Katzenpost

Infraestructura P2P

A free and open-source post-quantum mix network that hides who is talking to whom from network-level observers, including adversaries who record traffic today to decrypt on a future quantum computer. A mix network is made of mix nodes that act as cryptographic packet-switching routers, mixing many messages together, transforming them and adding shuffling or delay so that incoming and outgoing messages cannot be linked. Katzenpost also provides Pigeonhole, an anonymous storage layer on top of the mixnet in which applications exchange encrypted, append-only streams of fixed-size padded boxes sharded across replicas and governed by write and read capabilities, with thin clients in Go, Rust and Python and a Qt group-chat client. Its design is described in a paper on the Echomix anonymity system, and a public Katzenpost network called Namenlos is listed as coming next .

Comunidad

Detalles

Licencia Copyleft (AGPL-3.0). https://github.com/katzenpost/katzenpost (Go)
Estado de Desarrollo 🧪 Alfa
Propietario Katzenpost (the project's own name in its site footer; the cited sources do not name a legal entity)
Órgano de Gobierno Not described in the cited sources
País Not stated by the project.
Año de Inicio 2021
Stack Go (the repository's main language), with post-quantum key exchange in its design; Pigeonhole storage with thin clients in Go, Rust and Python; katzenqt (Qt) and a client daemon
Financiamiento Not stated by the project.
Última Investigación 29 oct 2026

Capacidades

Cifrado de extremo a extremo

Infraestructura P2P Atributos

Orígenes Traffic-analysis-resistant, post-quantum anonymous communication, based on mix network research and, more recently, the Echomix design and the Pigeonhole storage protocol
Base de Datos N/A
Formatos de Datos Mix-network packets and Pigeonhole boxes (fixed-size, padded, encrypted) as described in the repository README
Soporte Móvil No application; thin clients are libraries
Soporte Web No browser client was described in the cited sources
Aplicaciones Nativas katzenqt (a Qt group-chat client) and the kpclientd client daemon, buildable from source
Términos Free and open source (AGPL-3.0); the site links a donation page
Fondos Not stated by the project.
Basado En Mix network research, including the Echomix design in the project's paper, and post-quantum cryptography
Arquitectura P2P A mix network of mix nodes with directory authorities and storage replicas; a deployer runs a network, and clients connect to it. A public network (Namenlos) is announced but not yet available
Red de Superposición Yes: a mixnet overlay with its own routing and storage replicas
Direccionamiento por Contenido No.
Local-First No: network infrastructure rather than a data layer.
Cifrado de Extremo a Extremo (E2EE) Yes for Pigeonhole streams: encrypted append-only streams governed by write and read capabilities
Tolerancia a Fallos Bizantinos Not stated by the project.
Firma Capabilities for writing and reading are cryptographic; the cited sources do not detail signing
Permisos Cryptographic capabilities: a write capability can append or place tombstones, and a separate read capability decrypts and verifies without conferring write access
Madurez del Protocolo / Estandarización Research-grade, pre-release (v0.0.x) with a published paper and an evolving threat-model document; no standards-body involvement
Función de Infraestructura Anonymous messaging and storage resistant to traffic analysis, including by quantum-capable adversaries
Modelo de Amenazas Global passive adversaries and record-now-decrypt-later quantum attackers; the site notes that the published threat-model document is a work in progress
Modelo de Nodo Voluntario Not stated: the cited sources describe deployers who run mix nodes, and a public Namenlos network that is announced but not yet running
Visibilidad del Tráfico Designed so that observers cannot link senders and recipients through mixing, padding and delay
Escala de Despliegue Activo No public network yet: Namenlos is listed as coming next