How I built a messenger that looks like HTTPS: five engineering stories

The author shares their experience developing a federated end-to-end encrypted messenger designed to mimic standard HTTPS traffic to bypass DPI systems. The article details five key engineering challenges: handling DPI signatures in WebRTC, the rationale for moving away from pure PGP, building a network of hidden nodes based on the Ceph model, and optimizing data buffering and call signaling. The author describes overcoming technical hurdles, including a week-long debugging process for a 2048-byte buffer. The piece provides a deep dive into architectural decisions aimed at ensuring privacy and connectivity in environments with network censorship. It serves as a valuable resource for developers interested in network protocols, cryptography, and the creation of secure communication systems.