April 2, 2026
Slide into DMs… or onions?
Show HN: A P2P messenger with dual network modes (Fast and Tor)
New P2P chat drops: Fast vs Tor mode sparks privacy fights and “how do I add friends” vibes
TLDR: A new peer-to-peer chat app, Kiyeovo, launched in beta with a fast mode and a Tor-based anonymous mode. The crowd is split: fans love the privacy pitch, while skeptics worry about finding contacts, small-network censorship, and whether Tor is truly safe—sparking a lively practicality vs privacy showdown.
A fresh beta called Kiyeovo just slid into the DMs promising a truly decentralized chat with two personalities: a speedy everyday mode and an anonymous Tor-routed mode. No central server, end‑to‑end encryption, offline delivery, group chats—the works. But the launch didn’t just ship code, it unleashed opinions. The loudest theme? Practicality vs privacy. One camp cheers the privacy angle, while skeptics ask the painfully simple question: how do regular people even find each other in a serverless world? As one commenter put it, how do I… find the other person I might want to talk to?
Then came the security brawl. A veteran warned that small peer networks are easy to “censor,” urging the team to piggyback on battle‑tested BitTorrent-style discovery instead of rolling their own. Another set off alarms about Tor: with governments watching exit points, is “anonymous mode” really anonymous? Some pushed alternatives like i2p. Meanwhile, builders zeroed in on the nerdy pain point: group updates in a serverless setup—how do you keep everyone in sync without chaos? The mood swings from “brave new messenger” to “this will fall over at scale.” Jokes flew about “onion mode for spicy takes,” and yes, the promised emojis got a wink—because what’s privacy without reactions?
Key Points
- •Kiyeovo released a beta of its decentralized P2P messenger with Fast and Tor Anonymous modes.
- •Core features include E2E encrypted direct messages, offline delivery fallback, group chats, encrypted file transfer, and trusted profile import/export.
- •Fast mode supports lower latency, relays, and 1:1 audio/video calls; Anonymous mode routes messages via Tor for better privacy.
- •Users can self-host bootstrap and relay nodes; setup instructions cover ports 9000 (bootstrap) and 4002 (relay) and address configuration.
- •Roadmap for the full release includes UX improvements, group A/V calls and screen sharing in Fast mode, performance, security hardening, easier self-hosting, a local API, and emojis.