A private messenger with no phone number, built-in Tor, and a decoy mode — now open for early testers.
Today we're opening the public beta of Ghost Protocol, a privacy-first messenger we've been building for people who need more than an encrypted chat — they need to control what they reveal by using the app at all.
It's live on Google Play now. This post explains what it is, how it's different, and — just as importantly — what it is not yet.
Beta means beta. Ghost Protocol works and is used daily, but it is early software. An independent security audit is planned, and we intend to open-source the code. Until both are done, treat it as a promising tool under active development — not a finished, battle-tested product.
Let's be clear up front: Signal is the gold standard for private messaging. It's open-source, independently audited, and trusted by millions. If Signal fits your needs, use Signal.
Ghost Protocol isn't trying to "beat" Signal — it makes a different set of trade-offs for a specific person: someone who can't tie an account to a phone number, who may be forced to unlock their phone, and who wants their network path hidden. Here's where we differ.
Signal is tied to your phone number. Ghost is not. Your identity is a 24-word key created on your device. No SMS code, no contact-list upload, nothing that links "you the person" to "you the account."
If you're ever forced to unlock the app: a decoy PIN opens a separate, believable profile while your real conversations stay sealed — and a separate duress phrase wipes your real data. Deniability is built in, not bolted on.
Ghost can route your traffic through Tor or I2P from inside the app — no separate tool to set up. You choose how much anonymity you want.
Honest note: these are selectable modes. When an anonymous circuit can't be built, Ghost can fall back to its relay so your message still sends — and the app shows you which path each message took. We don't pretend it's always Tor.Our relay is built to never store your IP address or location, for any user, in any mode. It relays sealed data it can't read. This is a design goal we're putting up for independent audit — we're asking you to verify it, not just trust us.
Like Signal, Ghost uses post-quantum cryptography so messages captured today can't be decrypted by a future quantum computer: a hybrid ML-KEM key exchange, the Double Ratchet, and XChaCha20-Poly1305. (Signal is post-quantum too — this is us meeting the modern bar, not out-claiming them.)
Before publishing this, we ran a packet capture on a test device while using Ghost over Tor. The result: the large majority of traffic went to relays in the public Tor network — which we cross-checked against the live Tor relay list — with only a small amount of signaling touching our own relay. A voice call routed over Tor too.
The honest trade-off: routing a live call through Tor added about two seconds of latency. Real anonymity has a speed cost — we'd rather show you that than hide it.
That's genuinely why we're in beta — we want the rough edges found.
Feedback & security reports: [email protected]
Ghost Protocol is built through a collaboration between CSB Group and CSB Academy. It is beta software; use your own judgment for high-risk situations until the independent audit is complete.