Dan Mills

This site runs a Mac OS 8 emulator in your browser — complete with a working IRC client, Netscape 2.0, and a TCP stack that actually connects to the internet. It's called Sandmill. Open the emulator above and join #sandmill on IRC.

I'm Dan. I've spent most of my career on identity and open protocols — Mozilla Persona, Firefox Sync, identity at Square. Now I'm Head of Product at Avail, working on blockchain infrastructure. The thread across all of it is systems that let people control their own stuff.

The conversations I'm most interested in: protocol design and identity on the web, the history of open systems (what worked, what didn't, and why), building weird things that probably shouldn't exist, and what happens when you take old computing ideas seriously in a modern context.

The best way to reach me is IRC — I'm thunder on #sandmill. The intended path is through the Mac OS 8 emulator on the home page: open IRCle or Netscape and you'll land in the channel. You can also find me on Mastodon or email dan at this domain.

I'm not looking for work right now. But if you're building something strange and want to think out loud, I'm around.