Why Traditional URL Shorteners Are a Privacy Nightmare When you click a bit.ly link, here's what happens: Bit.ly logs your IP, timestamp, user agent They see the destination URL They track your browsing patterns They sell this data to advertisers Even if you trust the shortener, their database can be hacked. I built cryptly to solve this problem using blockchain and encryption. Encryption (Client-Side) const encrypted = await crypto.subtle.encrypt( { name: "AES-GCM", iv: iv }, key, urlBuffer ); Blockchain Storage Encrypted URL stored on Cronos blockchain Immutable, decentralized No centralized database to hack Decryption (Browser) Browser fetches from blockchain Decrypts locally using Web Crypto API Server never sees destination Tech Stack: Cloudflare Workers (serverless, edge deployment) Web Crypto API (native browser encryption) Cronos blockchain (decentralized storage) Privacy Benefits: ✅ Server never sees destination URLs ✅ No tracking, no analytics ✅ No database to leak ✅ Censorship-resistant (blockchain) Live demo: cryptly.workers.dev github.com/your-username/cryptly Still in early stages but feedback welcome! privacy #blockchain #webdev #opensource