NEXTLEAP · Project

Privacy-Preserving Encrypted Messaging and Identity Protocols for Decentralized Platforms

digitalTestedTRL 5Thin data (2/5)

Imagine every message you send online passes through a company's server that can read it — like sending postcards instead of sealed letters. NEXTLEAP built the "sealed envelope" technology for the next generation of messaging and social platforms, so groups can communicate and even run polls or surveys without anyone in the middle seeing the content. They also created a way to prove who you are across different platforms without handing over your contact list or social connections to any single company.

By the numbers

EUR 1,968,030

EU funding for protocol development

consortium partners across 5 countries

total deliverables produced

demo-level deliverables including working modules

end-to-end encrypted messaging protocols developed

The business problem

What needed solving

Companies building messaging platforms, collaborative tools, or analytics products face a growing contradiction: users and regulators demand strong privacy, but most business models depend on centralized data access. Existing encryption solutions often break when you need features like group analytics, cross-platform identity, or federated access — forcing companies to choose between privacy and functionality.

The solution

What was built

NEXTLEAP built and validated a suite of open-source protocols and modules: two end-to-end encrypted messaging protocols (synchronous and asynchronous), a federated secure identity system that protects users' social graphs, and a privacy-preserving analytics module that enables machine-learning tasks over encrypted decentralized data. All 31 deliverables were completed, with validated modules described as ready for integration with real-life projects.

Audience

Who needs this

Secure messaging platform developers needing E2E encryption across decentralized systemsEnterprise collaboration tool vendors facing GDPR compliance pressureMarket research and analytics firms wanting to process sensitive survey data privatelyDigital identity providers building federated login without centralized data storesHealthcare or legal tech companies requiring privacy-preserving group communication

Business applications

Who can put this to work

Secure Communications

SME

Target: Messaging platform providers or enterprise communication tool developers

If you are a communication platform provider dealing with growing customer demand for end-to-end encryption — this project developed validated protocols for privacy-preserving encrypted messaging across decentralized systems, refined through user feedback rounds and ready for integration with real-life projects. With 31 deliverables produced over 3 years by a 7-partner consortium across 5 countries, the protocols cover both synchronous and asynchronous messaging.

Data Analytics & Market Research

any

Target: Analytics firms needing to process sensitive user data without exposing individual responses

If you are an analytics company struggling to gather crowd intelligence while complying with data protection regulations — this project built an open-source module for privacy-preserving analytics that lets you run machine-learning tasks over encrypted and decentralized data. The privacy-enhanced analytics module enables collective intelligence without exposing individual user data, addressing the core tension between useful insights and privacy compliance.

Identity & Access Management

mid-size

Target: Digital identity providers or enterprise SSO solution vendors

If you are an identity management provider dealing with the challenge of letting users move between platforms without creating a centralized honeypot of personal data — this project developed a federated secure identity protocol that protects users' social graphs using a secure address-book while associating identities with cryptographic key material across different systems. The protocol was validated and tested with real user communities.

Frequently asked

Quick answers

What would it cost to implement these protocols in our product?

The protocols and modules are open-source, so there are no licensing fees for the base technology. Integration costs would depend on your existing architecture. The project received EUR 1,968,030 in EU funding over 3 years to develop these protocols, giving you a sense of the R&D investment behind them.

Can these protocols scale to millions of users?

The protocols were designed for decentralized systems, which inherently distribute load rather than centralizing it. The validated modules were tested with selected user communities and refined through feedback rounds. Based on available project data, large-scale stress testing at millions of concurrent users is not explicitly documented.

What is the IP situation — can we use this commercially?

NEXTLEAP produced open-source modules, and the initial prototypes were released to the public. The project was led by INRIA (France's national computer science research institute) with 7 partners. Specific licensing terms for commercial use should be confirmed directly with the consortium.

How does this compare to existing end-to-end encryption like Signal Protocol?

NEXTLEAP specifically addressed gaps in existing solutions by adding privacy-preserving identity federation and encrypted analytics capabilities on top of messaging encryption. The project produced two messaging protocols with an upgrade path, designed to work across decentralized systems rather than through a single provider.

Is this compliant with GDPR and data protection regulations?

The project was explicitly designed around data protection and privacy by design principles. EuroSciVoc classifications include data protection, human rights, and governance. The privacy-preserving analytics module was specifically built so that collective intelligence tasks can run without exposing individual user data.

What concrete outputs can we evaluate today?

The project produced 31 deliverables including 6 demo-level outputs: a federated secure identity protocol, two end-to-end encrypted messaging protocols, a privacy-preserving analytics protocol, an open-source crowd analytics module, and validated integration-ready modules. These were released publicly during the project period 2016-2018.

Consortium

Who built it

The NEXTLEAP consortium of 7 partners across 5 countries (France, Germany, Spain, Switzerland, UK) is heavily research-oriented with 4 research organizations and 2 universities versus just 1 industry partner. The 14% industry ratio and only 1 SME signals this is fundamentally a research-driven project led by INRIA, France's premier computer science institute. For a business buyer, this means the technology is scientifically rigorous but may require additional engineering effort to reach production quality. The cross-European composition spanning Switzerland, Germany, and the UK brings strong cryptography and privacy expertise, but a commercial integration partner would need to bridge the gap between research prototypes and market-ready products.

INSTITUT NATIONAL DE RECHERCHE EN INFORMATIQUE ET AUTOMATIQUECoordinator · FR
ECOLE POLYTECHNIQUE FEDERALE DE LAUSANNEparticipant · CH
INSTITUT DE RECHERCHE ET D'INNOVATIONparticipant · FR
FUNDACION IMDEA SOFTWAREparticipant · ES
UNIVERSITY COLLEGE LONDONparticipant · UK
CENTRE NATIONAL DE LA RECHERCHE SCIENTIFIQUE CNRSparticipant · FR

How to reach the team

INRIA (Institut National de Recherche en Informatique et Automatique), France — contact via SciTransfer for warm introduction

Order a report on this consortium See INSTITUT NATIONAL DE RECHERCHE EN INFORMATIQUE ET AUTOMATIQUE profile →

Next steps

Talk to the team behind this work.

Want to evaluate these privacy-preserving protocols for your platform? SciTransfer can arrange a technical briefing with the NEXTLEAP team and help assess integration feasibility for your specific use case.

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