Re: [Ring] GNU Ring to replace SMS/Whatsapp

[Greg Troxel]

I think the big issue with text messaging and offline recipients in ring
is really that offline delivery tends to go with servers.  With xmpp, or
email, we expect the server to be online (up and on the Internet) all
the time, and the user then connects to get messages.

There are crypto schemes to protect offline messages (OTR, OMEMO).  But
they don't protect against traffic analysis.

Then there's bitmessage, which is probably ultimately challenged on
scalability.

I also played with Briar:

  https://briarproject.org/

which seems aligned philosophically with Ring.  It uses tor hidden
services (or local) and no servers, so ends up transferring only when
connected.  I found it painful to have a HS up all the time on a phone
(battery use), so I wondered about having a Briar node of one's own in a
stable computer and then connecting to it, sort of mixing the darknet
and the client/server model.

Ring could do this for messaging, where one has a proxy ring address
that's likely reachable, and then the mobile client could connect and
get things.  But, that's probably going far afield of the original
online voice call intent.  It might not be hard, sort of MX records for
chat destinations, signed by the original key, and fetched/delivered
once and cached.

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