I didn’t set out to build a “Privacy Standard.” Aeon started as a quiet experiment in my room—just me trying to figure out how to generate a pair of Nostr keys. I wanted to see if I could create a door to a network where no one could ask for my ID or tell me how much I was allowed to spend.

That experiment turned into an eighteen-month obsession. For a year and a half, I manually wrote the code, line by line, teaching myself the guts of the Nostr protocol.

Building With an Invisible Peer

Because of those $100 limits, I couldn’t exactly hire a senior dev team to help me scale. I had to get creative. Three months ago, I brought on Shakespeare, an AI builder, to act as my pair-programmer for specific, high-level features. It was the only “senior developer” I could afford that didn’t care about currency restrictions or borders.

Together, we’ve spent the last few months turning a manually-crafted key-generator into a full-featured client. We’ve stayed up late figuring out why WebSocket connections were dropping. It has been a rigorous process of manual labor met with AI-driven optimization.

The Next Six Months: Building the Shield

Aeon is already live, but to reach the “Privacy Standard” I envision, we have three major technical hurdles to clear. This is where the real work begins:

• Milestone 1: Hardening the Ghost (Months 1-2) We’re focusing on NIP-17 and NIP-59. These are “Gift Wraps”—messages that hide who sent them and when. Currently, decrypting a massive history of these messages can lag a browser. I’m working to optimize this so your private conversations stay private without melting your phone.
• Milestone 2: Choosing Your Own Truth (Months 3-4) I’m integrating VertexLab’s Data Vending Machines (DVMs). On legacy social media, a CEO chooses what you see. With Aeon, you’ll be able to toggle between different “Trust Seeds.” You decide whose reputation matters when you search for information.
• Milestone 3: The Blossom Media Suite (Months 5-6) Media on Nostr is often messy and unoptimized. I’m building out a full suite for Blossom, ensuring that when you upload a photo, it’s authenticated and resized. I’ll be releasing this as a standalone boilerplate so other devs don’t have to reinvent the wheel.

Why This Aeon?

The goal of Aeon is simple: it should feel as easy to use as the apps we’re all used to, but it should be as rugged as a sovereign cryptographic tool. We want to onboard the next wave of people—people like me, who live in places where the “official” systems have failed them—and give them back their digital autonomy.

If you’re a developer, a relay runner, or just someone who believes the internet should be an open sea, I’m looking for feedback. Whether it’s a technical critique of my NIP-17 implementation or just advice on the UI, it goes a long way.

In a world of $100 limits, the only thing they can’t cap is the code we share with each other.

Stay Sovereign. Check out the progress at SigmaEnterprise/aeon