France signs up to the Matrix.org Foundation • The Register

Comment Decentralized communications network Matrix is hoping to be the beneficiary as European public and private sector organizations ponder alternatives to the messaging status quo.

During Matrix’s recent Strasbourg conference, more than two dozen public sector entities were noted to have tried (or were currently using) the technology. The vast majority were European, highlighting worries on the continent about dependency on closed and potentially insecure messaging platforms.

The French state is already running Matrix as the backbone of its secure instant messaging service. Tchap is used by more than 600,000 public officials, and the country’s Interministerial Digital Directorate (DINUM) announced at the conference it was signing up as a Silver member of the Matrix.org Foundation, which requires a fee, becoming the first country to do so.

That’s well timed. The Register has noted quiet grumbling that certain organizations are using the open source code – as they are perfectly entitled to do – without contributing. Such is the joy of the open source world.

France isn’t alone. Germany has championed the technology in healthcare and other public sector departments, and more countries scrutinizing Matrix include Sweden, which is considering rolling out its own secure messaging service.

The Matrix protocol was developed 11 years ago but remains a relatively niche messaging technology. Thanks to political upheaval, not least the unpredictability of the US over the last year, and conflicts such as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, European governments have sought homegrown or open alternatives to closed technologies in the cloud and messaging spaces.

We’d liken the process to turning a supertanker. During the Nextcloud summit, IONOS CTO Dr Markus Noga noted that interest in sovereign technologies had spiked. That said, the typical sales cycle means it takes time for discernible momentum to build in the private sector. The private sector is likely to take at least as long, if not longer.

This was highlighted in Strasbourg by the European Commission, which is running a trial Matrix deployment. In this case, the deployment is to find a replacement for Signal as a backup tool while addressing the security issues arising from platforms the commission could not control. Signal suffered an outage last week due to its dependence on Amazon Web Services (AWS).

The commission, though, was very clear that it had no plans to replace Microsoft Teams as its primary platform. During a session titled “Trialing Matrix within the European Commission for resilient and sovereign communications,” the presenter, Nicolas Dubois, responded with a curt “No!” when asked if it intends to ditch Teams in the future, adding “it’s not me doing those types of decisions, but I don’t think so.”

Dubois’s comment sums up Matrix’s position. Some countries, such as Germany and now France, are embracing the service, while others are dipping a toe into the decentralized waters. Momentum is building, driven by a need for sovereignty and privacy in communications. Version 2 of the Matrix specification is only a few months away. During the Strasbourg conference, the organization’s technical co-founder, Matthew Hodgson, said projects such as “decentralized social” would not be pursued. Instead, “we’re going to laser-focus on being the best decentralized secure comms platform in the world.”

“Decentralized” is key. During an outage in September, the Matrix.org homeserver went offline following a hardware failure. Organizations with their own homeservers, such as governments, were unaffected. While embarrassing, the incident also inadvertently demonstrated the strength of a decentralized approach.

Compared to the messaging giants, Matrix remains a niche player. However, as shown by the DINUM partnership and deployments and trials elsewhere in Europe and around the world, the desire for sovereign and private communications is intensifying. This comes despite EU proposals such as “Chat Control,” which would require service providers to let authorities monitor private communications.

On the latter point, one anonymous Matrix conference attendee noted the irony of the French state seeking a secure instant messaging service for its own use, while also supporting Chat Control regulations for the wider public. ®