Show HN: A P2P messenger with dual network modes (Fast and Tor)
A secure and private messenger offering a choice between low-latency "fast mode" (relay/DCUtR) and anonymous "Tor message routing," with complete isolation between modes. Emphasizes E2E encryption, P2P messaging, and robust offline delivery.
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AI Executive Synthesis
A secure and private messenger offering a choice between low-latency "fast mode" (relay/DCUtR) and anonymous "Tor message routing," with complete isolation between modes. Emphasizes E2E encryption, P2P messaging, and robust offline delivery.
Kiyeovo addresses the critical market demand for secure and private communication by offering a P2P messenger with dual network modes: a low-latency "fast mode" and an anonymous "Tor message routing" mode. The complete isolation between these modes and end-to-end encryption are key differentiators. Its robust offline delivery mechanism via DHT "offline buckets" ensures message persistence. This product highlights the ongoing struggle between performance and privacy in communication tools. The technical complexity of managing P2P, DHT, and Tor routing, while ensuring data integrity and security, positions Kiyeovo as a serious contender in the privacy-focused messaging space, appealing to users prioritizing data sovereignty.
Hello HN,I have been working on a desktop P2P messenger called Kiyeovo for the last ~8 months, and I just published its beta version.Quick backstory: It started out as a CLI application for my Graduate Thesis, where I tried to make the most secure and private messenger application possible. Then, I transformed it into a desktop application, gave it "clearnet" support and added a bunch of features.Short summary:The app runs in 2 completely isolated modes:- fast mode: relay/DCUtR -> lower latency, calls support- anonymous mode: Tor message routing -> slower, anonymousThese modes use different protocol IDs, DHT namespaces, pubsub topics and storage scopes so there’s no data crossover between them.Messaging works peer-to-peer when both parties are online, but falls back to DHT "offline buckets" when one of them is not. To ensure robustness, messages are ACK-ed and deleted after being read.Group chats use GossipSub for realtime messaging. Group messages are also saved to offline buckets in order for offline users to be able to read them upon logging in. Kick/Join/Leave events are also propagated using the DHT. Group metadata and all offline data is of course encrypted.Other features: Chats are E2E, file sharing is supported, 1:1 audio/video calls are supported (only in fast mode though, using WebRTC)Tradeoffs: Tor has noticeable latency, offline delivery is not immediately guaranteed, but rather "eventually consistent"; beta version does not have group calls yet.I’d appreciate feedback, that's why I posted this as a beta versionRepo: https://github.com/Realman78/Kiyeovo
Community Voice & Feedback
If the protocols and data are completely isolated, and features differ in many ways, why combine them in a single App? There's a chance a user might accidentally leak sensitive info over the anonymous mode.
Is this pronounced keovo/keyovo? Just thoughts for a shorter name. Cool project!
Since Tor has become increasingly susceptible to state monitoring of exit nodes, making app rely on Tor is potentially compromising your future users.
Look into i2p or other protocol that’s really anonymous.
Look into i2p or other protocol that’s really anonymous.
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So most messaging apps rely on a phone number or centralized server to provide a means of making atleast the initial connection. In a purely P2P messaging system, how do I, as a user, find the other person I might want to talk to?
I don't recommend DHTs with public participants being made from scratch. Use mainline bittorrent DHT instead. Small networks are really easy to eclipse and censor.DHTs of trusted participants are great.
I worked on a p2p group chat app for a short time (no central server, same as this), but the group updates were a real problem. how do they get distributed?
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