Hi HN friends - I've been obsessed with chat protocols for ages - one previous project is ssh-chat (https://ssh.chat/)
I come bringing a new kind of chat protocol that I've been working on since I spent quite a lot of time exploring the 14 other competing standards we've come up with in the past few decades.
The protocol details are here: https://apron.chat
I'm hoping that Apron will better reflect our needs beyond 2026, which I expect will move more and more toward semi-private chats rather than global social networks.
Come say hi on the live public demo: https://web.apron.chat