Sting Chat has gone through a major upgrade cycle, and these improvements are now live and have been implemented on PeakD.
This post is from @peak.open because Sting is an open-source Peak Open Project. PeakD.com is one implementation, but our bigger goal is for more Hive communities and Hive-powered projects to adopt and extend Sting Chat.
We released the new chat version at https://chat-v2.peakd.com/
However for most of you Peakd.com users just click on the icton in the middle the one between the ai icon and the bell
And peakd was the first project to integrate it. Hopefully others will follow.
Why Sting exists
Many Hive users are still on Discord, and that is understandable. Discord is familiar, fast, and deeply adopted.
Sting is not trying to deny that reality. It solves a different, Hive-native need:
- Verified identity context tied directly to Hive accounts
- Encrypted chats using Hive key security
- Open-source infrastructure the Hive ecosystem can own and evolve
- A communication layer that supports decentralization instead of dependency on one external platform
What just improved (now live on PeakD)
- Major UI/UX redesign across chat surfaces
- Better mobile behavior and sidebar flow
- Improved notifications and unread/mention feedback
- Faster DM loading and better caching
- Better encrypted chat workflows and decryption modes
- Better community discovery and management UX
- Improvements to the ui customization page (primarily meant for apps to customize their sting chat widget)
Feature walkthrough
1) Notifications and interaction visibility
This upgrade makes notification surfaces much easier to use in real life: clearer unread cues, better mention visibility, and faster scanning of what actually needs your attention.
2) Encrypted chats and key-based identity trust
Sting uses Hive user keys for encryption/decryption in direct messages, group chats, and designated encrypted community channels.
3) Decryption modes (important UX note)
Decryption mode determines how aggressively Sting decrypts encrypted content in the background.
The best experience is with Hive Keychain (desktop extension or Keychain mobile):
- If you manually approve each posting-key encryption signature, the flow works but feels slower.
- If you configure Keychain to auto-accept these encryption signing requests, then Slow and Fast modes become much smoother and mostly hands-off.
- Without Keychain, encrypted chat UX is currently less convenient.
Important: you can still use non-encrypted community chat even if you do not use Keychain or another encryption workflows.
4) Communities and discoverability
Community selection and management got clearer with better sorting/filtering and better context for navigation.
Test out the System (3 minutes)
- Open Sting from PeakD
- Check notifications/mentions
- Test a DM with encryption
- Explore community filtering/sorting
- In Keychain, decide whether you want manual approvals or auto-accept for encryption signatures
- Pick Slow or Fast decryption mode based on your preference
Open invitation to Hive projects
If you build in the Hive ecosystem, we’d love to see more implementations and experiments with Sting Chat.
WHY STING CHAT?
The long-term value is not just another chat interface. It is a decentralized, open communication layer the Hive ecosystem can control, improve, and adapt together. We understand that many in this community have been drawn to Discord... however we believe strongly that a Decentralized and Encrypted chat serves a role in Hive.
If you’re interested in implementing or contributing to the project, reach out to @peak.open. If you have specific requests reach out to @jarvie as he is now the primary maintainer of the project and will be doing another round of upgrades.
