This is the second of two technical posts explaining Germ's technology. Previously, I introduced the Autonomous Communicator(AC) Protocol, built around Messaging Layer Security (MLS). In this post I’ll explain in further detail how we use MLS for 1:1 messaging within the AC Protocol.

“Hi, I’m Mark, here’s how you can send a message to me.”

In our last post I announced our incorporation of MLS into Germ, and how MLS underwrites our ability to innovate in identity. Today, I’ll introduce that innovation, our Autonomous Communicator (AC) Protocol. The AC Protocol empowers people to autonomously define identities which they can exchange with others to form relationships for communicating over end-to-end encrypted (E2EE) messaging channels. We designed it to use cryptography to support the ways we naturally form, grow, and dissolve relationships.