IRC or Internet Relay Chat is an OPEN chat protocol which has been developed in 1988 and is still being used today.
Modern variants with enhancements exist thanks to the IRCV3 specs
.Table Of Contents
1. IRC is an open protocol with a variety of servers and clients
Most messaging apps like Whatsapp, Slack, Discord are closed source AND have closed system, meaning that you have no idea how they work and rely on a binary system which might exploit you, you loose your independence . ZenDenPen uses IRC as the main channel of communication and socialization.
IRC offers FULL transparency and there are plenty of IRC clients, servers and bots with source code other IRC related software .
The only other truly open source alternative is Matrix which is heavier and more difficult to set up.
2. IRC Can be selfhosted
You can selfhost IRC easily. Either by running your own server , developing and hosting bots or BOUNCER for networks which don’t support IRCv3 chathistory.
IRC is also widely used to create BOTS which automate a variety of things easily. Imagine IoT or anything which can connect to a IRC server. Unfortunately, it’s been used by botnets aswell. TODO link to ZDP bots.
Landchad has detailed IRC server setup instructions.
3. Privacy & Anonimity on IRC
You don’t need to create an account to use IRC, no need to give your email, name, telephone number. You just use any nickname which is not already taken and join the chat!
This makes it easy for ANYONE to join a chat anonymously. Join channels and quit them. ONce you disconnect, your nickname fades from existence. Untill you reconnect again.
The servers don’t track you, unless someone there tries to manually track your join/parts/quits, but this can be done on any platform so I’d rather worry about facebook/whatsapp/google invasive tracking than IRC servers tracking. Plus, you can ALWAYS use a different nickname.
Old school IRC servers used to show IP’s (for protection so you could ban abusers, before Privacy was a thing), modern servers like ergo solves the problems of IP’s by cloaking while still allowing you to BAN abusers, you can use VHOSTS or Virtual Hosts as a vanity host. So your IP’s are hidden from others.
You can learn more about security on IRC by reading Security on IRC, encryption, IP cloaking
4. All Chats are ephemeral on IRC - But there are ways to keep logs!
Messages on IRC are ephemeral in nature, meaning they’re not stored anywhere . This is extremely helpful to preserve privacy and anonimity (see above). While others see it as a downside that there is no chat history, there are options for history logs and CHATHISTORY extension exists and is actively used in ZenDenPen CHAT . If you want to always be ON you can setup an IRC bouncer or use a server which supports opt-in history. The IRC bouncer is just a persistent IRC connection which keeps logs for a very long time, and keeps you online, with the added benefit that your real IP address is hidden from the server, it acts like a PROXY intermediary.
5. Extending IRC - Easy to learn, and build on top of
IRC offers the basics of one to one and one to many chats, channel management. Servers vary in functionalities, extensions and even clients offer more functionalities. The power of IRC is that it can be extended by anyone easily meaning you can add functionalities on top of IRC which YOU might require. You don’t need to wait on someone adding a feature, you can add it yourself on top of IRC via server extensions, client extensions or see IRCV3 specs . I’d recommend for people starting out with programming to look into it’s protocol as it’s easy to grasp and extend and will give you a good deal of experience in TCP/IP programming real time apps.
6. IRC is Extremely efficient & Cost effective
The IRC protocol is an efficient protocol only sending the bare minimum text messages, it’s also cost effective and easy to install on even the smallest embedded systems like arduino
Other benefits of IRC
- Real Time communication, direct conversations or group conversations via channels on IRC
- Community building around specific channels
- Rapid infomrtion sharing, in the 2000’s this was the go to place for real time information
- Provide real time technical / customer support and troubleshooting, most Open source projects have their own channels, and there is ALWAYS someone there to try to help answer your questions (See liberachat)
- Many online games utilize IRC for in game communication, yeah they just connect you to an IRC server for their chat
- Due to it’s decentralized nature, it provides greater freedom and control to the users
- IT really posseses a low barrier to entry, easy to join, participate.
- There are 5260 publicly available IRC servers you can join anytime. Each IRC server has different channels and communities. There are probably even more PRIVATE ones.
Want to taste IRC for yourself? Join the ZenDenPen Chat and see for yourself.
If you want to host your own server I provide IRC server installation & administration as a service, contact me !