Building a Privacy-First URL Shortener on Blockchain

Описание и применение

Создан приватный сокращатель URL, использующий клиентское шифрование и хранение зашифрованных ссылок в блокчейне Cronos, устраняя сбор данных и повышая устойчивость к цензуре.

Задача

Traditional URL shorteners log IPs, timestamps, user agents, track browsing patterns, and sell data, creating a privacy nightmare and a single point of failure if the database is hacked.

Результат

Cryptly delivers a privacy‑first URL shortener that eliminates server‑side logging, removes a single point of failure, and offers censorship resistance by storing encrypted URLs on a public blockchain.

Рабочий процесс

• 1. User enters a URL in the Cryptly web interface.
• 2. The browser generates a random IV and derives an AES-GCM key via Web Crypto API.
• 3. The URL is encrypted client‑side and the ciphertext is sent to a Cloudflare Worker.
• 4. The Worker writes the ciphertext to the Cronos blockchain as a transaction.
• 5. The short link (blockchain transaction hash) is returned to the user.
• 6. When the short link is visited, the browser fetches the ciphertext from the blockchain via the Worker.
• 7. The browser decrypts the ciphertext locally using the same key and IV, revealing the original URL.
• 8. The browser redirects to the decrypted URL without exposing it to any server.

Доказательства

Encrypted URL stored on Cronos blockchain

Источник

Server never sees destination

Источник