@raphaelrobert @phoenix_r_d or help xmpp. At its core it is very minimal and flexible. You can invent new ways there to hide metadata, share it with the community, write XEPs and try to help everyone, adopting it.
There ARE opportunities here. Of course starting from scratch makes more fun, but in the end you will run into the same walls, the others already ran again. Then you are forced to do compromises. And others will say, that you did bad decisions and they need to start from scratch