No server is needed: Bitmessage, LXMF, Nostr, and Syncthing
An idea whose time has come.
Preface
As Mr. Todd Boyle CPA has predicted, over a couple of decades ago.
If hosted filesystems storages, and public key encryption, had been available 20 years ago, SMTP, POP3, and HTTP would never have been invented. Certainly, their markets would have been much smaller.
Servers and hubs are obsolete except as a bootstrapping mechanism.
Bitmessage
Bitmessage is a P2P communications protocol used to send encrypted messages to another person or to many subscribers.
It is decentralized and trustless, meaning that you need-not inherently trust any entities like root certificate authorities.
It uses strong authentication which means that the sender of a message cannot be spoofed, and it aims to hide "non-content" data, like the sender and receiver of messages, from passive eavesdroppers like those running warrantless wiretapping programs.
LXMF
LXMF (Lightweight Extensible Message Format) is a simple and flexible messaging format and delivery protocol that allows a wide variety of implementations, while using as little bandwidth as possible.
It is built on top of Reticulum and offers zero-conf message routing, end-to-end encryption and Forward Secrecy, and can be transported over any kind of medium that Reticulum supports.
LXMF is efficient enough that it can deliver messages over extremely low-bandwidth systems such as packet radio or LoRa.
Encrypted LXMF messages can also be encoded as QR-codes or text-based URIs, allowing completely analog paper message transport.
Nostr
The simplest open protocol that is able to create a censorship-resistant world "social" network once and for all.
It does not rely on any trusted central server, hence it is resilient; it is based on cryptographic keys and signatures, so it is tamperproof; it does not rely on P2P techniques, and therefore it works.
It is a very simple idea: each person can publish their notes to multiple relays (which are just simple servers), and people who follow them can connect to these relays and fetch the notes. The protocol just defines the messages that can be sent between clients and relays in order to publish and fetch the content they want.
These relays can be hosted by anyone and have any rule or internal policy they want. The fact that the protocol is open makes it so that, as long as there is any relay willing to host someone, they can still publish their stuff for their followers, and the followers can find their stuff in that relay.
Relays can also lie about data published by others, but to ensure that is not a problem, public-key cryptography is used and every note is signed. When you follow someone you are actually following their public key and clients will check notes received from relays to ensure they were properly signed. Here is a video that explains the role of relays pretty well.
Syncthing
Syncthing is a continuous file synchronization software.
It synchronizes files between two or more computers in real time, safely protected from prying eyes.
Your data is your data alone and you deserve to choose where it is stored, whether it is shared with some third party, and how it is transmitted over the internet.
Syncthing utilizes Relay Protocol v1 and uses relays as intermediators to connect on Syncthing instance with another.
Todd Boyle CPA Kirkland WA
Mr. Todd Boyle is a CPA, graduated from University of Oregon in 1978 with a 3.5 GPA.
He is an independent consultant. Since 1999 he has provided services to developers, providers, and users of internetworked ledgers. In 2002 and 2003 he has worked with several open source ledger and settlement projects including PicoIPO, the JustTrade project, and a Seattle currency project. At present he is employed by NetFile, a campaign finance ASP.
He quit working in public accounting in 1999 and pledged to stop wasting his clients time and money on taxes and accounting services. http://www.ledgerism.net/MetadataPledge.htm He created the RootledgerXML schema in 1998-99. He was editor, in 12/2000 of the RFP issued by the OMG for global reconciliation of AR and AP systems at http://www.omg.org/techprocess/meetings/schedule/AR_AP_Facility_RFP.html . Our team executed a public requirements and design process and discussion on a collaborative website (ArapXML.net), including complete set of GL semantics in ebXML Core Components format. (parts of the ArapXML website are mirrored here.)
He participated in the design of the UN/CEFACT ebXML Core Components Technical Specification.
Conclusion
Be your own master over your information.