Introducing `secret`
send a message through a safe, private, and encrypted link that automatically expires to ensure your stuff does not remain online forever.
Secret is a side-project that I built to solve a single problem. I still remember many times my old bosses and friends sharing with me keys
or passwords
through a chat platform (Slack, WhatsApp, etc) and these secrets
probably still exist there.
To solve that I built Secret where you can share those kinda of information through a safe, private, and encrypted link that automatically expires.
But what that means?
It means that when you use Secret, we receive an encrypted copy of the secret. We don't have the ability to access the content of your encrypted secret, and only keep it until somebody opens it.
We use WebCrypto API with the AES-GCM algorithm to encrypt and decrypt the secret in the browser, meaning the secret that’s transferred to our server is already encrypted and its contents can’t be viewed by us.
The true story!
I actually built Secret because I thought it would be a cool project to practice my coding/design skills. I'm always creating something new every day and Secret is one of them.
When I had the idea I came to a friend and talked about Secret with him, he told me that it was a simple and interesting project. And that got me excited, on the same night I started building the API, it took me less than 2 hours.
The next morning I started designing the website and building it (front-end code, connecting with the API, …).
After finishing Secret, I worked in the post-production
of the website.
- Writing a good readme on Github
- Making the repository public
- Sharing on Social Media (facebook and twitter)
- Publishing on Product Hunt
It got some attention on Facebook groups, people really enjoyed Secret and I was really happy. I thought that was it.
Since a lot of people liked Secret I added more features/improvements like:
- Add
optional passphrase
- Add
copy link
button - Add
help
page - Add
about
page
And I thought that was it… 🎉
I don't know why. I don't know how… But secret was the #3 Product of the Day on Product Hunt.
It was a Sunday afternoon when I saw Product Hunt’s tweet about Secret. And to be honest I didn’t believe at first because I wasn’t expecting at all. At the same time, I was really excited!
Conclusion
I don't think Secret will survive that long. I don't want to earn money with Secret. I don't want it to be a Startup or Company.
Secret is just a fun Open Source side-project that I'm so proud of. I learned a lot about marketing, cryptography, front-end, design, and back-end.
I don't know if sharing my analytics will mean anything, but I'll share anyway.
That's all! Thanks for reading, until my next project.