[dirktheman]

Yes, you're absolutely right that this has been done many times before. The goal was more in lines of a learning experience for myself than to create something unique. You have captured my attention, though, can you give me a hint into the right direction on how to avoid the 3rd party?

[wetherbeei]

Distributed Hash Tables, but then you need to solve the security issues of secure bootstrapping, Sybil attacks, and partitioning.

I was aiming for the most secure implementation, assuming someone had control over many pieces of the puzzle/network.