This seems very similar to bitmessage, which has a functioning client and 1000's of active nodes. Why would I wait for this instead of using bitmessage?
Read the Bitmessage white paper and you'll know why you should avoid Bitmessage: Every node will have a copy of every single message sent across the entire network. I believe the meme to use here is "Fail".
This is an erroneous assertion, sending every message to every client on the network was a valid design choice. By delivering every message to every client it is ensured that envelope information (to whom, from whom, etc.) isn't leaked. Even if you can see all of the BitMessage network traffic, you still can't deduce who sent and received a particular message.
They do have an acknowledgement mechanism that may make some level of envelope leaking possible but it's optional on the client side.
If you trust that the messages are properly encrypted, there's no reason to fear distributing those encrypted messages as widely as possible.
Message security is actually quite good with Bitmessage -- the issue is scaling the network and correspondingly, its vulnerability to traffic analysis.
Yes, it's not scalable. Even the Bitmessage creator acknowledges this. They've been at an impasse for quite a while trying to come up with a better system with which to scale.
I realize not reading Bitmessage's documentation is lazy, but could you explain the inability to scale such a system? Is it simply the chicken or the egg dilemma of nobody using it currently (and so, pretty much the same issue BitTorrent originally had)? Or is it some technical reason?
I get that completely. It's just...I don't believe using 4k bit keys would expose the system anytime in my lifetime. I, obviously, could be wrong. But, I think I would take that chance. I was just hoping someone could convince me that I should't (now that I think about it).
BTW, what is wrong with just hiding real activity with an artificial traffic made of random bits sent to random addresses? The only thing I can think of is that bulk senders may get uncovered, but this is actually good for fighting spam.