// the find
status-im/status-legacy
a free (libre) open source, mobile OS for Ethereum
Status is a mobile Ethereum client combining a messenger, crypto wallet, and dApp browser into one app, targeting Android and iOS. It runs go-ethereum directly on device — no backend relay — which is the core architectural bet. This is the legacy repo; active development has moved to status-im/status-mobile.
The re-frame/reagent architecture for a React Native app is well-suited to managing the complexity of concurrent blockchain state — unidirectional data flow handles wallet/chat/network state without callback chaos. The Nix-based build system (default.nix, gemset.nix) gives reproducible builds across platforms, which matters for a security-sensitive app. Decision records in doc/decisions/ are actually maintained and cover real tradeoffs (e.g., 0003-geth-node.md on why they embed go-ethereum). The clj-kondo static analysis config is thorough with custom hooks for project-specific macros.
This is an archived legacy repo — the README still links to status-im/status-mobile for actual releases, so anything you learn here may be obsolete. Running a full Ethereum node on a mobile device is a battery and storage disaster in practice; the idealism of 'no middlemen' runs headlong into the reality of a 100GB+ chain. The ClojureScript + React Native + Go bridge stack has three compilation layers and toolchain friction that makes onboarding genuinely painful — the starting guide exists because it needs to. No obvious test coverage for the wallet logic, which is the part that handles real money.