Client-Side vs. Server-Side Encryption: Architecture, Keys, and Trade-Offs
In my early tech journey, I’d always see the phrase “End-to-End Encryption on WhatsApp” and feel a bit skeptical. How could WhatsApp not see my messages when their servers were the ones handling them? I honestly thought it was just a clever marketing gimmick.
My curiosity grew when I started learning about crypto wallets. If I lose my seed phrase, why can’t the wallet company just hit a “reset” button and recover it for me? What was happening behind the scenes that made my data so inaccessible, even to the provider?
Later, while working on real projects, I got comfortable implementing security measures like JWT, OAuth, and password hashing with bcrypt. But for a fintech project, I faced a new challenge: encrypting sensitive data moving between our users’ devices and our server. Suddenly, I was working with concepts like AES, data keys, and key management, and it felt fundamentally different...
Copyright of this story solely belongs to hackernoon.com. To see the full text click HERE
