Your Line account has been deleted. Can't the other party really notice? Why did Vitalik invest in these two privacy messaging apps?

When you truly support something, the most direct way is to give it financial backing. Privacy protection is often overlooked in our daily communication apps—does the other person know if you delete your account? Are your chat records secure? Can your identity be tracked? These questions trouble more and more users concerned with data security. In mid to late November 2025, Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin donated 128 ETH each to two privacy messaging apps, Session and SimpleX, totaling about $760,000, demonstrating through action the importance of these issues.

How Session Achieves “No Phone Number” Privacy Accounts

Vitalik tweeted: Encrypted communication is crucial for protecting digital privacy. The next key step is enabling permissionless account creation and metadata privacy.

Session is a decentralized end-to-end encrypted messaging app, launched in 2020, now with nearly 1 million users. It was initially developed by the Australian Oxen Privacy Tech Foundation. Due to tightening privacy laws in Australia in 2024, the team moved operations to Switzerland and established the Session Technology Foundation.

The core feature of this app is “no phone number required.” During registration, Session generates a 66-character random string as your Session ID and provides a set of mnemonic words for account recovery. Without linking a phone number, email verification, or any info that can connect to your real identity, your account remains anonymous. If your Line account is deleted or your Session account is canceled, others cannot track your identity—that’s the value of such applications.

Technically, Session uses a onion-routing-like architecture to ensure privacy. Each message is encrypted in three layers, passing through three randomly selected nodes, each only decrypting its own layer, unable to see the full message path. This means no single node can know both sender and receiver.

These nodes are not official servers operated by Session but are community-run. Currently, over 1,500 Session nodes are distributed across more than 50 countries. Anyone can run a node by staking 25,000 SESH tokens. In May 2025, Session underwent a major upgrade, migrating from the Oxen network to its own Session Network, based on proof-of-stake consensus, where node operators stake SESH to maintain the network and earn rewards.

In practice, Session’s interface is similar to mainstream messaging apps, supporting text, voice messages, images, and files, as well as encrypted group chats for up to 100 people. Voice and video calls are still in testing. A noticeable drawback is notification delay—because messages pass through multiple hops, they sometimes arrive several seconds or more later than centralized apps. Multi-device sync is also less smooth, a common issue in decentralized architectures.

SimpleX Completely Eliminates User IDs, Taking Privacy to the Extreme

If Session’s selling point is “no phone number,” SimpleX is even more radical: it has no user ID at all.

Almost all messaging apps assign some form of identifier, whether emphasizing privacy or not. Telegram uses phone numbers, Signal uses phone numbers, Session uses a randomly generated Session ID. Even if these identifiers don’t directly link to real identities, they leave traces: if you chat with two people using the same account, those two can potentially confirm they’re communicating with the same person.

SimpleX’s approach is to eliminate these identifiers entirely. When you connect with a new contact, the system generates a one-time message queue address. The address used for chatting with A is completely different from the one used with B, with no shared metadata. Even if someone monitors both conversations, they cannot prove they come from the same person. Does your contact know your account? In SimpleX, that question simply doesn’t arise.

Registering with SimpleX is also unique. After opening the app, you only need to enter a display name—no phone number, no email, and no password needed. The data is stored locally on your device; SimpleX’s servers hold no account information.

Adding contacts is done via generating a one-time invite link or QR code, which you send to the other person. They click it to connect. There’s no “search username to add” feature because there are no usernames.

Technologically, SimpleX uses its own SimpleX Messaging Protocol. Messages are relayed through relay servers, which only temporarily store encrypted messages—they do not keep any user records and do not communicate with each other. Once delivered, messages are deleted. The servers cannot see who you are or who you’re chatting with. This design is extremely privacy-centric.

Founded by Evgeny Poberezkin in London in 2021, SimpleX received seed pre-Series A funding from Village Global in 2022, and Twitter founder Jack Dorsey publicly expressed support. The app is open source on GitHub and has passed security audits by Trail of Bits.

In terms of user experience, SimpleX features a clean interface supporting text, voice messages, images, files, and self-destructing messages. It also supports group chats, but without centralized member management, large groups are less smooth than traditional apps. Voice calls are available; video calls still face some stability issues.

A key limitation is that, without a unified user ID, if you switch devices or lose local data, you must reconnect with each contact individually. There’s no “account login to restore all chats”—a trade-off for extreme privacy.

The Realities of Privacy Communication: The Cost of Decentralization

Vitalik didn’t just praise these apps; he explicitly pointed out their imperfections. He states that achieving true user experience and security still has a long way to go.

The first challenge is the cost of decentralization itself. Centralized apps deliver fast, stable, smooth experiences because all data passes through a single server infrastructure, allowing for optimization. Decentralization means messages jump between multiple independent nodes, inevitably increasing latency.

Second is multi-device synchronization. With Telegram or WhatsApp, switching devices restores chat history seamlessly. In decentralized systems, without a central server storing your data, multi-device sync relies on end-to-end key synchronization, which is technically complex.

Third is abuse prevention. Centralized platforms use phone number registration as a natural barrier against spam accounts and malicious attacks. Removing phone number linkage raises the question: how to prevent mass creation of fake accounts for harassment or network attacks?

To achieve decentralization, some user experience must be sacrificed; to prevent abuse without phone numbers, alternative methods are needed; to enable multi-device sync, privacy and convenience must be balanced. These are not just technical issues but fundamental structural dilemmas in privacy communication.

Token Incentives vs. De-Financialization: Two Diverging Paths in Privacy Messaging

Both apps focus on privacy communication, but their business models differ sharply.

Session follows a typical Web3 approach, using tokens to align network participant interests. SESH is the native token of the Session Network, with three main uses: staking 25,000 SESH to run a node; node operators earning SESH rewards for routing and storing messages; and future paid features like Session Pro and Session Name Service settled in SESH.

This model creates economic incentives for node operators to maintain network stability, with staking increasing the cost of malicious behavior. Token circulation provides a sustainable funding source. Currently, about 79 million SESH are in circulation, with a max supply of 240 million. Over 62 million are staked in the Reward Pool for node incentives.

After Vitalik’s donation, SESH’s price surged from under $0.04 to over $0.20 within hours, with market cap exceeding $16 million. While some of this is hype-driven, it reflects market valuation of “privacy infrastructure” narratives.

SimpleX’s approach is the opposite. Its founder, Evgeny Poberezkin, explicitly states it will not issue tradable tokens, believing that speculation would divert from the project’s core. Funding comes from VC investments and user donations—about $370,000 in seed pre-Series A funding in 2022, plus over $25,000 in user donations.

The team plans to launch Community Vouchers in 2026 to sustain operations. These are limited-use utility tokens, akin to prepaid server usage coupons. Users buy Vouchers to pay for their community’s server costs, with funds distributed to server operators and the SimpleX network. Crucially, these Vouchers are non-tradable, non-premined, with fixed purchase prices.

It appears SimpleX deliberately blocks speculative financial activity. Each approach has pros and cons: Session’s token model can quickly attract node operators and capital but exposes the project to price volatility and regulatory risks; SimpleX’s de-facto de-financialization preserves purity but limits funding and slows expansion.

This reflects not just business strategy differences but also contrasting views on how privacy should be funded.

The Practical Significance of Privacy Protection

Vitalik’s donation timing is deliberate. Just before the donation, the EU Council reached an agreement on the “Chat Control” proposal, requiring messaging platforms to scan private user messages—seen by privacy advocates as a direct threat to end-to-end encryption.

He believes current privacy messaging solutions are insufficient and supports more radical alternatives. The market seems to have responded accordingly: after the announcement, SESH’s price jumped from under $0.04 to around $0.40, a 450% increase in a week.

Addressing these issues requires funding and attention. For ordinary users, switching immediately to Session or SimpleX might be premature due to experience gaps, but if digital privacy matters to you, it’s worth downloading and trying to see what “true privacy protection” can achieve.

When Vitalik is willing to put real money into something, it’s likely more than just a tech hobby—it signals strong support for the future of privacy communication and a deep concern for user data security. Does your contact know your account? In these two apps, the answer could be fundamentally different.