Bromal
Lightweight messaging server for Matrix protocol
Bromal is a lightweight opensource messaging server, that uses the Matrix protocol. It is being developed for the efficient deployment of federated messaging systems with modest resource requirements, as a result, it could be deployed even on small servers, including VPS, without sacrificing essential functionality. The project aims to support server-to-server federation, state resolution for different room versions, end-to-end encryption, a full-featured messaging module, built-in VoIP, automatic TLS certificate acquisition via Let's Encrypt using the ACME protocol, as well as the ability to create a cluster for larger installations.
- The project's own website: https://bromal.im
Why does this actually matter to end users?
Many people use WhatsApp, Viber, or some other popular messaging app. They are all instant messengers and have their own servers. Servers are remote computers located somewhere in data centers, to which our client app connects to send and receive messages to and from people in our address book. In all these cases, the servers are centralized and belong to their commercial vendors. Also, no one knows what actually happens to the data that users send to the server.
Bromal is different. It uses the Matrix protocol, which is open-source and federated by design. It means for example that user Alice at server "A" can interact with Bob at server "B" without need to have accounts on both servers, just like in e-mail. Bromal itself is open-source software, it costs no money, everybody can run it on their personal hardware without any payments to the author. Since this is open-source software, anyone can see how it works through reading its source code, verify that it doesn't do anything undocumented, and ensure that the data is securely protected by end-to-end encryption.
This project was funded through the NGI0 Commons Fund, a fund established by NLnet with financial support from the European Commission's Next Generation Internet programme, under the aegis of DG Communications Networks, Content and Technology under grant agreement No 101135429. Additional funding is made available by the Swiss State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation (SERI).
