eZchat is a network-driven decentralized chat program. It has the flexibility of a P2P network without the drawbacks, especially it does not require chat partners to be online at the same time.

A network is a group of users willing to transmit the messages of the network, similar to torrent users. All users are client and server at the same time. Since all messages are encrypted, each user can only read the messages that are dedicated to them. For now, we still need a tracker where the IPs of the user of a network are stored, as well as at least one user that accepts incoming connections. An interesting alternative might be the Kademlia algorithm, which would promote eZchat to a truly independent decentralized protocol.

Messages can be addressed to single persons or groups. A message can be pure text or have a file associated. Messages stay in the network and can be viewed the chat history. The only unencrypted information visible, is the user name of the recipient and the time stamp of the message. Optionally, one can chose to drop messages from the network to the local archive after some time.

eZchat also gives anonymity as it is by construction impossible to tell whether the sender is also the author of the message.

Install dependencies using pip:

• pip install -r requirements.txt

Contributors should have a look at the Developer Guidelines.

As we are still in heavy development, you might want to check Travis to see the current build status of the continuous integration server.

Finally, you can dive in the doc strings and inheritance diagrams over at ReadtheDocs