I am waiting for Matrix's P2P support, once its out, its going to crush everything else. Supposedly its should come out with the improved mobile apps too, which are sorely needed.
Is it close to being released? Or is that all theoretical?
Briar: Peer-to-Peer Encrypted Messaging
31–40 of 145 posts
Re: Briar: Peer-to-Peer Encrypted Messaging
#32Since the protocol appears to use adhoc synchronization, the authors might be interested in https://github.com/sipa/minisketch/ which is a library that implements a data structure (pinsketch) that allows two parties to synchronize their sets of m b-bit elements which differ by c entries using only b*c bits. A naive protocol would use m*b bits instead, which is potentially much larger.
I'd guess that under normal usage the message densities probably don't justify such efficient means-- we developed this library for use in bitcoin targeting rates on the order of a dozen new messages per second and where every participant has many peers with potentially differing sets--, but it's still probably worth being aware of. The pinsketch is always equal or more efficient than a naive approach, but may not be worth the complexity.
The somewhat better known IBLT data structure has constant overheads that make it less efficient than even naive synchronization until the set differences are fairly large (particular when the element hashes are small); so some applications that evaluated and eschewed IBLT might find pinsketch applicable.
Re: Briar: Peer-to-Peer Encrypted Messaging
#33Useful in warzones I'd imagine
Re: Briar: Peer-to-Peer Encrypted Messaging
#34My wife and I use Briar for household communication because of subsidiarity rather than any direct privacy concerns. Out of all the messenger projects that we've tried, Briar actually works for local communication. It's actually instant messaging without any client hiccups or latency (looking at you, Signal). We've tried a ton of other options, but we keep ending up back at Briar. There are points of UX friction in t…
You may like this app
Meshenger (P2P Voice- and video phone App.)
https://f-droid.org/packages/d.d.meshenger/
Re: Briar: Peer-to-Peer Encrypted Messaging
#35Earlier quoted context omitted.
Sorry, how exactly were messages being transmitted from phone to phone? Were you connected to the Wi-Fi, with browsing blocked behind a paywall? And that was sufficient for Brair to find the other phones?
Sorry I may have communicated this poorly. We were connected to the local area network, but we had no Internet access (which was behind a paywall). However, only being connected to the local network was sufficient for Briar -- no Internet needed!
To be fair, it would absolutely be possible to set up a hotspot where all the clients were jailed and invisible to each other, had IPs in different subnets, whatever.
Conventionally, I guess that sort of isolation doesn't typically happen as it's more work to set up and only really benefits users (privacy from each other), but maybe if more apps figure out how to take advantage of this things could change.
Re: Briar: Peer-to-Peer Encrypted Messaging
#36Just wanna say this app saved my family and I when we went on a cruise. Normally, we would had had to pay to use the chat service via the ship's paid-only Wi-Fi (since we get no phone reception on the seas). Without needing to pay for the Wi-Fi, we were all able to use Briar to communicate whilst connected to the network, which made coordinating and finding each other on the ship way easier. It was great and worked r…
Check out https://berty.tech for direct off network communications when you do not have internet.
How does this work? Do the two devices still need to be on some sort of net work accessible to each other? Two cell phones not on the same Wi-Fi are going to have a hard time talking to each other buy anything other than Bluetooth, no?
Re: Briar: Peer-to-Peer Encrypted Messaging
#37My wife and I use Briar for household communication because of subsidiarity rather than any direct privacy concerns. Out of all the messenger projects that we've tried, Briar actually works for local communication. It's actually instant messaging without any client hiccups or latency (looking at you, Signal). We've tried a ton of other options, but we keep ending up back at Briar. There are points of UX friction in t…
> It's actually instant messaging without any client hiccups or latency (looking at you, Signal).
This is almost certainly poor wifi / cell coverage, not Signal having "hiccups" or "latency." I routinely have real-time texting conversations with friends and I can see the messages are "seen" almost instantaneously, half-way across the US.
I've also never had an issue with voice chat. It's been flawless, and very high quality audio. As good or better than Facetime.
Also, unlike Briar, Signal is available for iOS, which is superior if you care about digital privacy, allowing users to disable a slew of data reporting (particularly location data) back to Apple that Android forces you to give Google.
Re: Briar: Peer-to-Peer Encrypted Messaging
#38Earlier quoted context omitted.
Thanks, this is basically combination of somewhat central servers plus nearly always online model. I need to think about it - on the first glance I am not 100% sure the role Tor plays in this model. Is this described somewhere in more details? As I said, I clicked around but didn’t see any docs about this.
The directory services are the equivalent of DNS. The role of Tor is it facilitates anonymous, end-to-end encrypted connection between client and server, each messaging app is both a client (or a set of clients) and a server (a Tor Onion Service) that talk to each other through the Tor network. This way the traffic never exists the Tor network*. Tor Project has an excellent new article about Onion Services at https:/…
I understand, but the server (dns like) still knows everything which is not good imho
Re: Briar: Peer-to-Peer Encrypted Messaging
#39Earlier quoted context omitted.
Thanks, this is basically combination of somewhat central servers plus nearly always online model. I need to think about it - on the first glance I am not 100% sure the role Tor plays in this model. Is this described somewhere in more details? As I said, I clicked around but didn’t see any docs about this.
The directory services are the equivalent of DNS. The role of Tor is it facilitates anonymous, end-to-end encrypted connection between client and server, each messaging app is both a client (or a set of clients) and a server (a Tor Onion Service) that talk to each other through the Tor network. This way the traffic never exists the Tor network*. Tor Project has an excellent new article about Onion Services at https:/…
Separate topic so replying in a separate sub thread
The clients are not always on, iOS and Android don’t like background processes, connections go down, battery runs out, etc. I understand how to build always on clients but it’s not a practical solution.
Re: Briar: Peer-to-Peer Encrypted Messaging
#40My wife and I use Briar for household communication because of subsidiarity rather than any direct privacy concerns. Out of all the messenger projects that we've tried, Briar actually works for local communication. It's actually instant messaging without any client hiccups or latency (looking at you, Signal). We've tried a ton of other options, but we keep ending up back at Briar. There are points of UX friction in t…
You may like this app Meshenger (P2P Voice- and video phone App.) https://f-droid.org/packages/d.d.meshenger/
Sean Connery approves