Pacto is a private, censorship-resistant, and governable community organizing platform that requires no KYC. It fuses encrypted, metadata-protected messaging with embedded wallets and on-chain governance in a single desktop application — so that groups can organize, vote, and manage shared treasuries without trusting a centralized service or exposing their activity. Identity is entirely cryptographic: your Nostr public key (Documentation Index
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npub) is your account, derived from a BIP-39 mnemonic seed that simultaneously powers your embedded EVM wallet.
The three pillars
Pacto is built around three complementary layers that together close the gap between private coordination and enforceable collective action.Nostr messaging — private direct messages
Encrypted communications run over Nostr, a decentralized client-relay network that is computationally cheap (virtually free to use) and inherently censorship-resistant. Direct messages (DMs) follow NIP-17 and NIP-59 — every message is wrapped in a Gift Wrap (kind 1059) outer envelope that hides sender, recipient, and metadata from relays. Payload encryption uses NIP-44 versioned encryption.MLS group channels — private Squads and Networks
Private group chat uses Message Layer Security (MLS), the IETF standard for scalable, forward-secret group messaging. Each Squad (a private community hub) and each channel inside it is backed by a separate MLS group. MLS group invitations travel as kind 443 events inside Gift Wraps; encrypted group messages travel as kind 444 events. Squads can be organized into Networks — a “Squad of Squads” for cross-organizational coordination — while keeping membership private.Embedded EVM wallet — on-chain governance and treasury
Governance and financial operations run over EVM-compatible chains via an embedded wallet derived from the same BIP-39 seed as the Nostr identity. No wallet setup is required. Squad treasuries use Gnosis Safe multi-signature contracts; role management uses Hats Protocol; modular voting and decision rules usepacto-gov. All transaction signing happens in the Rust backend — the private key is never exposed to the frontend or the network.
Supported networks
| Network | Type | Role in Pacto |
|---|---|---|
| Ethereum | EVM | Governance, treasury, token operations |
| Aztec | ZK / L2 | Zero-knowledge private voting and payments |
Core feature set
| Feature | Description |
|---|---|
| DMs | End-to-end encrypted direct messaging (NIP-17 / NIP-59 Gift Wrap) |
| Squads | Private Discord/Slack-style community hubs with text channels, backed by MLS |
| Networks | Inter-organizational hubs — a Squad of Squads — for cross-group coordination |
| Dashboard | Web3-integrated widgets scoped to a Squad or Network |
| Modular Governance | Pluggable voting and decision-making via pacto-gov proposals |
| Safe Wallet | Gnosis Safe multi-sig for collective management of financial resources |
No-KYC identity model
There are no usernames, email addresses, or phone numbers. Your identity is your Nostr keypair — annpub (public key) and an nsec (secret key, stored encrypted, never exposed to the frontend). The same BIP-39 mnemonic seed derives both your Nostr keypair and your embedded EVM addresses. Anyone can generate a keypair and start participating immediately.
Fork history
Pacto is a fork of Vector, a private decentralized messenger built on Nostr. The Rust backend of Vector provided the NIP-17/NIP-59 E2EE messaging and MLS engine foundation. Where Vector targets Signal-style private messaging with mini-app support, Pacto extends the codebase toward Discord-inspired communities that are governable through embedded blockchain primitives — Safe wallets,pacto-gov proposals, and Hats-based role enforcement, all anchored to the same MLS squad identity.
Explore further
Quickstart
Clone Pacto, install prerequisites, configure your environment, and run the desktop app locally in under 15 minutes.
Architecture Overview
Deep-dive into the Tauri v2 layer model, data flows for messaging and EVM, and key directory layout.
Direct Messages
How NIP-17 / NIP-59 Gift Wrap DMs are constructed, routed, stored, and surfaced in the UI.
Wallet Overview
HD key derivation, squad keys, read-plane vs. Rust-send, and how Safe treasury transactions are signed.