Status was never intended to be just another crypto wallet. Our vision was to build a decentralised, privacy-first platform for secure communication, censorship resistance, and empowerment, tools for enabling meaningful change in the world. However, as we strive to make our wallet more feature-complete and accessible, it’s critical to pause and ask: Are we sacrificing our mission at the altar of convenience?
In an effort to create a user-friendly app, we’ve layered Status with wallet conveniences, on-ramps, swaps, price trackers, NFT support, and more. While these features add value, they come at a cost: our reliance on third-party APIs. These integrations, while expedient, risk turning Status into a dubious soup of external dependencies, each with their own privacy risks and compromises. Every API call to fetch a token price, facilitate a swap, or render an NFT not only potentially leaks user metadata but also erodes the decentralised ethos that Status was built upon.
This isn’t just speculation. Through comprehensive efforts to collect, analyse, and report on the privacy impacts of the Status app, we've identified the full extent of these dependencies. The detailed reports on how personal data flows through Status—including interactions with third-party APIs—highlight the growing risks to user privacy. These analyses have been instrumental in clarifying where we stand today and what tradeoffs we've made to achieve functionality. They show the true cost of convenience: IP address exposure, ambient metadata leakage, and a growing reliance on centralised services.
See here for details:
The slippery slope of "feature creep" isn’t just a technical concern; it’s a philosophical one. By relying on third-party APIs, we risk exposing users to surveillance, metadata collection, and reliance on external entities that may not share our values. This compromises the privacy and trust we aim to offer and undermines our original mission: to provide a safe haven for those fighting for freedom, organising grassroots movements, or seeking refuge from oppressive systems.
Adding more wallet conveniences without thoughtful consideration dilutes our message and purpose. Status isn’t just a financial tool; it’s a movement. It’s a platform for private communication and resistance against censorship, and it should remain an ally for those who need it most. Filling the app with convenience-driven integrations threatens to obscure this purpose and alienate the very users we aimed to serve.
To regain focus, we must critically evaluate the integrations we support. Do they serve the principles of privacy, decentralisation, and empowerment? Or do they simply chase user acquisition numbers and fleeting trends? Instead of embedding third-party APIs by default, we should explore alternatives that align with our mission:
The detailed insights into Status' privacy landscape—work that has laid bare the risks we face and the opportunities we have to improve—should serve as a guide for our path forward. If Status is to succeed, it cannot be by imitating others. Success means standing apart—offering a tool that prioritises user sovereignty over convenience, privacy over profit, and mission over feature creep. Let us recommit to building not just a wallet, but a platform for meaningful change—a Status we can truly be proud of.