Using Tribler Network for a messenger?

General
#1

Hi, would it be possible to use the Tribler Network core for other applications than just Torrents ?

I think it may be quite interesting to use the completely dezentralised Tribler Network for an anonymous instant messenger. The Discovery of messenger participants could be made through DHT and messages sent anonymously through a Tribler tunnel.

If users sent files with their messenger it can use the torrent protocol to send it directly without needing any central servers.

So it will be possible to develop something that is even more secure than telegramm or Signal (both APPs require central servers). Especially cause any servers can be blocked by authoritarian governments like China or Russia. Blocking millions of tribler messenger peers IPs would be, well quite a bit more of a challange for them.

What do you think about this idea ?

1 Like
#2

Thank you for your interest in our project!

Regarding the messenger idea, we often discuss it internally. Enabling personal messages is a prerequisite for crowdsourcing, which is in turn a prerequisite for Wikipedia/GitHub/forums replacement.

At this moment, we are buried in other, more technical problems (e.g. tunnels and channels performance, etc.). Also, it is notably hard to create a truly distributed messenger. So, we’re probably going to try implementing it by the second half of 2021.

If you know how to code, you’re very welcome to contribute to Tribler development by using our IPv8 stack to implement the messenger!

2 Likes