Armada is an open-source, end-to-end encrypted communication platform that mimics Discord's structure — servers, channels, threads, voice, video, custom emoji — but replaces the corporate backend with the Nostr protocol. Your identity is a cryptographic key, not an email or phone number. Communities live across multiple public relays, so no single company can delete your server or ban your account. The software is AGPL-3.0 licensed with no ads and no paid tier. The architecture is fully self-hostable at three layers: the web client (served from your own domain), the relay (where encrypted messages are stored and forwarded), and the voice/video infrastructure (via LiveKit). Users who want none of that overhead can simply use the public defaults at armada.buzz. The project supports multiple Nostr-based community formats — Concord, NIP-29, and Buzz — and because it shares the Nostr key system, a single login works across other Nostr-compatible apps. A Discord bridge lets communities mirror channels bidirectionally or import an entire server — channels, roles, emoji, and up to 10,000 messages of history per channel. This is the pragmatic play: migration cost is the moat that keeps people on incumbents, and Armada is trying to lower it to near zero. The bridge means nobody has to move all at once, which is the only realistic way community software transitions happen. The privacy architecture is aggressive. Messages are encrypted before leaving the sender's device. Even the community name is encrypted. The Concord protocol is open, so the encryption claims are verifiable rather than trust-based. This puts Armada closer to Signal's posture than to Discord's, which stores messages in plaintext on its servers and recently introduced ID-scan requirements that triggered user backlash. The timing is deliberate. Discord's 2025 data breach and its push toward an IPO — with the surveillance infrastructure that implies — created a window. Armada's FAQ and blog posts explicitly frame the project against Discord's ID scans and centralized control. The value proposition is clear: same UI paradigm, different power structure. Armada is in open beta ahead of a v1.0 release. There is no iOS app yet (the web app works on iPhone), and the project acknowledges "occasional rough edges." Native apps exist for Android, macOS, Linux, and Windows. The team is shipping updates almost daily, which signals active development but also pre-1.0 instability. The structural question is whether the decentralized-encrypted-Discord niche is large enough to sustain a project without a revenue model. AGPL-3.0, no ads, no paid tier — that means grants, donations, or eventual services. Matrix/Element walked this path and survived but never displaced Discord. Armada's bet is that the Nostr ecosystem provides the network effect that Matrix lacked, and that Discord's own missteps are pushing users toward the exit.
