Secure messaging app Terms of Service
These Terms of Service (hereinafter, the "Terms") constitute an agreement between the user and Wiss Core, the owner of the secure messaging app Mold, and govern the use of Wiss Core applications, websites, and services (hereinafter, the "Service"). We have tried to make this document as understandable and concise as possible.
Effective date: April 15, 2026
An inseparable foundation
By installing the Mold application, creating an account, or otherwise using the Service, you agree to be bound by these Terms and our Privacy Policy. If you do not agree, please do not use the Service and delete the Mold application. If you use Mold on behalf of an organization, you agree that you have sufficient authority to bind that organization to these Terms.
A few simple requirements.
You must be at least thirteen (13) years old. If you have not reached the age of majority under the laws of your country, you must have the consent of a parent or legal guardian to use the Mold messenger. You must not be a person with whom U.S. citizens and residents are prohibited from transacting under applicable sanctions law, and you must not use the Service from a jurisdiction subject to comprehensive U.S. sanctions. You must have the legal capacity to enter into a binding contract. Our obligations for the protection of children are described in the Privacy Policy.
Twelve words (12-seed) only yours.
Upon registration, the Service creates a cryptographic identity on your device and assigns you a Mold ID and a unique nickname. The 12-seed phrase of twelve words associated with the account is the only way to recover this identity. We do not own this phrase, cannot recover it if lost, and cannot confirm ownership of an account without it. You are responsible for keeping it secret. You may have more than one account, but no more than three. The categories of data linked to your account in this encrypted messaging app, and the architectural limitations on that link, are fully described in our Privacy Policy.
Provision of services.
Two different licenses are connected to the Service: a limited right to use the application that we distribute and a significantly broader public license for the source code that lies at its foundation. The most secure messaging app is built on this dual model.
Within the framework of these Terms, we grant you a limited, personal, non-exclusive, non-transferable, and revocable license to download, install, and use the Mold application on devices that you own or that you control, for the purposes of your own personal communication or use within your organization. You are not entitled to sell, sublicense, lease, or otherwise commercially distribute access to the Service.
The full source code of both the client and the server side of our Service is published on GitHub under the GNU Affero General Public License, version 3. This license is independent of these Terms and governs what you are entitled to do with the code itself, including running your own instance, modifying the code, and distributing modified versions under the same license.
We do not claim ownership rights to messages, media files, or other content that you create and send through the Service. All rights to the content remain with you.
Use within the law is use for the good.
You may use the Service for any lawful purpose: personal communication, family conversations, journalism, civil human rights activism, organizational work, business, study, and everything that lies between them. The secure messaging app Mold is created so that freedom of speech is the right of every person, which is protected by the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States and recognized by Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
What you may not do.
The Service is not a refuge for unlawful behavior. The categories listed below are strictly prohibited, and their violation may lead to the immediate blocking of the account and our subsequent referral to U.S. law enforcement. The full description of how this end to end encryption messenger responds to unlawful behavior is set out in the Law Enforcement Guidelines.
Use of the messenger to direct child exploitation in any form, as well as any other behavior that causes harm to minors of any country. Violations are reported to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children through CyberTipline in accordance with 18 U.S.C. § 2258A.
Use of the Service to plan, coordinate, incite, or glorify terrorist acts, mass violence, and other serious physical harm. Use for the purposes of human trafficking.
Impersonating another person, phishing, fraudulent extortion, distribution of malicious software, and other deceptive actions prohibited by U.S. federal law or by state laws.
Attempts to obtain unauthorized access to our infrastructure, to the accounts of other users, or to any system associated with the Service. Searching for vulnerabilities outside the framework of a coordinated disclosure process is also prohibited.
Creating accounts by automated means, mass sending of unsolicited messages, scanning the Service, and other interference with normal operation for other users. It is prohibited to create more than three accounts per user.
Reverse engineering (disassembling) the operating production infrastructure of the Service, bypassing anti-abuse measures, and any actions aimed at degrading the availability of the Service for others.
How accounts die.
You may stop using the Service at any time at your own wish, and you may also delete the old account from the application. The operational consequences of account deletion are described in the "Your rights" section of our Privacy Policy. We are entitled to suspend or deactivate your account if you violate these Terms, if the law requires it, or if we have reasonable grounds to believe that the continued availability of the account creates a risk of harm to other persons. Upon termination of our relations in connection with the behavior described in the "Prohibited actions" section, we are entitled to act without prior notice and not to explain the reason for the blocking or deactivation of the account. Such provisions of these Terms as the disclaimer of warranties, limitation of liability, indemnification of damages, dispute resolution, continue to apply to blocked or deactivated accounts of this encrypted messenger.
Inactive accounts.
An account that has not connected to our servers for twelve (12) consecutive months is considered inactive and may be automatically deleted. If you have not used the account for less than 12 months, your cryptographic identity is preserved for the entire period and you can log into it using your 12-seed phrase consisting of 12 words.
Belonging and property.
Brief information about ownership.
"Mold", "Wiss Core", "MoldChat", related logos, visual identity, and marketing texts on this site are our trademarks and objects of copyright. You may refer to us by name for factual and journalistic purposes without our permission. You are not entitled to use our marks in a manner that would imply support or affiliation with us.
The source code published under the AGPL-3.0 license may be used, modified, and distributed in accordance with this license. Proprietary builds, deployment infrastructure, and internal tools are not part of the open release and remain the property of Wiss Core.
All rights to the content you create are retained by you. If you believe that content transmitted through the Service infringes your copyright, please note: an end to end encryption messenger does not allow us to inspect the contents. The intended mechanism is user complaints through the built-in function. See Law Enforcement Guidelines for a description of the full process.
The Service is provided "as is".
The Service of this encrypted messenger is provided "as is" and "as available", without any warranties, whether express, implied, established by law, or any other. We do not warrant that the Service will be uninterrupted, error-free, protected from all forms of attacks, or compatible with every device or network. To the maximum extent permitted by U.S. federal and California state law, all such warranties are disclaimed.
For what we are not liable.
To the maximum extent permitted by applicable U.S. law, Wiss Core, and also the directors of this company, officers, employees, contractors, and affiliated persons shall not be liable for indirect, incidental, special, consequential, exemplary, or punitive damages on the user's side. Nor for lost profits, revenue, data, loss of reputation, or other intangible losses arising out of or in connection with the use or inability to use the Service. Our aggregate liability for any claim arising out of or in connection with these Terms or the Service is limited to one hundred U.S. dollars ($100). This limitation applies regardless of the theory of liability, contractual, tortious, statutory, or otherwise.
You yourself indemnify your losses.
You undertake to defend yourself independently, including covering your own losses at your own expense, in case it is necessary and occurred due to the use of our Service. In addition, you undertake to shield Wiss Core, its directors, officers, employees, and affiliated persons from any claims, obligations, indemnifications, losses, and reasonable expenses (including attorneys' fees) arising from your use of the Service, your content, your violations of these Terms, or your violations of the law or the rights of any third party.
We are always in touch.
We respond to any lawful requests within the framework of U.S. and California state law and, in addition, publish data on each request received in our transparency report. The architectural and procedural essence of this question is explained in detail on two separate pages. See Law Enforcement Guidelines for procedures, and Transparency Report for the numbers.
Applicable law and place of consideration.
These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of California and U.S. federal law applicable to contracts performed entirely within the territory of California, without regard to conflict-of-laws rules. Subject to the arbitration provision below, any dispute arising out of or in connection with these Terms or the Service is considered exclusively in state or federal courts located in Northern California. You and we give consent to the personal jurisdiction of these courts. Any claim must be brought within one (1) year from the moment of the event that served as the basis. Claims brought later are considered time-barred.
Arbitration for U.S. residents. If you reside in the United States, you and Wiss Core agree that any dispute not resolved informally will be resolved by way of individual binding arbitration, conducted by a recognized arbitration institution under its consumer rules, but not through a class action lawsuit or class arbitration. You may opt out of this arbitration agreement by sending us a written notice within thirty (30) days from the moment of first acceptance of these Terms. Nothing in this section prevents either party from seeking relief in small claims court or from making claims of infringement of intellectual property rights.
This dispute resolution mechanism reflects a balance carefully calibrated by American law between resolution effectiveness and access to justice. The exceptions from arbitration indicated above (small claims court and intellectual property) are deliberately preserved, since it is precisely through them that ordinary users and authors most often seek protection.
We will publish the changes.
We may update these Terms from time to time. When this happens, we will update the Effective Date at the top of this page and place a notice on the website and in the Mold application, an encrypted messaging app trusted by users. Continued use of the Service after the changes take effect means acceptance of the updated Terms. Previous versions remain available in the Transparency Report archive.
Standard provisions.
These Terms, together with our Privacy Policy and Law Enforcement Guidelines, constitute the entire agreement between you and Wiss Core regarding the Service of the most secure messaging app, and replace any prior agreements on the same subject. If any provision of these Terms is found unenforceable, the remaining provisions retain their full force. Our non-exercise of any right or provision is not considered a waiver of it. You are not entitled to independently change, assign, or transfer these Terms without our prior written consent. We are entitled to assign them to an affiliated person or successor in connection with reorganization, merger, or sale of assets without restrictions. These Terms do not create between you and Wiss Core any partnership, joint venture, employment, or agency relations.
Read all the useful information.
These Terms acquire their full meaning only alongside the Privacy Policy and the Law Enforcement Guidelines. Together, these three documents describe the complete legal picture of using Mold.