I highly recommend reading the excellent draft document from Usenet at the URL I posted, particularly the example of the "Western Wisconsin Computer Company". It is much clearer than my comment and my examples of the simple concept explained therein are probably not ideal (maybe even wrong).
As for cjdns,
https://github.com/cjdelisle/cjdns/blob/master/doc/notes/cry...
From only a cursory review, I see cjdns as a network where one does not need a third party to: issue a name, issue a key, check a key against a name or a name against a key. Each user creates their own private key, their own public key and finally their own address from their own public key. Unless I am mistaken, users get public keys and addresses from other users, not from a third party.
In Extended Validation is Brokencjdelisle
cjdns
C2011–2025
cjdelisle / cjdns
cjdns
An encrypted IPv6 network using public-key cryptography for address allocation and a distributed hash table for routing.
74Distinct people
85Mentions
3Explicit recommenders
5.4KGitHub stars
What to know before exploring
What it is
An encrypted IPv6 network using public-key cryptography for address allocation and a distributed hash table for routing.
GitHub
Where it is used
No documented product use was verified in the last source check.
What people are saying
I highly recommend reading the excellent draft document from Usenet at the URL I posted, particularly the example of the "Western Wisconsin Computer Company". It is much…
feelin_googley used a recommendation phrase. 3 indexed comments match. This is a phrase match, not a verdict.
No classified warning is attached to this page. Read the discussions before treating silence as approval.
Also in these discussions
No other repository is repeatedly linked in the same discussions.
This week on Hacker News
Nov 8–Nov 15 UTC · Direct repository links and separately labeled related project stories. Indexed through 11/15/2026, 7:24:48 PM UTC.
No direct repository links were found in the indexed HN discussions over the past seven days. Older discussions are available below.
Mentions over time
HN mentions by year85 dated mentions
Observed mentions: 2011-04-10 19:41:09 UTC to 2025-06-23 14:40:46 UTC.
Counts come from the repository’s dated source evidence. Index cutoff: 2026-11-02 08:16:59 UTC.
View mention counts and date ranges
| Period | Start (UTC) | End (exclusive, UTC) | Mentions | Submissions | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2011 | 2011-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2012-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| 2012 | 2012-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2013-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 3 | 0 | 3 |
| 2013 | 2013-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2014-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 6 | 3 | 3 |
| 2014 | 2014-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2015-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 11 | 1 | 10 |
| 2015 | 2015-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2016-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 12 | 2 | 10 |
| 2016 | 2016-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2017-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 8 | 1 | 7 |
| 2017 | 2017-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2018-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 15 | 1 | 14 |
| 2018 | 2018-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2019-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 4 | 0 | 4 |
| 2019 | 2019-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2020-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 9 | 2 | 7 |
| 2020 | 2020-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2021-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 4 | 0 | 4 |
| 2021 | 2021-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2022-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 3 | 0 | 3 |
| 2022 | 2022-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2023-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 4 | 0 | 4 |
| 2023 | 2023-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2024-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| 2024 | 2024-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2025-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 2025 | 2025-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2026-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2 | 1 | 1 |
From the project README
An excerpt from the repository, fetched Nov 13, 2026.
Read the project’s introduction
cjdns
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Networking Reinvented
Cjdns implements an encrypted IPv6 network using public-key cryptography for
address allocation and a distributed hash table for routing. This provides
near-zero-configuration networking, and prevents many of the security and
scalability issues that plague existing networks.
Testimonials
23:26 <@jercos> well, cjdns is now officially more reliable than the open
internet for getting to my cheaper VPSes :|
12:52 < mariner> so i don't know if it's been done before, and i assume it's
obvious, but I think it's neat. Currently on hype from an
airplane
00:36 < tester> man sites take so long to load on i2p
00:36 < tester> i value speed over anonymity any day
<DuoNoxSol> it's notably more reliable than the normal internet
09:46 < Kubuxu> I so love cjdns code base
<whyrusleeping> my internet is way better now.
<whyrusleeping> thanks
<whyrusleeping> i'm really upset and sad that its better
<whyrusleeping> but also quite happy
21:01 <@grewalsat> this is amazing. with my workpalce speedtest.net results I get around 6+mb speed, and with my cjdns-gate as vpn network I'm getting like 11-15mb download speed in speedtest.net
21:01 <@grewalsat> :P
21:01 <@grewalsat> plus, access anything! :D
<davidar> Yeah, I have to admit I sort of avoided hypeirc because of stuff like that
Community
irc://irc.efnet.org/#cjdns
Documentation
Project Goals
Cjdns Whitepaper
Advanced configuration:
Setup a cjdns NAT gateway for your LAN
Thank you for your time and interest,
The cjdns developers.
How to install cjdns
These instructions are for Linux distributions and macOS. They should be
informative enough for use on other distributions - just don't expect them to
work verbatim. If you want to know what operating system's base is go here.
Option 1: Using cjdns.sh
If you're on Linux with an amd64 processor (if you don't know your processor, it's amd64), you can install cjdns
pre-built binaries using cjdns.sh. See: https://github.com/cjdelisle/cjdns.sh for more information.
Option 2: Build from source
In order to compile cjdns, you must have:
Rust
NodeJS (used for building the C code)
GCC or Clang C compiler
Make (used for compiling one of the Rust dependencies)
Git (to checkout this repository)
0. Install dependencies
Debian-based distro:
sudo apt-get install nodejs git build-essential
curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf https://sh.rustup.rs | sh
Redhat-based distro:
sudo dnf install nodejs git
sudo dnf install @development-tools
curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf https://sh.rustup.rs | sh
MacOS:
Check that you have clang activated:
xcode-select --install
Install with Homebrew:
brew install node git make
curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf https://sh.rustup.rs | sh
1. Retrieve cjdns from GitHub
Clone the repository from GitHub and change to the source directory:
git clone https://github.com/cjdelisle/cjdns.git cjdns
cd cjdns
2. Build
./do
Look for Build completed successfully, type ./cjdroute to begin setup., then
proceed below:
Setup
Run cjdroute without options for HELP:
./cjdroute
0. Make sure you've got the stuff.
If you're on macOS, skip this step.
LANG=C cat /dev/net/tun
If it says: cat: /dev/net/tun: File descriptor in bad state Good!
If it says: cat: /dev/net/tun: No such file or directory, create it using:
sudo mkdir -p /dev/net &&
sudo mknod /dev/net/tun c 10 200 &&
sudo chmod 0666 /dev/net/tun
Then cat /dev/net/tun again.
If it says: cat: /dev/net/tun: Permission denied You're probably using a VPS
based on the OpenVZ virtualization platform. Ask your provider to enable the
TUN/TAP device - this is standard protocol so they should know exactly what you
need.
1. Generate a new configuration file
./cjdroute --genconf | sudo tee -a /etc/cjdroute.conf
Protect your conf file!
A lost conf file means you lost your password and
connections and anyone who connected to you will no longer be able to connect.
A compromised conf file means that other people can impersonate you on the
network.
2. Secure your system - check for listening services
Once your node is running, you're now a newly minted IPv6 host. Your operating
system may automatically reconfigure network services to use this new address.
If this is not what you intend, you should check to see that you are not
offering more services than you intended to. ;)
See doc/network-services.md for instructions.
3. Start it up!
sudo ./cjdroute < /etc/cjdroute.conf
If you want to have your logs written to a file:
sudo ./cjdroute < /etc/cjdroute.conf > cjdroute.log
To stop cjdns:
sudo killall cjdroute
If you are having problems use killall cjdroute to return to sanity. Use
pgrep cjdroute or top to see if it running.
NOTE!
This starts cjdns as the root user so it can configure your system
without concern for permissions. To start cjdns as a non-root user, see
doc/non-root-user.md.
Custom peering
By default, cjdns will reach out to a DNS seeder to find peers and will
automatically connect to them. This of course exposes the fact that you're
running cjdns to the operators of these nodes.
If you're planning on running a "clandestine" cjdns node, find the dnsSeeds
section of the configuration and comment it out. Then take the peering
credentials of a node you would like to connect to and add them to the
UDPInterface / connectTo section of the cjdroute.conf.
See doc/peering.md
Admin interface
When cjdroute is up and running, the admin interface will be available at
udp://localhost:11234 (this can be changed in the cjdroute.conf
configuration file). See doc/admin-api.md for more
information about the admin interface. There are several tools in contrib/
that can interact with it.
You can access the admin API with:
./cjdnstool
The Python library; see here.
The Perl library, maintained by Mikey; see here.
Reporting issues
Don't report in this repo, please instead report it at ht
Read the full README on GitHubWhat Hacker News says
15 sourcesIf you want to see that come to pass, I'd recommend trying out CJDNS and/or B.A.T.M.A.N and documenting your experiences:
https://github.com/cjdelisle/cjdns/blob/master/README.md
https://www.open-mesh.org/projects/open-mesh/wiki
In Ajit Pai and the FCC want it to be legal for Comcast to block BitTorrentI immediately thought of cjdns[1] being used to implement this idea. Dos anybody know how ZeroTier compares to it?
[1] https://github.com/cjdelisle/cjdns
In Net Neutrality will die, so let’s take the profit out of killing itTor is a network, and yet you have to install a program to connect to it. You can think of the cjdns program like a driver that allows you to connect to a cjdns network.
To answer your question on what it does : cjdns is a routing protocol that intends to replace the current IP protocol. Like the standard IP protocol, it needs a way to communicate with another node to function (the default gateway). From there, you can communicate with the rest of the network. Your packets will go to the default gateway, who will then redirect it to the "closest node" recursively, until it reaches its destination.
You can setup cjdns over the current internet (essentially making cjdns an "overlay network" like tor) using UDP, or through an ethernet link.[1]
CJDNS indeed works in a mesh : anyone can route other people's traffic, somewhat similarely to tor.
Read the rest
The only difference is that you need to manually configure your "Entry Node" (to lift tor terms). See [0] for the reasoning.
About the name, the creator is Caleb James DeLisle, so I guess CJDNS stands for Caleb James DeLisle's NameServer ? Doesn't really make much sense but I don't see how bad a thing it is.
[0]: https://github.com/cjdelisle/cjdns#2-find-a-friend
[1]: https://github.com/cjdelisle/cjdns/blob/master/doc/configure...
Check out cjdns for a less stupid, less blockchain BS take on fixing the internet.
https://github.com/cjdelisle/cjdns
In Orchid: a new surveillance-free layer on top of the existing InternetOne problem is that BGP has not changed in a long time. The last version of the protocol (v4 I think?) predates 9/11, as do all of the books on how to use BGP. Most routing people (many/most of whom are on the older side) look at BGP as a "done deal", rather than a protocol that requires constant changes and software updates. The latest change to BGP has been to allow for larger ASNs by increasing the byte size, and even that was quite the project.
Selling Cisco on it is the best path to adoption - they have a massive market share. Even most of those old books on BGP are just glorified Cisco router manuals.
Really though, I would be all for BGPsec for my routers, but it feels like lipstick on a pig. We're in the crypto phase of the net, and we now have ways to make distributed routing systems that require no centralized IP registrars. I h
Read the rest
ope this blows your mind as much as it blew mine: https://github.com/cjdelisle/cjdns
While I agree that it's critically important to not get on the slippery slope of laws that restrict internet freedom, I think a decentralized internet infrastructure would make censorship significantly more difficult for governments to impose.
Without centralised gatekeepers, the only viable way to censor the internet is to enforce laws on end-users, which is a daunting task for any government.
And technologically, at least two of the necessary elements for a global meshnet are here: protocols for decentralized addressing and routing, like cjdns >1, and protocols for peer-to-peer electronic value transfer between nodes, like Raiden >2. The only major missing piece of the technological puzzle, AFAICS, is a technology for cheaply deploying telecommunication backbone links.
>1 https://github.com/cjdelisle/cjdns/blob/master/doc/Whitepape...
>
Read the rest
2 https://github.com/raiden-network/raiden/blob/master/README....
DISCLAIMER: I am by no means a bonafide cryptopunk. I have contributed very little code and other meaningful technical work to privacy tech projects.
CJDNS is a self-organising IP address allocation and routing layer. A node's public key acts as its IPv6 address, and routing uses a DHT of those nodes.
This style of network has the property that you can take two independent CJDNS networks, link them together, and all nodes are mutually addressable/routable. This is in contrast to The Internet, whose addressing is centralised on IANA.
cjdns is moderately active, though most links between nodes are via an overlay on top of the public Internet. The goal is to have physical/wireless links between geographically close nodes.
Use https://peers.fc00.io/ to find a cjdns node geographically close to you.
Decentralized protocols such as ipfs/scuttlebutt work particularly well on cjdns, as a file shared on ipfs in one network, will automagically become available on another network, once those netw
Read the rest
orks are linked.
cjdns: https://github.com/cjdelisle/cjdns
Cjdns – encrypted IPv6 mesh net over physical wires, wireless, or IP
1 points · Open discussionFor context, cjdns appears to be a routing suite for implementing a darknet overlay over the normal internet. I'm not entirely sure what Cloudflare is perceived to stand for, but it is a strongly centralized service and cjdns appears to be going for decentralization. (But I'd imagine a Cloudflare-like service, including centralized management = economies of scale in sysadminning, would still be valuable in a cjdns darknet.)
See https://github.com/cjdelisle/cjdns , https://hyperboria.net/ , and https://www.reddit.com/r/darknetplan/
In MathJax CDN shutting down on April 30, 2017cjdns works for me and seems quite secure as a private, distributed VPN. It automatically assigns an unforgeable IPv6 address to each node:
https://github.com/cjdelisle/cjdns
In Meshbird – Distributed private networkingThere is CJDNS (https://github.com/cjdelisle/cjdns/blob/master/doc/Whitepape...) which has distributed routing table and addressing based on public keys.
In The end of the level playing field