LinkACodeLiveEight characters instead of a server address.
LinkACode turns a server address into a short code, like AB123456. Give out the code instead of the address. Anyone you give it to adds it in Vizi Player, typed or scanned from its QR card, and signs in as usual, without ever seeing the address behind it. One code works for as many people, on as many devices, as you like.
The problem
Addresses are long, fussy and easy to get wrong.
A server address is long, fussy and easy to get wrong, and typing it into every phone and tablet you use gets old fast.
So someone who runs their own media server can set up every device at home with one code, and a school's IT team can put one code for its print server on every laptop.
What we built
Codes
Assigned codes of two letters and six digits, or codes of 6 to 20 characters worded by you, singly or in groups of five.
Share cards
Every code comes with a share card: the code and a QR code, nothing else. Vizi's scanner reads it straight off the card.
Accounts
Email verification, two-step verification, and a list of signed-in sessions that can each be signed out.
Payments
Card payments a year at a time. Nothing renews by itself, and a code that lapses simply stops working.
An API for apps
Apps can look up the address a code stands for. Access is granted case by case.
A separate back office
The admin side runs as its own Worker, which never holds the key that decrypts addresses.
Under the surface
The engineering
- 01
Addresses are stored encrypted (AES-256) and looked up over an encrypted connection.
- 02
The encryption key is derived from a secret that is never in the database, and the back office never has it.
- 03
Look-ups are rate-limited, and a code that exists and one that does not take the same time to answer, so codes cannot be found by timing.
- 04
A code stands in for the address only. The username and password go to the server, never to LinkACode.
- 05
LinkACode keeps a daily total per code, and no record of who used a code or when. Misuse reports go to [email protected], and a code can be switched off on a credible report.
Whose server
Yours, or one you are authorised to use. A code is a shortcut to an address you already have the right to connect to — it does not come with content, and it does not give you access to anything you could not already reach.
Services this drew on
More work
- Our productVizi PlayerA media player for iPhone and iPad that plays the playlist a person already has. It comes with no content of its own.
- Client workDubai meal-plan marketplaceRebuilding a Dubai meal-plan marketplace: a new back office, customer app, website and API, and menus that load themselves from partner kitchens.
- Our productVantanAn iPhone and iPad app for watching the IP cameras you already own, privately: the video goes from the camera to your phone and nowhere else.
- Our productVVS PanelOur foundation for client back offices: a React design system for admin panels built around each client's own data and roles.
- Our own toolFrontalA private AI operations assistant: mail, renewals, deadlines and system health in one phone app, with a local AI model that sorts, drafts and flags.
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Tell us what you are building.
A few lines about the problem is enough to start. We reply within one business day.