Encrypting Files, Messages, Media

Secure Encryption with Cipher

Cipher enables the secure encryption of any form of digital content — including text, documents, audio, and video — via a decentralized, fully client-side protocol. This section outlines the operational prerequisites and usage limits.

Prerequisites

To encrypt or decrypt data using Cipher, the user must first:

• Create or import a valid structured channel, following Cipher’s syntactic rules (see [Cipher Channels Explained]).

• Generate or import a valid key pair:

  • The private key is used as the password (kept secret).

  • The public key serves as the user identifier.

• Obtain the public key of the recipient, which will be used as the destination ID.

Once these are in place, the user can initiate encryption or decryption flows entirely locally, without any server or metadata overhead.

Usage Modes

• Short message or text-based communication can be encrypted and the output copied and pasted directly into any communication platform. The recipient simply needs to paste the ciphertext into their Cipher instance using their own private and public key, along with the agreed channel.

• Longer messages and all files (documents, audio, video) should use the export mechanism. Cipher provides a .0fx export format that packages the encrypted content into a transferable file. This file can then be sent via any platform and decrypted by the recipient who uses the matching configuration.

Technical Limits

Processing capacity is hardware-dependent. Indicative file-size limits on standard mobile devices, assuming a 10 Mbps processing threshold:

• Text / Documents: Approximately 10 MB — roughly equivalent to a PDF of up to 1,000 pages.

• Audio (MP3): Up to ≈ 3 minutes (~3 MB per minute; ~9 MB total).

• Video (mobile camera): Up to ≈ 15 seconds (~10 MB file size, depending on resolution).

These are approximate values and may vary significantly depending on the device's CPU, memory, and file encoding settings. All encryption and decryption utilize only local device resources.

Summary Workflow

User encrypts content using:

• Their private key

• Their public key

• The recipient’s public key

• A shared structured channel

Cipher outputs either:

• A short ciphertext (for copy–paste), or

• A .0fx encrypted file

Recipient decrypts using:

• Their private key

• Their public key

• Sender's public key

• The same shared channel

All encryption and decryption occur entirely on the user's device, ensuring total privacy, control, and no external dependency.