Anonymous Decentralized Chat Engine Over Overlay Networks

Chatting privately without having trust in a third party is a challenge and has not been addressed completely in the literature. In this context, we explore an existing concept of having an overlay network on an overlay network. This helps one overlay network inherit strengths and maybe also weaknesses from the host overlay network. In this paper, we explore a decentralized anonymous file system that can help someone talk privately with anyone he/she wishes. We propose a technological solution AnonFS that runs over an anonymous overlay network such as Tor and I2P. With the use of Tor or I2P, AnonFS inherits the property of Anonymity of connection. AnonFS is zero-trust cloud storage for synchronization. One can share content or even synchronize with multiple devices using AnonFS. AnonChat works by initiating a direct connection from one Tor/I2P peer to another Tor/I2P peer. AnonChat uses AnonFS to store and retrieve data anonymously. The identity of the user is never tied to any physical entity such as email ID, phone number, IP address, or any other personally identifiable information. This means that if the user is really careful about whom he shares the information with, AnonChat can be completely untraceable. We qualitatively compare AnonFS with several popular services.