Accepting collaborators— UTC
THR / 001Field notes & applied research⏚ Est. 2025

Threshold.fyi

Privacy-first freedom technologies.

We build systems that expand human agency in the digital age — applied cryptography, local-first AI, and resilient infrastructure for the people and organizations who keep the internet free.

§ 02What we care about / first principles
A filter,
not a brochure.

If three of these don't resonate, this isn't the place for you. That's a feature.
/ 001

Privacy-preserving systems

Cryptography as a load-bearing primitive, not a marketing line. Default deny, minimal trust, audited code paths.

/ 002

Local-first software

The user's device is the source of truth. The network is an optimization, never a dependency.

/ 003

Resilient infrastructure

Systems that degrade gracefully — under load, under censorship, under attack, under indifference.

/ 004

Coordination over capture

Tools that help groups think and act together, without becoming a single point of leverage.

/ 005

Applied, not academic

Research with users on the other end. Field testing under conditions that matter.

/ 006

Open by default

Auditable code, documented threat models, published failure reports. Trust is built, not asserted.

§ 03Current initiatives / under construction
INIT-01active

Internet freedom infrastructure

Routing, relay, and pluggable transport work for journalists and civil-society orgs operating in restrictive networks.

w/ Tor Project · OONI
INIT-02active

Humanitarian early-warning systems

Privacy-preserving signal aggregation for first responders. End-to-end encrypted, source-anonymous by construction.

w/ field partners (under NDA)
INIT-03active

Local-first AI tooling

Inference on-device, sync via CRDT, no data leaves the laptop. Built for researchers handling sensitive corpora.

open source · MIT
INIT-04alpha

Privacy-preserving fundraising

Zero-knowledge donation rails for political dissidents, nonprofits, and public-interest legal funds.

private alpha · invite only
INIT-05alpha

Encrypted collaboration systems

Shared workspaces with no server-side plaintext. Designed for cross-org coalitions and investigative reporting.

w/ two newsrooms
ENCRYPTED
INIT-06research

Public-goods coordination

Quadratic mechanisms and trust networks for allocating attention and funding to neglected open infrastructure.

applied research · 2026
§ 04Who we're looking for / the funnel

We're staffing a small, deliberate network — not hiring a team.

Especially interested in people working at the intersection of privacy, AI, coordination, and freedom technologies. We work asynchronously, across time zones, in small focused cells.

  • R-01Systems engineersLinux, networks, async runtimes
  • R-02CryptographersApplied, protocol, ZK
  • R-03Product thinkersThreat-model literate
  • R-04Designers who codeInterfaces for risk
  • R-05ResearchersField studies, policy
  • R-06OperatorsRun things that matter
  • R-07Mission-aligned foundersYou've shipped before
  • R-08You, if not on this listTell us anyway
§ 05Application / seven questions
Q.01 / 07THR · APPLICATION · 2026
One paragraph. We're filtering for taste, not credentials.
press ⇧↵ to continue
§ 06Signals / recent transmissions
2026-05-19 14:02FIELDINIT-02 — live drill with humanitarian partner (region withheld)+ 6h
2026-05-17 09:31COMMITINIT-01 — relay throughput +12% on constrained networksv0.4.2
2026-05-12 22:18WRITINGField note — "What we mean by local-first"8 min read
2026-05-08 11:00CONVENEPrivacy-tech working group · Lisbon · invite onlyclosed
2026-04-29 16:45NETWORKNew collaborator — cryptography research, ETH ZürichR-02