Out with the old, in with the new

PSYC is currently in a phase of heavy renewal. There is a whole stack of software working with the old protocol syntax and the federation paradigm where you pick a psyced server to host your identity, you log into it, then enter chatrooms distributed over a whole network of other servers.

The new approach instead uses a hybrid strategy of pseudonymous peer-to-peer routing combined with helpful dumb servers. The intention is to arrive at an unheard degree of privacy, far beyond the usual PGP and OTR installations. The new stack, based on libpsyc, also uses a new protocol syntax, renewed for efficiency. The secure share project is our prototype platform for the new PSYC. We call it PSYC2.

While the new project is exciting, it is still only offering very basic service. The old stack instead is loaded with features such as IRC and XMPP compatibility. There is a possibility to teach psyced to act as a gateway for PSYC2, thus combining the old with the new, but someone has to do it.