Matt Lorentz

Technologist, solarpunk, gamer, backpacker, passionate about using the internet to push more power to more people.

website: https://mattlorentz.com

Public Key

npub18wucvk5fmyeclgl5lsl9jq0f2w5cfpd2cnhzxd0qmze6tc4hrngspva49t

NIP-05 Address

mplorentz_at_social.coop@momostr.pink

Profile Code

nprofile1qqsrhwvxt2yajvu05060c0jeq85482vysk4vfm3rxhsd3va9u2m3e5gprpmhxue69uhhyetvv9ujumt0d4hhxarj9ecxjmntqywhwumn8ghj7mn0wd68yttsw43zuam9d3kx7unyv4ezumn9wsw98v83

Publishing to

relay.momostr.pink

nostr-pub.wellorder.net

yabu.me

Author Public Key

npub18wucvk5fmyeclgl5lsl9jq0f2w5cfpd2cnhzxd0qmze6tc4hrngspva49t

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Last Notes

2026-10-19 16:45:13 UTC

I had a great time talking to @npub1rt5…d6vp about Horcrux on the @npub1ncg…xyj5 podcast. If you are curious to learn more about what Horcrux is and how it securely backs up sensitive data to your friends and family give it a listen! https://solarcast.cc/@solarcast/episodes/horcrux

2026-08-25 00:43:36 UTC

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sometimes these things go away on their own.

2026-08-19 18:41:56 UTC

Today marks the 1.0 release of my app Horcrux 🥳 Horcrux is an app for backing up data like digital wills, passwords, and cryptographic keys. The cool part is that it backs them up to the devices of your friends and family and recovering the data requires their consent. So nobody has the whole secret and even if one or two people lose their piece recovery is still possible. This adds a social layer to your security stack that is highly secure but also highly resilient. You can read more about it at https://horcruxbackup.com.
I'd love any feedback you have to give, here or through the contact form on the website. And I'm trying something a bit different. If you are trying to figure out if this tool is right for you and would like to just chat about it you can book a call with me here: https://cal.com/matt-lorentz/horcrux-onboarding

2026-07-19 11:36:13 UTC

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Mine has been fine. Did your battery get fried in the heat? That can permanently reduce the capacity.

2026-06-25 20:06:37 UTC

I just published my Q2 report as part of my grant from OpenSats, if you are curious what I have been up to recently. TLDR; getting horcrux into a public beta and preparing for the initial release. https://mattlorentz.com/2026/06/25/opensats-q2-grant-update.html

2026-03-18 14:45:19 UTC

I'm planning out my trip to DWeb camp in Berlin this year. I've never been to Germany. Does anyone have recommendations of things to see while I'm there or places to stay? Any advice on traveling in Germany?

2026-01-05 18:08:40 UTC

Is anyone here going to EthDevner in February? I am not an ethereum person at all, but I have met a lot of cool people over the years (who are also not big ethereum people) who have been to this conference and loved it. I think I might go this year. They have a track for "Cypherpunks, Solarpunks & Communities". Idk what ethereum has to do with solarpunk but I kind of want to find out.

2025-12-02 19:51:05 UTC

This website speaks to the nerd inside me on so many levels. I think I'm going to give the "No S Diet" a try. https://everydaysystems.com/

2025-11-26 19:36:46 UTC

I just posted a project update video for Keydex that shows the current features and future plans. Plus an announcement that I'm renaming the project from Keydex to Horcrux! Check it out: https://tube.tchncs.de/w/oyxzSzhocB3k6BNbVTdU7d

2025-11-19 17:54:21 UTC

I've been quiet lately but I've just been very heads down trying to get Keydex ready for it's first alpha usability test, which I'm about to head to right now! I'll try to post a project update this week, as I passed the halfway point on my (relatively tight) 4 month timeline recently.

2025-10-07 20:30:20 UTC

Fun milestone for Keydex today: I had my first successful restore of data. I was able to fire up several copies of the app and create a lockbox, break it into shares, distribute them to peers via Nostr, initiate recovery, approve the recovery request, and reassemble the data.
There is still a ton of work to do but having the core flow working makes all the future changes feel small and incremental by comparison.
https://social-coop-media.ams3.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/media_attachments/files/115/334/774/070/422/978/original/76b06c8dc365fa8a.png

2025-09-22 17:26:30 UTC

I'm back in the code editor for the first time in a few weeks. It feels good 😊
Trying out Github's spec-kit tool for spec-driven development with AI: https://github.com/github/spec-kit?tab=readme-ov-file#-core-philosophy

2025-09-15 18:20:18 UTC

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The most interest by far was in the inheritance planning use case. People have some digital stuff they want to pass on, but don't want it sitting in plaintext in the hands of (generally non-technical) friends and family. So I'm going to keep the inheritance use-case top of mind while developing. Which already invalidates some of the design work I did last week. I was going to make a fun retro/gamey UI, but now I'm going to shift towards something more calm and reliable. (2/2)

2025-09-15 18:19:26 UTC

I've finished my first round of interviews for Keydex and they were so enlightening. I'm so addicted to user interviews now, I don't understand how I made so much software without them.
The top insight from this round was clarifying the different use cases for Shamir's Secret Sharing. Here's what I came up with:
- inheritance planning
- corporate secret management for ultra-sensitive values i.e. root passwords
- border crossings
- web3/crypto/Nostr key backup
(1/2)

2025-09-09 18:55:55 UTC

Oh and I don't think I've shared this on Mastodon yet, but I'm thrilled to have received a grant from OpenSats.org to continue working in the Nostr ecosystem. I'll be working on two different projects over the next year: the first is a backup tool that uses Shamir's Secret Sharing algorithm to distribute secrets among groups of friends for maximum privacy and resilience. The second will be an app for private group chat - more details to follow!

2025-09-09 18:29:58 UTC

I'm looking for folks to interview for the new app I'm working on. If you've ever needed to back up some sensitive data (passwords, crypto wallet key, "legacy planning" docs) but didn't just want to print it out and hide it then I'd love to talk to you. Just let me know here and I'll be in touch: https://formstr.app/i/keydex

2025-09-05 18:46:07 UTC

Good read on how you can use a CRDT to manage an access control list for a group or other resource: https://p2panda.org/2025/08/27/notes-convergent-access-control-crdt.html

2025-08-18 20:40:39 UTC

The iOS 26 release date is less than a month away, and Apple is making big changes this year with the introduction of the Liquid Glass design system. I'm available for last-minute contract work to help you get your app ready. Whether you just want to make sure nothing breaks, or are looking to refresh your entire UI alongside Apple, I can help you make a smooth transition!

2025-07-14 14:45:29 UTC

I have been finding AI really useful for coding, but this is a good reminder that AI benchmarks are not representative of reality, and developers cannot be trusted to accurately estimate their work, even after completing it 🙃
https://bsky.app/profile/metr.org/post/3ltn3t3amms2x

2025-06-12 19:05:21 UTC

If you are checking socials because your internet things are broken, you are not alone. Google Cloud is basically down.
https://social-coop-media.ams3.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/media_attachments/files/114/671/951/584/774/513/original/399d80e51ac20e5f.jpeg

2025-06-06 13:56:29 UTC

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I'd also love to play around with this when it's ready!

2025-05-27 20:18:57 UTC

It's been about 1 month since I started my solopreneurship journey aiming to do six product experiments in six months. I launched https://spoilerfree.gg about 10 days ago and have been monitoring the metrics on it since then. So far I haven't met my target of a 5% conversion rate, so I'm moving onto the next thing! I wrote some rough notes about it on my weblog. If you have any advice, thoughts, or questions I'd love to discuss! https://mattlorentz.com/weblog/2025/05/27/spoiler-free-gg-retro.html

2025-05-07 21:21:35 UTC

Last week I wrapped up employment at Verse Communications. Over the past 3 years I got to work on https://planetary.social, https:/nos.social, and more recently a communities-focused social app codenamed Plur. Working to build healthier social media with such a diverse team and community was was such a transformative opportunity for me, and I'm sure I'll always look back on it as an inflection point.
For now I'm taking some time to work on my own projects. More to come on that :)