Building a serverless, post-quantum Matrix homeserver

^{* This post was updated at 11:45 a.m. Pacific time to clarify that the use case described here is a proof of concept and a personal project. Some sections have been updated for clarity.}

Matrix is the gold standard for decentralized, end-to-end encrypted communication. It powers government messaging systems, open-source communities, and privacy-focused organizations worldwide. 

For the individual developer, however, the appeal is often closer to home: bridging fragmented chat networks (like Discord and Slack) into a single inbox, or simply ensuring your conversation history lives on infrastructure you control. Functionally, Matrix operates as a decentralized, eventually consistent state machine. Instead of a central server pushing updates, homeservers exchange signed JSON events over HTTP, using a conflict resolution algorithm to merge these streams into a unified view of the room's history.

But there is a "tax" to running it. Traditionally, operating a Matrix homeserver has meant accepting a heavy operational burden. You have to provision virtual private servers (VPS), tune PostgreSQL for heavy write loads, manage Redis for caching, configure reverse proxies, and handle rotation for TLS certificates. It’s a stateful, heavy beast that demands to be fed time and money, whether you’re using it a lot Continue reading