In formation — Estonian MTÜ · founding round open

A messenger no one owns needs an institution that owns nothing.

The Onym Foundation funds audits and shared infrastructure, awards grants, coordinates standards, and stewards a permanent endowment — for the Onym network of independently owned roles.

Become a founding sponsor See how the network earns →

01

No single owner

The product splits into independently owned roles. Nobody holds the whole. The product, at onym.app →

Identity stays with the person

Keys are held by the user. No account to seize, sell, or subpoena.

Identity boundary →

Interfaces compete

Any app can present the network. The window is not the gatekeeper.

Interface boundary →

Carriers are designed blind

The contract requires that the courier cannot read the letter. Delivery is a service, not a vantage point.

Message boundary →

Verifiers are designed roster-free

Group decisions are confirmed without seeing who is in the group — that is what the notary contract fixes.

Notary boundary →

Where this stands — plain words

Exists today

  • Native iOS and Android clients, and one replaceable default deployment of message carriage, media storage, and group verification.
  • Public, technology-neutral contract documents for twelve seats.

Designed to guarantee

  • The courier cannot read the letter; the verifier never sees the member list; the name is never the identity.
  • These are contract obligations the documents fix — not yet independently verified properties of the running code.

Open and unaudited

  • The system is alpha-grade and has had no independent audit. Identity rotation, forward-secret messaging, and conformance fixtures are explicitly open work.
  • Banking and naming seats are proposals in review. Metadata-exposure assumptions are documented in the whitepaper's threat model.

The repository says this itself — read the source →

02

The seat economy

Every role is open. Every role earns only when chosen. Every seat is defined by an open, technology-neutral contract — click a seat to read it.
Explore the seats →
Register interest to take a seat — lead@onym.app

The complete seat economy Fifteen open roles and one open-ended proposal slot form a circle around the user. Every seat earns only when the user chooses it. Interface app pricing Message carriage subscriptions Media storage storage plans Group verification per-op fees Audit & attestation engagement fees Arbitration dispute fees Discovery find every seat Sponsorship funds the commons anything else... propose a seat Recovery trustee published fees Recruitment milestone fees Acquisition per-order fees Distribution campaign fees Charitable coordination service fees Banking & payments payment fees Naming & credentials issuance fees USER chooses every seat
Every role is open. Every role earns only when chosen.

Seat contracts, as proposed in the public repository — Interface · Message carriage · Media storage · Group verification · Audit & attestation · Arbitration · Discovery · Charitable coordination · Distribution · Acquisition · Recruitment · Recovery trustee · Sponsorship · Bankingin review · Namingin review. Identity is not a seat — it stays with the person.

03

Where the Foundation stands

Outside the transaction ring. Arrows go out — to audits, grants, infrastructure, standards, recognition. Never into the message path or any seat's revenue.

ONYM FOUNDATION outside the ring auditsgrantsconformance infrastructurestandards coordinationrecognition the transaction ring no Foundation arrow enters the message path or any seat's revenue

  • Money flows out

    Audits · grants · conformance infrastructure · standards coordination · recognition.

  • Nothing flows in

    No Foundation arrow enters the message path or any seat's revenue. We take no toll.

We fund the ground everyone builds on. We take no toll.

04

Why sponsors, why now

The network's commons — independent audits, conformance test suites, reference infrastructure, grants to seat pioneers — need funding before the seat economy can pay for itself. Founding sponsors make that possible, and are remembered for it.

Audits

Independent security and conformance examinations, published openly.

Grants

Seeding the first operators of new seats — registries, auditors, couriers.

Endowment

Only gifts expressly designated as permanent are locked long-term — ordinary founding sponsorship funds current work, so the commons outlives any single donor without starving its first years.

Become a founding sponsor

05

Money buys a voice. Never a majority.

Three sponsor directors, three ecosystem directors, three independent public-interest directors. Chair and treasurer: never sponsors. How the board works →
Proposed governance — no entity or board exists yet.

3 Sponsor Directors 3 Ecosystem Directors 3 Independent Public-Interest Chair and treasurer always come from non-sponsor classes.

  • 3 Sponsor Directors

    Elected by the Sponsor Council.

  • 3 Ecosystem Directors

    Drawn from seat operators and contributors.

  • 3 Independent Public-Interest

    Chair and treasurer always come from non-sponsor classes.

Proposed 3·3·3 board.