%iqXoP//+WnBt3UhTKK2uKjlV4EojMn8IjY5/rSLKdPY=.sha256ssb-tunnel
prompted by recent work on webrtc and utp support from @piet and @andrestaltz I spent some time refactoring how secret-stack handles protocols, some details still to be figured out, but sbot plugins will be able to provide new protocols.
With that proposal in place, when I had a bit of time spare I took a stab at implementing another one: what I called "relay p2p" in the TechTree - ssb-tunnel it complements the other p2p methods, by using a pub as a relay - A connects to the pub, then B connects to the pub, then B requests a tunnel from the back to A, then treats that as an ordinary connection, authenticated and encrypted with secret-handshake. This means the tunnel connection is encrypted twice and the pub can't see what you are saying.
Again, a few small details to work out still but I have a working proof of concept!
The really exciting thing, though, is that this (and the work andre and piet are doing) is the critical step to bootstrapping other protocols.
For example: if you can create a stream directly to another ssb identity (which may be tunneled through pubs or whatever as necessary) you could have a chat application that had it's own protocol, without using ssb messages (...or something you could model as a chat application, say a game or collaborative editing)
It feels we've set up a lot of dominos, and once we have private groups, most of the protocol features I've been thinking about will be roughly in-place.
creepy whisper : maybe just sneak it into a branch