June 10, 2026
UDP, but make it dramatic
Show HN: Ustps (UDP Speedy Transmission Protocol Secure) and USSH
A new internet speed hack drops, and the comments are already comparing it to old favorites
TLDR: USTPS is a new beta tool that aims to move data faster over the internet while keeping it encrypted, and its creator says it held up even under rough test conditions. In the comments, people were split between quick praise, comparisons to older tools like Mosh, and quiet side-eye over whether this is really new.
A fresh Show HN post rolled in with a bold promise: a new system called USTPS, basically a faster way to move data by skipping some of the usual slow-down behavior of the internet while still locking things with encryption. In plain English, the creator is pitching a speed-first tool for streaming and remote access that tries to stay quick even when the network gets messy. It’s in beta, it survived a brutal packet-loss test between Brazil and Canada, and yes, the build note saying it was made with Codex using GPT-5.4 absolutely gives this launch a little extra comment-section spice.
But the real action is in the replies, where the mood is a mix of “nice, this actually works” and “haven’t we seen this movie before?” One early commenter immediately dropped a link to a similar project, basically planting the flag for the classic internet drama of original idea or remix? Another user cut through the theory with the most powerful review on the internet: “Just tried, works well.” That short little endorsement landed like a mic drop.
Then came the comparison that always shows up when someone demos a slick remote shell: Mosh. One commenter said the project’s shell felt familiar, but also nudged the creator toward borrowing Mosh’s authentication style while pointing out Mosh’s own missing feature — tunneling. So the vibe is clear: the crowd is intrigued, cautiously impressed, and already treating this beta launch like the opening scene in a bigger protocol rivalry.
Key Points
- •USTP-Secure (USTPS) is a beta secure transport that keeps USTP on UDP and adds mandatory packet-level AEAD encryption and authentication.
- •USTPS does not implement congestion control and is intentionally designed to remain speed-first and UDP-like rather than slowing down like TCP.
- •The protocol uses X25519 key exchange, gives each client a separate ephemeral AEAD session key, and uses TOFU with a persistent server host key for server identity stability.
- •USTPS defines USS1 as the outer secure AEAD envelope and UST1 as the inner transport packet format visible after decryption.
- •USTPS is reliable but unordered by design, using sequence numbers, stream positions, selective retransmission, and immediate acceptance of out-of-order packets to avoid transport-level head-of-line blocking.