oldie-goldie 0.5.0b1

Oldie Goldie — a peer-to-peer encrypted chat with tunnel and token-based access.

🕊️ Oldie-Goldie

A Being Human Cult (BHC) Initiative

A self-hostable, peer-to-peer encrypted chat system with tunnel-based connections and token-authenticated access.

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🌐 What is Oldie-Goldie?

Oldie-Goldie is an on-demand, on-the-fly, self-hostable, peer-to-peer encrypted chat system. It provides ephemeral tunnel-based connections and token-authenticated access, enabling private, auditable, and serverless-style conversations between trusted peers.

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💡 Why I Built It

🕵️ The Problem

Modern messaging services promise privacy — but often log metadata, store your messages, or use your data for ad targeting and behavioral profiling. Even when encryption is claimed, the closed-source nature of these apps makes it impossible to know if your messages are truly private.

“Mining for gold without opening the chest.” That’s how metadata surveillance works — who you message, when, how often — all reveal more than you think.

I wanted a fallback — a chat app that was:

• Open source and auditable
• Truly self-hostable
• Peer-to-peer encrypted, with no middleman

So I built Oldie-Goldie, and it became my trusted space for private discussions.

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🧠 The Solution

Oldie-Goldie gives you:

• Direct, secure, ephemeral connections
• No cloud storage
• No accounts
• End-to-end encrypted tunnels
• Invite-token based access control

You spin up a temporary server, share a link + token with your peer, chat securely, and shut it all down when done. Nothing is logged, nothing persists — just you and your peer.

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🧭 Intended Usage

Pre-requisite: Out-of-Band Sharing

1. Usernames (pseudonyms) — agree beforehand with your peer.
2. PSK (pre-shared key) — share a private key to authenticate tunnels.

Flow for Global Server

0. Start the server in tunneling mode (--host public) to get a temporary public URL.
1. Share that URL with your peer.
2. Both register using pseudonyms (not real names).
3. Use /list_users to find your peer.
4. Send a connection request via /connect @username.
5. Both enter the agreed PSK to authenticate the tunnel.
6. If PSK mismatches, the session is terminated, and usernames are blocked.

⚠️ Disclaimer Oldie-Goldie is not a social media or group chat platform. It’s designed for private, ephemeral one-to-one communication, where simplicity and trust are prioritized.

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🧱 Guard Rails and Trust Model

Layer	Purpose
Pre-shared pseudonyms	Protects identity
Pre-shared secret/password	Proof of identity
Token-based access	Prevents unauthorized entry
Temporary tunnels	Ensure no data persistence

🔐 Example: Token-Based Secure Server

Generate tokens for two users:

og-server --host public --invite-token --bind alice bob

Then connect:

og-client --server-host public --url <server-url> --token <token>

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⚙️ Installation

pip install oldie-goldie

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🚀 Usage

🖥️ Run Server

Local

og-server --host local

Public (with Tunnel)

og-server --host public

Protected (Invite Tokens)

og-server --host public --invite-token --token-count 2

Strongly Protected (Bound Tokens)

og-server --host public --invite-token --bind alice bob

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💬 Run Client

Connect Locally

og-client --server-host local

Connect Remotely

og-client --server-host public --url <server-url>

Connect with Token

og-client --server-host public --url <server-url> --token <token>

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🧾 Changelog

See CHANGELOG.md for the full version history and upcoming features.

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🧪 Future Roadmap

• Extend safe_input with foreground/background input support
• Enable server-side dynamic token generation
• Add --reuse flag for token reuse
• Tidy server and client logs
• Improve modularity and developer docs
• Add Android support

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🌿 About Being Human Cult (BHC)

The Tech wing of Being Human Cult (BHC) is a community-driven initiative focused on building humane, open-source technologies that empower people to connect authentically and privately — without exploitation, surveillance, or data harvesting.

Oldie-Goldie is developed and maintained under the BHC umbrella as a free and open-source project.
Learn more: https://beinghumancult.blogspot.com

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☕ Support the Project

Oldie-Goldie is free, open-source, and maintained with care by volunteers. If you’d like to support development or buy the maintainers a coffee:

• 💖 Buy Me a Coffee: (link coming soon)
• 💰 GitHub Sponsors: (link coming soon)
• 🪙 Ko-fi: (link coming soon)
• 📢 Share the project! — word of mouth helps more than you think.

Your support keeps the project independent and privacy-focused. 🙏

🤝 Contributing

Pull requests are welcome! If you’d like to contribute, please:

1. Fork the repo
2. Create a new branch
3. Make your changes
4. Submit a PR

Or open an issue to discuss ideas.

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📜 License

Licensed under the MIT License.
Copyright © 2025
Venu Kotamraju, under the Being Human Cult (BHC) initative.

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💬 Connect

• GitHub → Oldie-Goldie
• PyPI → oldie-goldie
• LinkedIn → [Link coming soon...]
• Blog → Being Human Cult

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🧡 A Note from the Author

I built Oldie-Goldie to reclaim digital privacy. It’s not about hiding — it’s about owning your data and choosing who gets to see it.

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❤️ Author

Venu Kotamraju
[e-mail]
GitHub

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