Design Principles of a Decentralized Universal Messaging System

An practical framework for discussion

Photo by Jason Leung on Unsplash

The following article is a brain dump of an idea that formed early one morning around universal messaging. It’s far from complete, but illustrates a possible approach to solving a wider problem of messaging interoperability without a single point of failure or control.

Overview

The following is a draft framework for a decentralized universal messaging system. It follows the principles of:

• Anyone can publish their messaging address online
• No single entity controls the addressing mechanism
• Messaging, voice and chat all follow a common, open protocol
• Any entity can run the messaging system in a public or private space

First draft flow diagram for a Decentralized Universal Messaging System

Connectivity principles

For decentralized messaging to work effectively, each entity wishing to connect to the network must provide it’s own network services. One way to achieve this is to follow a tried and tested messaging framework, email. Email implements a number of underlying protocols which…