Hyphanet

P2P Protocol

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.

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Details

License Open source — GPL v2 or later; GitHub: github.com/hyphanet/fred
Dev Status 🟢 Active
Dev Status Detail Production / Active maintenance — build 1506 released February 2025; backward-compatible with content from 2007; 0.8 series in progress
Owner Hyphanet 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.
Governing Body None (independent community continuation of the Freenet codebase since the March 2023 spin-off from Freenet Project Inc.; no formal governing body)
Country International (originally UK — Ian Clarke's Edinburgh student project; now globally distributed volunteer maintainers)
Start Year 1999
Stack Java (primary node implementation — fred); Android client available
Funding Volunteer / community-funded; donations accepted
Last Investigated Jan 15, 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: HyphanetThis tool in the centre and the things it is directly related to. Each line names the kind of relationship.HyphanetFreenet (Basis for, Based on)FreenetI2P (Basis for)I2P
  • Freenet (Tool): Basis for, Based on
  • I2P (Tool): Basis for

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Use Case Domains

Platform Evolution & Sovereignty

Affordances

Self-hostable Local-first storage

P2P Protocol Attributes

Origins Ian 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.
Database Custom 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
Query Language N/A — content retrieved by cryptographic key (CHK/SSK/USK), not query language
Data Formats Custom binary (CHK/SSK/USK key-addressed blocks); FProxy web interface renders HTML freesites
Collaborative Live Editing No — static content model; SSK/USK keys enable versioned updates but not real-time collaborative editing
Rich Text Editing No
Mobile Support Yes — Android client available
Web Support Yes — FProxy web interface (localhost); freesites accessible via browser through local node
Native Apps Yes — Java desktop node (Windows, macOS, Linux); Android
Terms GPL v2 or later
Funds N/A (community project; no disclosed funding amounts)
Based On Original (no prior system; foundational work in academic P2P; served as model for Japanese P2P systems Winny, Share, Perfect Dark)
P2P Architecture Small-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
Overlay Network Small-world network overlay — routing draws on Kleinberg small-world phenomenon; requests traverse multiple intermediary hops
Content Addressing Yes — CHK is SHA-256 hash of encrypted content; SSK uses public key + descriptor hash; content addressing is foundational
Local-First Yes — each node stores data locally; network functions without any central servers
E2EE Yes — all stored blocks encrypted; node operators cannot identify content they store; multi-hop routing conceals both inserter and retriever identity
CRDTs Lib N/A — no CRDT library; SSK/USK key versioning provides a simpler update model for static content
Byzantine Fault Tolerance No formal BFT — probabilistic resistance through multi-hop routing and encryption; no consensus mechanism
Signature Yes — SSK uses DSA/ECDSA asymmetric signatures; CHK provides tamper-evident content-hash verification
Permissions Key-based (CHK ownership implicit in key knowledge; SSK requires private key to insert under a namespace)
Semantic Web Compatibility No
Smart Contract No
Protocol Stack Position Application-layer (built on TCP/IP; operates as overlay network)
Asset / Value Embedding None — anonymized data storage only; no value or asset transmission
Protocol Maturity / Standardization Mature / Community Standard — 25+ years of continuous development; build 1506 (February 2025); academically influential; GPL v2+; not submitted to formal standards body

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
Basis for