[tangent128]

tl;dr: Hyperbeam is roughly a netcat tunnel that connects via a DHT topic instead of network address; use it where you want a secure one-off tunnel. (for example, to transfer a key for Wireguard)

Wireguard:

+ Can tunnel arbitrary IP traffic

~ Has stricter encryption, with full asymmetric keys (and optionally adding a symmetric key)

- requires permissions to load a kernel module and configure the network stack

Hyperbeam:

+ Only needs userland UDP sockets, not a kernel module

~ Derives its keys from a passphrase, so does not require transferring a full cryptographic key between devices

- is a single application-layer pipe, applicable in shell workflows but not transparently tunneling arbitrary applications