Frequently asked questions

Denazen is a social network with two layers. The public layer is standard Bluesky — open posts, open follows, open discovery. The private layer is end-to-end encrypted content that only the people you've added to a circle can read.

Denazen is built on the AT Protocol, the same open protocol that powers Bluesky. Your public posts live on Bluesky. Your Bluesky handle works here. Your followers come with you. The private layer is an additional capability Denazen adds on top.

A Circle is a private group you define. You decide who's in it. Posts shared with a Circle are end-to-end encrypted so only the people in that Circle can read them. You can have many Circles — one for family, one for close friends, one for coworkers — and the same post can be shared with one or several of them.

Group chats are for back-and-forth conversation. Circles are for sharing — photos, posts, thoughts — with a chosen audience, the same way you'd post publicly but limited to specific people. Circles are also one-directional: you control who's in yours; they don't have to reciprocate.

Yes. You can react to anything on the public timeline inside a Circle instead of the open thread — discuss it with your people without broadcasting your opinion to the internet.

Private content is encrypted on your device before it's ever sent. The decryption keys only exist on the devices of people you've shared with. Denazen's servers and Bluesky's servers store the ciphertext but cannot read it.

The technical details — algorithms, key exchange, rotation, threat model — live on the Security page.

No. We never have the keys to decrypt them. That's enforced cryptographically, not by policy.

Private content is encrypted before it leaves your device. Whatever path it takes — Bluesky PDSes, Denazen's servers — it's ciphertext everywhere except on the devices of your chosen recipients.

They immediately lose access to future posts in that Circle. The cryptography gets rotated so anything new can't be read with the old keys. Posts they already downloaded before being removed can't be un-seen — that's a fundamental limit of sharing — but nothing going forward is readable to them.

No ads. No trackers. No algorithmic feed optimizing for engagement. The business model doesn't depend on watching you.

Denazen is in a small invite-only alpha right now. Join the waitlist and we'll reach out as we open up more invites.

The alpha is tightly scoped — 30–50 people — to keep the group tight while we work out the product. In the beta, existing members get invite codes they can share with people they trust. Growth is network-driven, not ad-driven.

Yes. The plan long-term is a freemium model: the free tier covers the core private social experience; a premium tier adds more circles and advanced features.

Yes — Denazen uses AT Protocol identity. If you don't have a Bluesky handle yet, creating one takes a minute and you can use it here.

They come with you. Your public posts and follows on Bluesky remain exactly what they are today. Denazen adds the private layer; it doesn't replace the public one.

No. Identity comes from your AT Protocol handle. Email is used for your account and waitlist communication; no phone number is required.

Your private content becomes permanently inaccessible. This is intentional: if Denazen had a way to recover it for you, Denazen would also be able to read your private content — breaking the core promise.

Your public Bluesky identity, handle, and follows are unaffected; those are tied to your Bluesky password, which is recoverable through Bluesky the normal way. But your Circles, past private posts, received DMs, and the keys that decrypt them all depend on the encryption password.

Write the password down somewhere safe, or use a password manager. See the Security page for the full explanation.

Yes. Denazen is multi-device by design. You don't pair devices or sync keys between them manually; your encrypted keys already live on public infrastructure (Denazen's server and your Bluesky PDS), and any device can unlock them with the same three credentials: your Bluesky handle, your Bluesky password, and your Denazen encryption password.

Sign in on a new phone, laptop, or tablet the same way you'd sign in on your existing one. Every Circle, contact, and past message is available. Signing out clears the keys from that device until the next unlock.