Beam

Project Roadmap

Beam is evolving from a Tor-only tunneling tool into a universal, decentalized networking protocol. Our vision is to provide developers with a "transport-agnostic" layer that automatically selects the best network (Tor, I2P, Nym, WebRTC) based on the user's need for privacy, latency, or throughput.

Phase 1: Multi-Network Support

I2P Integration

Goal: High-throughput hidden services.

I2P's garlic routing and unidirectional tunnels offer better performance for file transfers and heavy APIs compared to Tor.

Nym Mixnet

Goal: Metadata privacy.

Protection against global passive adversaries by mixing and delaying packets, making traffic analysis mathematically impossible.

Veilid & Libp2p

Goal: Mobile-first P2P.

Integrating modern P2P frameworks to allow direct device-to-device connections without central signaling servers.

Phase 2: Performance & Connectivity

WebRTC & Holepunch

Goal: Instant, low-latency tunnels.

Leveraging DHT-based signaling to establish direct browser-to-browser streams. This enables "Fast Mode" for video streaming and gaming use cases.

WireGuard Integration

Goal: Trusted, high-speed links.

Optional WireGuard-based point-to-point links for team members who trust each other and need maximum socket performance over anonymity.

Phase 3: Market Expansion

  • 1

    Edge Computing Integration

    Allow Beam to act as an ephemeral edge node, enabling "Serverless on User Device" architectures.

  • 2

    IoT Fleet Management

    Embed Beam into IoT devices for secure remote management without complex VPNs or static IPs.

  • 3

    Decentralized VPN (dVPN)

    Allow users to route general internet traffic through the Beam mesh, competing with traditional VPNs.

Phase 4: Censorship Resistance

Pluggable Transports

Goal: Evade Deep Packet Inspection (DPI).

Integration of Snowflake, Meek, and Obfs4 strategies to disguise Beam traffic as generic authorized traffic (like HTTPS or WebRTC) to bypass state-level firewalls.

Nostr Relay Signaling

Goal: Unstoppable Service Discovery.

Using the Nostr protocol as a censorship-resistant signaling layer for establishing initial P2P connections when central trackers are blocked.

Phase 5: Decentralized Identity (DID)

  • 1

    Self-Sovereign Identity (SSI)

    Attach Verifiable Credentials to tunnels. Allow "friend-only" access where the tunnel only opens for peers presenting a valid cryptographic DID token.

  • 2

    DIDComm Messaging

    Secure, routing-agnostic communication between Beam nodes using the DIDComm standard, ensuring end-to-end encryption authenticated by DIDs.

Phase 6: Incentivized Mixnets (DePIN)

Bandwidth Micropayments

Goal: Sustainable Relays.

Experimental support for probabilistic micropayments (like HOPR or Nym credentials) to incentivize users to run high-bandwidth relays for the network.

DePIN Verification

Goal: Verified Edge Nodes.

Cryptographic proofs of bandwidth and uptime, allowing Beam nodes to participate in broader Decentralized Physical Infrastructure Networks as verifiable edge workers.

Research & Contribution

We are actively researching these technologies. If you have expertise in Rust, low-level networking, or cryptography, we'd love your help. Check out our GitHub issues tagged with `roadmap`.