Session vs SimpleX: Vitalik's two private communication channels with a total of 760,000 USD — which one is more aggressive?

When someone supports a cause with real money, it is far more convincing than words. On November 26, Vitalik Buterin demonstrated his true bet on the future of private communication through a donation.

A Structured Bet: Why 128 ETH?

Two transfers of 128 ETH each, totaling about $760,000, went to the obscure messaging apps Session and SimpleX. The number 128 is interesting—it’s 2 to the 7th power in binary, and that’s no coincidence. Many community members pointed out that this donation is essentially a targeted investment rather than simple charity sponsorship. It reflects Vitalik’s systematic thinking about privacy infrastructure.

The timing is also noteworthy. The EU Council just reached an agreement on “chat control,” requiring communication platforms to scan users’ private messages. Vitalik choosing this moment to publicly support two privacy-first solutions sends a very clear message: Current privacy protections are insufficient; more radical alternatives are needed.

The market immediately understood this signal. Within a week of the announcement, Session’s SESH token surged from $0.04 to over $0.40, a rise of more than 450%. This is not just typical hype around news; it reflects investor valuation of a new “privacy infrastructure” asset.

Session: Redefining Decentralized Communication with DePIN

Launched officially in 2020, Session now has nearly 1 million users. Its most radical design principle is simple: no need for phone numbers.

During registration, the system generates a 66-character random string as the Session ID, along with a set of mnemonic words for account recovery. No phone verification, no email confirmation, no identity linkage.

Technically, Session uses a variant of onion routing. Each message is encrypted in three layers and relayed through three randomly selected nodes. The key point: no single node can know both sender and receiver information. Each node can only decrypt its own layer.

These nodes are not servers operated by Session Inc., but over 1,500 distributed nodes from the global community, spanning more than 50 countries. Anyone can run a node, provided they stake 25,000 SESH tokens.

In May 2025, Session completed its migration from the original Oxen network to the independent Session Network, adopting a proof-of-stake consensus mechanism. Node operators earn incentives through staking. In practice, Session supports text, voice messages, images, and file sharing, and can create encrypted groups of up to 100 people. Users can enable calling features, though voice and video calls are still in testing.

A clear flaw is that, due to messages passing through multiple relays, notification delays are unavoidable—sometimes a few seconds to tens of seconds behind centralized apps. Multi-device synchronization is also not very smooth, which is a common issue in decentralized architectures.

SimpleX: Extreme Privacy — No User ID at All

If Session’s selling point is “no need for phone numbers,” SimpleX is more radical: it has no concept of user IDs whatsoever.

Most communication apps, no matter how privacy-focused, give users some identifier. Telegram uses phone numbers, Signal uses phone numbers, Session uses random IDs. The problem is: even if these IDs are not linked to real identities, they still leave traces—if you chat with two people using the same account, in theory, those two can confirm they’re talking to the same person.

SimpleX’s solution: eliminate such identifiers entirely. Every time you create a new contact connection, the system generates a pair of one-time queue addresses. The address you use to chat with A is completely different from the one for B, with no shared metadata. Even if someone monitors both conversations simultaneously, they cannot prove they are from the same person.

The registration experience is also radically different. Open the app, enter a nickname—no phone, no email, not even a password. All profile data is stored locally on your device; SimpleX servers do not store any account data.

Adding contacts is also unique. You generate a one-time invitation link or QR code and send it to the other party, who must click it to connect. There’s no “search username to make friends” feature, because there are no usernames to search for.

Technically, SimpleX uses its own developed SimpleX Messaging Protocol. Messages are transmitted via relay servers, which only temporarily store encrypted messages and do not keep any user records; servers do not communicate with each other. Once sent, messages are immediately deleted. The servers do not know who you are or who you are chatting with.

This design is extremely radical, placing privacy as the top priority. The app is open source on Github and has passed a security audit by Trail of Bits. SimpleX was founded by Evgeny Poberezkin in London in 2021, received funding in 2022 led by Village Global, and Jack Dorsey has publicly expressed support for the project.

In practical use, SimpleX features a minimalist interface supporting text, voice, images, files, and self-destructing messages. It also has group chat functions, but without a central member list, large group experiences are less smooth than traditional apps. Voice calls are available, but video calls still face stability issues.

A clear cost is that if you switch devices or lose local data, you must reconnect all contacts one by one. There’s no “log in to restore all chat history” convenience—this is the price of extreme privacy design.

Business Model Comparison: Token Incentives vs Deliberate De-Financialization

Both apps are privacy communication tools but have chosen completely opposite business routes.

Session follows the typical Web3 path. The SESH token is the network’s glue, serving three roles:

• Node operators need to stake 25,000 SESH
• Node operators earn SESH rewards for relaying and storing messages
• Future paid features like Session Pro and Session Name Service will be priced in SESH

Logically: node operators have economic incentives to maintain network stability; staking increases the cost of malicious behavior; token circulation provides sustainable funding. Currently, about 79 million SESH are in circulation, with a max supply of 240 million, of which 62 million are locked in staking rewards pools. After Vitalik’s donation, SESH once surged to $0.20, with a market cap over $16 million. This rise reflects both message-driven hype and the market’s valuation of this “privacy infrastructure.”

SimpleX takes the completely opposite approach. Founder Evgeny Poberezkin explicitly states: he will never issue tradable tokens. He believes speculative tokens would divert the project from its original purpose. Funding comes from venture capital and user donations. In 2022, the seed round raised about $370,000, with over $25,000 in user donations. The project plans to launch Community Vouchers in 2026, a limited utility token similar to prepaid credits for server usage. The key is: these vouchers cannot be traded, will not be pre-mined, are not sold publicly, and have fixed prices. SimpleX deliberately blocks all avenues for financial speculation.

Both paths have pros and cons. Token-based models can quickly attract node operators and capital but face volatility and regulatory risks. De-funding projects maintain purity but have limited funding and slower expansion. This is not just a business strategy difference but also a philosophical debate on “how privacy should be funded.”

Structural Challenges in Privacy Communication

Vitalik, in his donation statement, was straightforward: he clearly states that these two apps are not perfect yet. Achieving truly good user experience and security is a long road ahead.

The pain points he mentions are actually structural issues in the entire privacy communication industry.

First is the cost of decentralization. Centralized apps provide fast, stable, smooth messaging because all data flows through the same server system, with ample optimization space. Decentralization requires relaying through multiple independent nodes, making delays unavoidable.

Second is cross-device synchronization. With Telegram or WhatsApp, switching phones and logging in restores chat history instantly. But in decentralized architectures without a central server storing your data, cross-device sync relies on end-to-end synchronization mechanisms, which are technically much more complex.

Third is protection against Sybil attacks and DDoS. Centralized platforms use phone number registration, naturally filtering out spam accounts. But if you abandon phone number binding, how do you prevent mass creation of fake accounts for harassment or attacks? Unpermissioned registration requires alternative methods to combat abuse.

Abandoning centralization sacrifices user experience; enabling permissionless registration requires other safeguards; multi-device sync involves trade-offs between privacy and convenience. These are the classic impossible triangle.

Vitalik’s support for these two projects at this moment, in a sense, is a declaration: these problems are worth solving, and solving them requires funding and attention.

For ordinary users, migrating to Session or SimpleX might still be early; practical experience has shortcomings. But if you care about your digital privacy, at least it’s worth downloading and trying to see how far “true privacy” can go. Ultimately, when someone like Vitalik is willing to put real money on the line, it often means that this is not just a geek’s self-entertainment.