knightly , 3 months ago (edited 3 months ago)

The TOR network is indeed the most widely-used implementation of onion routing, but it isn’t the only example.

My go-to reference is Retroshare, an open-source app that implements onion routing on top of an encrypted friend-to-friend network:

retroshare.cc

https://pawb.social/pictrs/image/d6809187-d8a9-4760-b57b-abda73d5ffbb.png

You only connect to your trusted friends, but by passing messages along the Kevin Bacon chain it’s still possible to reach practically anyone on the network. Retroshare’s built-in services include email, instant messaging, traditional web forums, microblogging, and Reddit-style karma-ranked forums/linkboards, and third party plugins include voice and video chat. It’s desktop-only, but I think it demonstrates that serverless social networks are possible.