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by ivanjermakov 313 days ago
Technology has been there for decades. The real problem is convincing people you want to chat with that this it's important and worth all inconveniences (no chat history, no multi-device sync, no group chats, etc.) and the network effect is working against it.

Would be great if regulators understood that serious criminals will have a way of communication that is not traceable with this regulations.
1 comments
Bender 312 days ago
The real problem is convincing people you want to chat with that this it's important and worth all inconveniences

During peace time I would agree but when the screws are tightened enough and one makes a zero-friction anonymous chat instance it might just get some use. Zero friction or near zero meaning click a URL, enter a temporary name and hit the "Start" button. [1] Channels do not really matter in this example as private chats would be the primary use case.

Set up a simple IRCD on the backend that cloaks IP addresses. ngIRCD [2] takes 5 minutes to set up and one second to mask all IP's. There are many web front-ends [3] to make it happy-clicky. All of this can run from a ram-disk and deployed with automation and/or containers to low memory and low CPU servers.

    CloakHost = temp.chat
    CloakHostModeX = temp.chat
    CloakUserToNick = yes
    MorePrivacy = yes
[1] - https://web.libera.chat/#hackernews [this instance does not cloak IP addresses, use a VPN]

[2] - https://github.com/ngircd/ngircd/

[3] - https://ircv3.net/software/clients#web-clients

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