Hyperswarm

P2P Protocol

Distributed hash table (DHT) and peer-discovery protocol used by the Holepunch ecosystem to enable direct peer-to-peer connections without centralized servers. Provides UDP-based hole-punching for NAT traversal plus a Kademlia-style DHT for advertising and discovering peers by shared topic. Relays are used only for NAT traversal hole-punching, not for data transit. Member of the Holepunch suite.

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Details

License Open source — MIT (github.com/holepunchto/hyperswarm)
Dev Status 🟢 Active
Dev Status Detail Released / Mature (production-deployed in Holepunch ecosystem)
Owner Holepunch (formerly Hypercore Protocol team); core development by Mathias Buus and team
Owner - List
  • Holepunch
Governing Body Company-controlled (Holepunch)
Governing Body - List
  • Holepunch
Country International (distributed team)
Start Year 2018
Stack JavaScript / Node.js (reference implementation); UDP-based wire protocol
Funding Tether-backed via Holepunch
Funding - List
  • Holepunch
  • Tether Holdings
Last Investigated Jul 1, 2026

Topology view

This tool in the centre and the things it is directly related to. Each line names the kind of relationship.

Topology view: HyperswarmThis tool in the centre and the things it is directly related to. Each line names the kind of relationship.HyperswarmBitTorrent Mainline DHT (Based on)BitTorrentMainline DHTHypercore (Based on, Composes with)HypercoreNoise Protocol Framework (Based on)NoiseProtocol Fra…Seed Hypermedia (Hosts)SeedHypermediaAutobase (Composes with)AutobaseHyperbee (Composes with)HyperbeeHyperdrive (Composes with)HyperdriveHolepunch (Developed by, Funded by, Stewarded by)HolepunchTether Holdings (Funded by)TetherHoldingsHolepunch Suite (Member of suite)HolepunchSuite

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Use Case Domains

Platform Evolution & Sovereignty

Affordances

Local-first storage Self-hostable

P2P Protocol Attributes

Owner - List
  • Holepunch
Origins P2P peer discovery (originated to enable genuinely peer-to-peer dat/Hypercore connections)
Database Local DHT routing table; no persistent global storage
Query Language Topic-based discovery (join/leave topic; lookup peers for topic)
Data Formats Binary DHT messages over UDP; Noise-encrypted streams once peers connect
Collaborative Live Editing N/A (peer-discovery library)
Rich Text Editing N/A
Mobile Support Yes (works on iOS and Android via Pear runtime)
Web Support Browser-friendly via WebRTC transport variants; native Hyperswarm requires UDP socket access
Native Apps Yes (used by Keet, Pear runtime applications)
Terms Open Source / Free — MIT License
Funding - List
  • Holepunch
  • Tether Holdings
Funds Not separately disclosed
Based On Kademlia DHT (peer discovery); Noise Protocol Framework (encrypted streams); UDP hole-punching techniques for NAT traversal
Governing Body - List
  • Holepunch
P2P Architecture Kademlia DHT for peer discovery; UDP hole-punching for NAT traversal; once peers connect, data flows directly without intermediary relays; bootstrap nodes used only for initial DHT entry
Overlay Network Global Kademlia DHT (Hyperswarm-specific bootstrap nodes; not shared with libp2p or other DHTs)
Content Addressing Topic-based discovery — peers advertise interest in 32-byte topic hashes; matching peers are returned via DHT lookup
Local-First N/A (transport-layer protocol; supports local-first applications layered on top)
E2EE Yes — Noise Protocol Framework encrypts all peer-to-peer connections by default
CRDTs Lib N/A (peer-discovery layer, not data layer)
Byzantine Fault Tolerance DHT provides eventual consistency; no Byzantine consensus
Signature Noise handshake authenticates peers cryptographically
Permissions Topic-based (peers must know the topic to find each other; topics can be derived from secrets)
Semantic Web Compatibility N/A (transport-layer protocol)
Smart Contract N/A
Protocol Stack Position L3.1 Overlay Network (peer discovery and direct-connection routing)
Asset / Value Embedding None — peer-discovery protocol with no native token
Protocol Maturity / Standardization Released / Mature; no formal external standardization; community-driven evolution as part of Holepunch

Relationships

How this tool connects to other tools and organizations, from relationships reviewed by the OpenHaven data steward. They describe how projects connect, not how good they are.

Based on
Developed by
  • Holepunch
Funded by
  • Holepunch
  • Tether Holdings
Member of suite
  • Holepunch Suite
Stewarded by
  • Holepunch
Composes with
Hosts