Matrix – An open standard for decentralized persistent communication | Hacker News Reader

Matrix – An open standard for decentralized persistent communication

matrix.org

45 pointsstelonix12 comments

This looks like an excellent alternative to Telegram or Signal group chats. Telegram group chats work so darn good, but they're not end-to-end encrypted if you want to be able to access them from more than one device. Signal/WhatsApp group chats are end-to-end encrypted but aren't nearly as seamless.

Self hosted but not end-end-encrypted would be a good compromise i believe. I love that there's a web client. Has anyone really put it to work? I'd love to hear how well it works, in practice.

See this thread from a couple days ago for more discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11794914

Ok, so this is "decentralized" in the sense that a communication from one client will be sent directly to another client, but you still have to have a centralized discovery method. Correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't WebRTC already cover the same bases? I think I might be missing what is really new or interesting here.

Matrix is not peer-to-peer. It's decentralized in the sense that it's federated. Like email, (or other messaging systems before it, like XMPP,) each user's account exists primarily on a specific server, but they can choose which server that is, or run their own, and it doesn't change their ability to message anyone else in the system or for anyone else to message them.

so will it die the same way as xmpp?

death by spam

Oh, does XMPP have trouble with spam? I guess it makes sense, since it works like email, but I have never received any.

Not Spam issue itself, but there's been a lot of spammy bot accounts created on many domains, which is the reason why In-Band registration is disallowed on most of the public domains. It has also been said that when Google still federated, a major part of the federation was for spam accounts to connect to Google, and only very few actual humans used federation, so they just cut it.

it wasnt said... it was the official reason Google gave for shutting it down.

Can you send a message directly to a specific person (who might not await it) or is it all about chat rooms?

The data model isn't different for 1-to-1 chats. You're still in a room, it just has only two people in it. Differentiating between the two visually (or otherwise) would be a feature of a Matrix client.

OK, but would the recipient of my message have to actively connect to a room to receive it, or can I send one out of the blue and have it come through?

this claims to solve very hard problems that eluded many great minds so far. paint me skeptical.

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