[sillysaurus2]

> while the content itself is encrypted, the "metadata" still isn't, which renders everything moot anyway. Timestamped messages are still too much information to be giving away to people

This is the same as what happens when you use PGP. You have a timestamped message and a clear link between sender and recipient. If you need to hide the fact that you are communicating with a person in particular, Syme (or PGP for that matter) may not be the right tools.

You've set your sights much too low, and it's unfortunately going to limit your product's market value.

Hiding metadata is a difficult problem to solve, but it's vital.

[Amadou]

Hiding metadata is a difficult problem to solve, but it's vital.

I expect you'll have to burn bandwidth. Broadcast "all" messages to "all" users, users can only decrypt the messages intended for them, discard the others. There are probably tricks you can do to reduce it to a fraction of "all" messages but I bet it will still be a substantial amount of bandwidth.

Perhaps usenet will see a revival.

[zachlatta]

If you're interested in this approach, take a look at Bitmessage. https://bitmessage.org/wiki/Main_Page

[jonajon]

There's currently no good solution to the problem of metadata when you're handling persistent messaging. It remains an active field of research, and we hope we can contribute to the discussion.