Scuttlebutt is a decentralized, anonymous, and encrypted social network. It uses the Tor network to anonymize all traffic. This app is designed for Android devices only and has no web interface.
The peer-to-peer messaging app is a private-chat-only Android App for Secure Scuttlebutt. It allows users to send messages without any third party apps.
Tremola is an Android Secure Scuttlebutt (SSB) client that solely allows for private conversation.
Tremola aspires to provide the same functionality as existing end-to-end encrypted messaging apps such as Signal, Whatsapp, or Threema, but on a decentralized basis. What is the significance of this?
Fully decentralized: you don’t need Facebook or Signal’s servers to function.
Tremola follows SSB’s decentralized method of permissionless and trustless operations, which is a significant advantage over conventional end-to-end encrypted messengers. Tremola is permissionless, which means it doesn’t rely on third-party services (which might be shut off for you or the whole country): two Tremola-enabled smartphones can function locally even if they’re on an island. If you want to utilize auxiliary connection services, you don’t have to put your faith in them.
QR codes make it simple to get started.
There is no global user directory, and you must know another person’s cryptographic identity before you can contact them, which is known as the onboarding problem: how can you contact a peer if the peer does not know that you wish to contact them or does not know your cryptographic identity? As an example: In the case of Signal, your device’s phone number is used as an identifier, and Signal’s servers keep track of these numbers and make the matches, whereas in the case of Threema, the Threema service assigns short names at sign-up and manages them for you, as well as allowing you to contact peers using them if you know their shortname.
Tremola addresses the onboarding issue in the same manner as Threema does: two peers should meet in person for trust reasons and connect by scanning a QR code on each other’s smartphone. Tremola will also have a “safe wireless pairing mode” that functions similarly to connecting two Bluetooth devices.
The Tremola onboarding process for Alice and Bob, who met at a pub and want to build a trusted SSB channel to use in the future, is shown in the video below. They may also test their channel right away using local WiFi, as seen in the video.
Demo of the onboarding process (video)
Vehicle for Proof-of-Concept and Experimentation
Tremola is the first step towards making SSB a real rival to existing end-to-end encrypted messengers. Tremola is now serving as an experimental platform for both the applications’ software design and the way SSB data is handled on this journey:
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The replication protocol and wire format, which are at the heart of SSB, are written in Kotlin, while the user interface and rendering are handled by Android’s WebKit module and some JavaScript (instead of hardwiring also these aspects in Kotlin).
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Tremola will use a “surf approach,” focusing on the novelty wavefront and storing just recent messages rather than the whole history, which in SSB may become rather big. This is done so that even peers with a large “append-only log” may rapidly enter into messaging on their cellphones.
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Tremola presently offers a very restricted version of secure group conversations inherited from the existing SSB protocol (limit of 7 participants, no dynamic group membership). Tremola’s adoption of SSB’s new secure group communication protocol will be a logical progression.
What is the significance of the name “Tremola”?
For centuries, travelers traversing the Swiss Alps traveled via “Val Tremola,” a valley on the Gotthard pass’s north-south link. The same-named street still exists and is well-known for its daring hairpin bends. We believe the Tremola app will have to make many twists before reaching its pinnacle.
GitHub
https://github.com/cn-uofbasel/tremola
The p2p secure messaging is a private-chat-only Android App for Secure Scuttlebutt. It allows users to chat securely and privately without having to worry about their messages being intercepted or saved by third parties.
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