Mainstreaming Anonymity for Developers (MAD)

A library that allows software developers to build anonymous and secure peer-to-peer services and applications using Tor onion services.

Gosling enables a developer to easily build technologically-guaranteed secure, metadata-resistant and anonymous networked applications (both peer-to-peer or client-server). Gosling is a Blueprint for Free Speech-developed, open-source library enabling this functionality via the use of Tor's onion services.

Because effectively and safely using Tor onion services programmatically is difficult and requires specialised expertise, very few applications use this technology despite the benefits to users. Most of these existing applications are dependent on the web-browser technology stack and seek to 'bolt-on' anonymity and privacy guarantees to existing clearnet applications.

Gosling, inspired by Ricochet Refresh and subsequent peer-to-peer onion service-based instant messaging clients, starts from first-principles and provides developers a tailored, pluggable system for peer-to-peer connectivity with all of the security and privacy properties of Tor onion services. It provides a simple API surface which reduces the chance of errors by developers which may end up compromising users' security and anonymity.

Gosling contributes to globally expanding user's defences against ever-more-ubiquitous online surveillance. This project moves Gosling from a functional proof-of-concept toward a trusted library which developers will be happy integrating into their programs to build the next generation of privacy-preserving internet applications.