Issue 2/Who Keeps the Member List?
Parallel Infrastructure
Every encrypted group chat still needs a mechanism to distribute keys and track who is in the group. MLS, the standard for this, assumes a server that is always online will do the job, which means whoever runs the server holds the member list. This is an obvious point of centralisation that can lead to abuse and fragility in the system.
Logos Messaging’s version, de-MLS, removes that server and assigns the job to one member at a time, with the role rotating. Anyone in the group can propose adding or removing someone, or rotating the keys. The group then votes over the network, and if the vote passes, the proposal becomes a normal MLS update. If the member holding the role sits on a proposal, the role moves on. Updating your own key doesn’t require a vote. And none of it requires anything onchain.
The difficult part is keeping everyone in step. The keys remain secure only if every member applies the same changes in the same order, so a single disagreement splits the group. Changes to the group, therefore, have to arrive almost without fail, while ordinary messages can be looser. Logos Messaging handles this with Scalable Data Sync, where every message points back to the messages that led to it. Each member can then tell which messages they’re missing and ask for them to be sent again, without the network being flooded with receipts.
Losing a phone works similarly. Each app and device gets its own key tied to your account, so a lost phone means revoking that one installation rather than your whole identity.
Testnet v0.3 brings this to Logos Chat, with several devices per account that can each be revoked, delivery receipts, group names, and post-quantum encryption for groups and direct messages.
Logos Messaging Deep Dive, forum.logos.co, 18 September 2026.