Our Mission

Providing the communication infrastructure to power the fight for democracy and freedom.

The Metatron Foundation is a nonprofit dedicated to harnessing the power of decentralized security to bolster personal messaging for the fight for democracy and freedom.

Why this is needed?

To aid an internal crackdown, Russian authorities had amassed an arsenal of technologies to track the online lives of citizens. After it invaded Ukraine, its demand grew for more surveillance tools. That helped stoke a cottage industry of tech contractors, which built products that have become a powerful — and novel — means of digital surveillance.

For the makers of Signal, Telegram and WhatsApp, there are few defenses against such tracking. That’s because the authorities are capturing data from internet service providers with a bird’s-eye view of the network. Encryption can mask the specific messages being shared, but cannot block the record of the exchange.

The new tools will likely shift the best practices of those who wish to disguise their online behavior. In Russia, the existence of a digital exchange between a suspicious person and someone else can trigger a deeper investigation or even arrest, people familiar with the process said.

Cracking Down on Dissent

Russia is incubating a cottage industry of new digital surveillance tools to suppress domestic opposition to the war in Ukraine. The tech may also be sold overseas.
By Aaron Krolik, Paul Mozur, and Adam Satariano
New York Times, July 3, 2023

We will make a meaningful impact on the development of democracy in the world and take practical steps against encroaching autocratic rule and censorship of speech and ideas.

We believe in…

  • We belive in the inherent right of every individual to communicate freely and safely. Without surveillance, hacking or other attempts to infringe on these personal rights.

  • We belive in the right to personal privacy, and where needed anonymity. Protection from data collection that can lead to discovery of personal information.

  • We believe in the freedom to organize and collaborate in the fight for democracy and freedom, especially where autocratic regimes are stepping on individual freedoms of expression.

Who we are

The Metatron platform is an open-source protocol supported by a global community of developers, individuals, cybersecurity specialists, and technologists. They are committed to expanding participation in and access to a global communication system free of censorship and surveillance by autocratic regimes.

The Metatron Foundation is the steward and will support and grow the platform and the community until it becomes self-sufficient. Vault12 played a key role in launching the Metatron platform and currently serves as an advisor to the Foundation and operators of the network infrastructure.

Developer Opportunity

Developers can build a user experience on top of the Metatron platform to provide secure encrypted communication solutions. Due to their decentralized nature, these solutions will resist surveillance and help preserve and protect individuals organizing against encroaching autocratic regimes around the world.


ZAX Cryptographic Relay

ZAX provides a peer-to-peer encrypted messaging infrastructure that is completely distributed and surveillance-proof. It is open-sourced and has been used commercially to protect the transfer of digital assets worldwide.

Tried and Tested

ZAX is used commercially as the cryptographic relay incorporated into Vault12 Guard, a solution for backing up digital assets for long-term storage and inheritance.

Open Source

Open-sourced since 2015; ZAX is available on Github. The importance of Open source is that security issues may be discovered and fixed by the community, preventing the insertion of back doors or malware by rogue agents infiltrating private corporations.

Decentralized

By using lightweight nodes, there is no one centralized node that can be infiltrated or surveilled to determine data about communications. The more nodes, the more nodes when attempts are made to identity patterns of communication.

Privacy

All communications passing through these cryptographic relays are end-to-end encrypted (E2EE) ensuring that the contents of any messages cannot be accessed.

Security

The decentralized architecture means that there is no central server or place where information about people, or messages is stored, so there is no data to leak information about who is communicating wth whom.

Meet the Team

  • Anastasia Popova

    Co-founder and CEO

  • Wasim Ahmad

    Co-founder and COO

  • Max Sky

    Scientific Advisor