Peer-to-peer platform for censorship-resistant, anonymous publishing and retrieval, continuously developed since 1999 under the name Freenet and renamed Hyphanet in June 2023. Operates as a decentralized distributed data store: each node contributes encrypted disk space, requests are routed across intermediaries using small-world network topology, and content is addressed by cryptographic keys (CHK for immutable data; SSK/USK for updatable namespaces). Supports two connection modes: darknet (trusted friends only — maximum anonymity) and opennet (random peers — easier bootstrapping). Neither inserters nor retrievers are exposed to the network. Plugin ecosystem supports freesites, forums (Freetalk), microblogging (Sone), and Web of Trust-based spam resistance.
LicenciaOpen source — GPL v2 or later; GitHub: github.com/hyphanet/fred
Estado de Desarrollo 🟢 Activo
Detalle del Estado de DesarrolloProduction / Active maintenance — build 1506 released February 2025; backward-compatible with content from 2007; 0.8 series in progress
PropietarioHyphanet Project — independent community continuation of the original Freenet codebase, spun off from Freenet Project Inc. in March 2023; maintained by original Freenet developers. Ian Clarke (original architect, now with new Freenet); ongoing maintainers include community contributors.
Órgano de Gobierno None (independent community continuation of the Freenet codebase since the March 2023 spin-off from Freenet Project Inc.; no formal governing body)
PaísInternational (originally UK — Ian Clarke's Edinburgh student project; now globally distributed volunteer maintainers)
Año de Inicio 1999
StackJava (primary node implementation — fred); Android client available
OrígenesIan Clarke's 1999 Edinburgh undergraduate thesis: 'A Distributed Decentralized Information Storage and Retrieval System'; goal was freedom of speech and censorship resistance through decentralized anonymous storage. Originally known as 'fred' (Freenet REference Daemon). Renamed to Hyphanet (after mycorrhizal fungal networks — hyphae) following community vote when original Freenet name was appropriated by Locutus project.
Base de DatosCustom distributed data store — encrypted blocks across all peer nodes; CHK (32 kB blocks) and SSK (1 kB blocks) with Vandermonde FEC for redundancy; LRU eviction policy favors frequently accessed content
Lenguaje de ConsultaN/A — content retrieved by cryptographic key (CHK/SSK/USK), not query language
Formatos de DatosCustom binary (CHK/SSK/USK key-addressed blocks); FProxy web interface renders HTML freesites
Edición Colaborativa en VivoNo — static content model; SSK/USK keys enable versioned updates but not real-time collaborative editing
Edición de Texto EnriquecidoNo
Soporte MóvilYes — Android client available
Soporte WebYes — FProxy web interface (localhost); freesites accessible via browser through local node
FondosN/A (community project; no disclosed funding amounts)
Basado EnOriginal (no prior system; foundational work in academic P2P; served as model for Japanese P2P systems Winny, Share, Perfect Dark)
Arquitectura P2PSmall-world DHT — nodes assigned locations 0–1; greedy routing toward nodes whose location is closest to target key; opennet (random peers) and darknet (trusted friends) modes
Red de SuperposiciónSmall-world network overlay — routing draws on Kleinberg small-world phenomenon; requests traverse multiple intermediary hops
Direccionamiento por ContenidoYes — CHK is SHA-256 hash of encrypted content; SSK uses public key + descriptor hash; content addressing is foundational
Local-FirstYes — each node stores data locally; network functions without any central servers
Cifrado de Extremo a Extremo (E2EE)Yes — all stored blocks encrypted; node operators cannot identify content they store; multi-hop routing conceals both inserter and retriever identity
Biblioteca de CRDTsN/A — no CRDT library; SSK/USK key versioning provides a simpler update model for static content
Tolerancia a Fallos BizantinosNo formal BFT — probabilistic resistance through multi-hop routing and encryption; no consensus mechanism
PermisosKey-based (CHK ownership implicit in key knowledge; SSK requires private key to insert under a namespace)
Compatibilidad con la Web SemánticaNo
Contrato InteligenteNo
Posición en la Pila del ProtocoloApplication-layer (built on TCP/IP; operates as overlay network)
Incorporación de Activos/ValorNone — anonymized data storage only; no value or asset transmission
Madurez del Protocolo / EstandarizaciónMature / Community Standard — 25+ years of continuous development; build 1506 (February 2025); academically influential; GPL v2+; not submitted to formal standards body
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