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.

Introducing Cryptly

I built cryptly to solve this problem using blockchain and encryption.

How It Works

Encryption (Client-Side)

const encrypted = await crypto . subtle . encrypt ( { name : " AES-GCM " , iv : iv }, key , urlBuffer );

Enter fullscreen mode

Exit fullscreen mode

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

Architecture

Tech Stack:

Cloudflare Workers (serverless, edge deployment)

Web Crypto API (native browser encryption)

Cronos blockchain (decentralized storage)

Privacy…