Why I replaced a 3MB "Burn-after-reading" tool with my own 30KB Phoenix engine

0xSmold — Tue, 31 Mar 2026 23:51:36 +0000

Hi Dev.to! 👋

I've always been a fan of "burn after reading" tools like Privnote, but recently I noticed how bloated they have become. One popular open-source alternative I used was pulling in a 3MB Tailwind CDN script on every page load, just to style a simple text area!

So, I spent my weekend building SmoldPaper v2.0.0 "Phoenix".

The Goal: Extreme Performance & Autonomy

I wanted a tool that is:

Zero-Knowledge: Encryption happens locally (AES-GCM 256-bit).
Fast: Pre-compiled styles (29KB) instead of runtime engines.
Independent: Zero external calls. No CDNs. No tracking.

Tech Stack

Frontend: React (compiled to static HTML/JS).
Backend: A single PHP file with SQLite (WAL mode enabled).
Security: Strict SQL DELETE commands for physical shredding.

I managed to shrink the total size by 100x while making it significantly faster and easier to self-host.

Check out the code here: github.com/0xSmold/smoldpaper
Live Demo: smoldpaper.org

I'd love to hear your thoughts on the architecture or the "no-CDN" approach!

Forem: 0xSmold

Why I replaced a 3MB "Burn-after-reading" tool with my own 30KB Phoenix engine

The Goal: Extreme Performance & Autonomy

Tech Stack