Never heard of Briar. Title made me think it was some new cool desktop environment for linux.
It took me longer than I care to admit before I realized Briar is just a messaging app.
It took me longer than I care to admit before I realized Briar is just a messaging app.
In that regard, what are other apps like Briar?
The premise is:
> Briar is a messaging app designed for activists, journalists, and anyone else who needs a safe, easy and robust way to communicate. Unlike traditional messaging apps, Briar doesn’t rely on a central server - messages are synchronized directly between the users' devices. If the internet’s down, Briar can sync via Bluetooth or Wi-Fi, keeping the information flowing in a crisis. If the internet’s up, Briar can sync via the Tor network, protecting users and their relationships from surveillance
Briar was built for P2P from the ground up, so presumably they planned this better.
This isn't a criticism of matrix. Matrix is great and I use it everyday but gotta give credit where its due.
I see no reason to think P2P isn't a goal of Matrix either; the reason it's not P2P now is that federation was easier, but the long-term game certainly looks to be P2P with work on cryptographic, portable identities and Bluetooth mesh networking in the form of Pinecone. I've also seen arathorn confirm this on HN.
I hope this will change with p2p matrix...
It sounds similar to Scuttlebutt https://scuttlebutt.nz/
What sets them apart is scuttlebutt's special concept of how it works as a social network, dissimilar to Briar.