The messaging protocol XMTP will transition to a self-hosted open-source stack, and the Labs network will shut down in early 2027

The messaging protocol XMTP founder Shane Mac stated that XMTP will evolve into a self-operating open-source messaging stack, providing private conversations between people and agents, with infrastructure controlled by users, without requiring tokens or wallets. The network hosted by XMTP Labs will shut down in early 2027.

Shane Mac mentioned that he founded XMTP five years ago because he believed that private messaging should not be owned by a single company. He recalled that the team envisioned using wallets as cross-application identities, allowing messages to follow identities, and using tokens to pay infrastructure operators, but this path was not realized. XMTP has never issued tokens and will not issue them now. He admitted that it was a wrong decision to persist with a single shared network for a long time, as developers have consistently requested the ability to self-host XMTP. Therefore, it has shifted to self-hosting, allowing developers to use, inspect, modify, and maintain the entire software suite without relying on Labs. Former employees will assist in maintaining the protocol, and Shane Mac himself will continue to be involved.

The article introduces that self-hosted XMTP offers quantum-resistant end-to-end encryption, private one-on-one and group chats, encrypted identities, and message authenticity, as well as SDKs for mobile, web, server, and agents. Chief Technology Officer Nick Molnar has simplified the backend to a single Rust binary and integrated attachments, push notifications, handles, and signed webhooks for new messages. Each self-hosted network does not automatically interconnect by default, and agents from different tools must connect to the same backend to share conversations.