Technical overview
How The Ark works
Self-hosted private storage and messaging. Your family's data has one home: the device you own and keep in your house. Here is what that means, in plain terms, for anyone who wants the detail.
A private device, not a cloud account.
The Ark is a self-hosted private storage and messaging device. Who is in your family network, your chat history, and your files all live on the Ark in your home. None of it is held on a third-party server.
Most private messaging apps encrypt the contents of your messages but still keep your metadata, who you talk to and when, on a company server. The Ark moves that entire layer onto hardware you own. No company holds your contact network or your history.
Storage works the same way. Each person gets a private encrypted space on the Ark for photos, files, and notes, accessible from anywhere through an encrypted connection back to your own device. No cloud bucket, no company holding your files.
What the Ark does.
Private messaging
End-to-end encrypted chats and group rooms.
Secure storage
A personal encrypted vault on your device.
Encrypted network
All traffic encrypted in transit and at rest.
Remote access
Secure access from anywhere you are.
Where your data goes, and where it does not.
On your home network
When your phone and your Ark are on the same network at home, they talk directly. No outside servers, no ArkCentral involvement. The traffic never leaves your home.
Away from home
Your devices form an encrypted connection back to your Ark. Where a direct path exists it is peer-to-peer. Where it does not, traffic passes through a stateless, content-blind relay. Either way, ArkCentral never sees your data.
Your data stays on your hardware
Our only role is helping your devices find each other. We hold no messages, no files, no contact list, and no history. There is nothing on our servers to harvest or hand over.
Three independent layers.
The Ark protects your data with layers that each have to be broken on their own. Intercepting traffic at any single point yields double-encrypted, unreadable data.
End-to-end
Messages and files are encrypted on your device using a double-ratchet scheme with forward secrecy. Only you and the people you share with can read them. Each session derives new keys, so past messages stay protected even if a later key is exposed.
In transit
All traffic, local and remote, travels through encrypted tunnels using ChaCha20-Poly1305 for encryption and Curve25519 for key exchange. An internet provider or network observer sees only ciphertext, with no readable metadata.
At rest
Everything stored on your Ark is encrypted at rest with AES-256. If the device is ever physically taken, the data on it is unreadable. ArkCentral holds no decryption keys.
No identity required
The Ark network needs no phone number and no account tied to your real name. Your presence on it is not linked to personal identifiers.
The same design, from the other side.
Here is what each party in the network can and cannot see.
| Party | Stores data | Reads content | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Your phone or Mac | No | Yes | Your own devices, paired to your Ark. Content is decrypted in memory while you use it and nothing is kept on the phone itself. |
| Your Ark | Yes | No | Your hardware. Everything stored here is encrypted at rest and only ever decrypted on your own device. |
| Your internet provider | No | No | All traffic is encrypted before it leaves your device. Network operators see only encrypted packets. No content, no metadata. |
| ArkCentral | No | No | Connectivity only. We never read content. Where a relay is used, peer addresses are visible during the active session only, with nothing retained. |
Why it matters for your family.
Data harvesting
There is no ArkCentral database of your photos, messages, or contacts to mine, sell, or train on. It simply does not exist outside your home.
Company breaches
Cloud breaches expose millions of accounts at once because everyone's data sits in one place. Your Ark is its own place, so there is no shared pool to spill.
Network surveillance
Everything is encrypted before it leaves your network. Anyone watching the connection sees only encrypted packets, with no readable content or metadata.
Own your family's digital life.
One device in your home. No cloud, no subscription, no strangers in your data.