What is RetroShare? and Why another Peer to Peer Network?

RetroShare is the next generation sharing network, which provides:

  • A Private Peer to Peer Network which allows you to share information with only the people you want to.
  • Reliable Identification and Authentication of your friends.
  • Plus an Introduction Scheme which connects you to the friends of your friends, and facilitates network growth.
  • Encrypted Communication, ensuring all shared information is known only to you and your peers.
  • A Communication Platform which can potentially support services such as Secure Email, File Sharing, Video or Voice over IP and Messaging
  • A Decentralised Social Sharing Network designed **For the People**
    with no dependancies on any corporate system or central servers.

The problem with existing filesharing networks is that you have no control over who you share information with. I don't want to share with the whole wide world, but I would love to share stuff with my friends. But this is not easy to do, safely and securely, over the Internet.


Current filesharing systems also suffer from bad quality of downloadable information. Often the filenames do not correspond to what you actualy get. You are getting (potentially random) information from a collection of random people. I want to share good information with, and only with, the people I trust.


RetroShare is my solution to these problems: A simple filesharing program which connects you and your friends together for safe and secure sharing.


I have put months of work into transforming RetroShare from a random idea, into a working system. It is now time to share this program, and the ideas behind, with the world...


Dr Bob, 06/01/06



Why Release it now?

I have personally been developing RetroShare for over a year. It is reaching the point where it needs to be released for a number of reasons:

  • I'm trying to hold down a real job, and find it difficult to put the time into RetroShare that I think it deserves. I'm hoping that in releasing I will find like-minded people who are interested in helping with the development.

  • At a certain point, a program must sink or swim on its own merits. I think that it is time for RetroShare to be put to this acid test. If people are interested, and it is used then I'll continue the development with renewed vigour. If, however, this site gets no hits - then there is little point in continuing....

  • RetroShare is a P2P application, and as such requires testing by a large number of people to ensure it works correctly (Though is has been well tested already). Please join me in using RetroShare at this early stage, and help me improve it.

  • RetroShare is currently saddled with the simplistic GUI design that I've had time to create. Input from a wide range of people, would drive RetroShare development towards an easy to use system, and indicate which features need to be improved.