First time hearing about Briar. So it’s like Signal but can also be used via Bluetooth if close enough?
Also, messages travel trough Tor, so you get P2P and identity. The coolest IM.
The hardest too, because you should only add contacts verified face to face. (Technically you can add remote contacts but they’ll be marked as not fully trusted.)
How does it work through Bluetooth if messages go over Tor? Is Bluetooth purely used for contact discovery?
Bluetooth is used as a fallback for creating local offline mesh functionality in case of a full internet shutdown. It will also keep working between devices in the same local wlan, even when the internet connection to the wlan router is cut off.
The idea is to get maximum censorship resistance to the degree where you can still get information flow in case of a full government/military shutdown. You can even sync chats over external storage devices like usb drives or sd cards. All using the same level of encryption as usual ofcourse. Tor is just used because the internet is inherently non anonymous and leaks your identity and location without it.
When you create group chats, for example for a big protest movement, then every device that joins the group will act as a entry and exit node meaning you can mesh together many people with varying degrees of internet access. Below the diagram from their website to give you an idea.
Ah that’s pretty cool, thanks for explaining
That, and also it’s decentralized and sends all messages through the tor network if Bluetooth isn’t available
Sort of. Briar can do private messaging. However, Briar also supports Blogs and Forms. The neat part is that it is totally decentralized with traffic going over Bluetooth, WiFi and Tor. It is designed to communication in situations where an advanced adversary is targeting a group. It can be used a protests and such.
The downside with Briar is that it requires that something is online always. You can setup a old phone as a mailbox but it is still inconvenient.
I thought the term “Fediverse” specifically referred to software that uses ActivityPub to federate content across instances. Like how Git is decentralized, but it’s not federated. Now I’m confused.
You are right, op uses the term incorrectly.
I’ve also seen it used for software like Nextcloud. Not to say that is the proper use as Nextcloud isn’t even close to being related.
Nextcloud had ActivityPup support (I think I heard they were deprecating it though)
Post this to the Briar sub/lemmy/space, they need content :)
Briar is the coolest messaging technology I have ever seen. But very few people use it.
How is mastodon “not real”?
It was created aliens to achieve world dominance
Because it doesn’t exist! Mastodon is a conspiracy created to distract us, so we don’t act. New World Order is coming!
heh heh heh. I still keep a copy of Briar on all my phones.
???
Wife and I love it when we have to talk about one of our kids. They don’t know what it is so that’s the best part.
What?
My wife and I can talk about our kids without having to worry about them finding the text msg as we use it as a backup msg app. We let our kids use our phones for games at times and well kids are kids and will go through shit they aren’t suppose to.
It’s a long way of saying “I’m a bot.”
Look at this guy over here. His bot detector is malfunctioning.
Skill issue. I get it.
They are not that bot
deleted by creator
Just Tor
I2p has limitations and isn’t nearly as well proven as Tor. I still think it is pretty solid but Briar is designed to be used in very dangerous situations. I2p simply isn’t as reliable yet. In the future this could change. I have no hate against i2p but I personally wouldn’t use in a dangerous place like Hong Kong.
