — they're enforced by the infrastructure.
What This Means for Users
You create an account (a cryptographic keypair), build a profile, and start discovering people. Direct messages and service commands use encrypted gift wraps, while authorized services necessarily process profile, preference, match, block, report, and deletion state.
The keypair can be used by another compatible client, but portable profile, private-list, and cross-provider service migration are not complete. The public site will not promise full portability before conformance tests prove it.