Waku

P2P Protocol

A set of libp2p-based protocols for private, censorship-resistant peer-to-peer messaging, with specifications published in the Logos LIPs repository and a Nim reference implementation. The implementation, long known as nwaku, now lives in the logos-messaging GitHub organisation as 'Logos Delivery' and exposes a C library, a command-line node and examples; the older waku.org address redirects to the Logos site, and the documentation still calls the protocol Waku. Nodes join the network through bootstrap nodes and the protocols cover relay, discovery and message delivery. The cited sources do not describe the full protocol set .

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Details

License Permissive (Apache-2.0). https://github.com/logos-messaging/logos-delivery (Nim node, C library, CLI); the specifications are at https://github.com/logos-co/logos-lips
Dev Status 🟢 Active
Owner Logos (the project's Logos Delivery and Logos Messaging repositories are under the logos-messaging organisation; the cited sources do not name the legal entity or steward)
Governing Body Not described in the cited sources; the code and specifications sit under the Logos organisations on GitHub
Country Not stated by the project.
Start Year 2020
Stack Nim; libp2p; a C library and CLI; JavaScript client in a separate repository; specifications in the Logos LIPs repository
Funding Not stated by the project.
Last Investigated Oct 29, 2026

Use Case Domains

Communication Platform Evolution & Sovereignty

Affordances

End-to-end encrypted Works offline / mesh

P2P Protocol Attributes

Origins Private peer-to-peer communication for applications, built on libp2p; the implementation has since moved into the Logos programme's repositories
Database N/A
Query Language N/A
Data Formats Messages as defined in the specifications in the Logos LIPs repository, carried over libp2p
Collaborative Live Editing N/A
Rich Text Editing N/A
Mobile Support Library-level: the C library allows embedding in mobile applications; no application
Web Support Through a separate JavaScript client (logos-delivery-js), which the README points to for browser testing
Native Apps Library-level (a node, a C library and examples)
Terms Free and open source (Apache-2.0)
Funds Not stated by the project.
Based On libp2p; the README says it implements the messaging specifications in the Logos LIPs repository
P2P Architecture libp2p peer-to-peer network: nodes join through bootstrap nodes; the cited sources do not describe message routing further
Overlay Network Yes: a libp2p overlay with its own bootstrap and discovery
Content Addressing No.
Local-First Not a local-first data layer; it is a messaging transport that applications use
E2EE Transport-level privacy is built in; end-to-end message encryption is provided by applications or companion protocols, per the specifications; the cited sources do not give details
CRDTs Lib No: not a CRDT library.
Byzantine Fault Tolerance Not stated by the project.
Signature Messages can be signed by senders in the specifications; the cited sources do not give details
Permissions Open relay network with application-level controls; the cited sources do not describe a built-in permission model
Semantic Web Compatibility N/A: no RDF, JSON-LD or SPARQL layer.
Smart Contract N/A: no ledger or smart-contract component.
Protocol Stack Position Application and messaging layer built on libp2p
Asset / Value Embedding None: no token or value-transfer mechanism.
Protocol Maturity / Standardization Specifications are published as LIPs (Logos Improvement Proposals) in a repository; the implementation is at 0.x with regular releases; no standards-body involvement