[Bender]

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