The release of the SimpleX Chat 6.5 platform has been announced, providing tools for decentralized communication without identifiers. Messaging occurs through temporary unidirectional SMP queues (SimpleX Messaging Protocol), which are separate for each connection. All connections utilize end-to-end encryption. The application and SMP router code is distributed under the AGPLv3 license.
To establish a connection, users need to exchange a link containing the address of the SMP server and encryption keys. Thus, users can choose through which servers to receive messages, whether it be official servers, community servers, or a personal (self-hosted) server. To conceal an IP address from SMP servers, a 'private routing' mechanism is used, which ensures the routing of requests through a series of independent SMP servers, similar to onion routing used in the Tor network.
The most significant changes in version 6.5:
- The implementation of channels has been added, allowing the delivery and management of information while maintaining state (stateful). While SMP queues provide unidirectional delivery of packets without state (stateless) between two endpoints, channels implement a 'one-to-many' information delivery model with cryptographic identification, independent of infrastructure operators. Each channel can utilize multiple relays for censorship and fault tolerance.
On top of channels, 'public channels' similar to those in Telegram have already been implemented, but with important distinctions:
- The channel owner truly possesses it and controls it with a cryptographic signature. Relays that facilitate the 'one-to-many' delivery are interchangeable and cannot act on behalf of the channel owner;
- Participation privacy is ensured. Relays are clients within the SimpleX network, thus inheriting confidentiality properties from the SMP transport layer.
- Preparation for the division of intellectual property rights over the protocols and network to prevent conflicts of interest between businesses and users. The establishment of the SimpleX Network Consortium.
- The application simplifies the sending of invitations for new users and implements optional support for web link previews, with the ability to use SOCKS proxies for previews, phishing protection, and link tracking blocking.
Source: opennet.ru
