TorChat is a de-centralised P2P IM platform which takes place over the Tor Network. Have you ever wanted to talk to someone knowing that all your messages are secure and no one will ever know it happened? Ever wanted to pass on a password to someone without risk that the password has entered a log file somewhere which could later be stolen, or that the traffic has been intercepted and stored elsewhere? Ever had someone want to IM you from say a forum, but you didn't want to give your IM details away as it contains your email address or other details that you would like to keep secret? TorChat can solve all these. It's a secure messaging platform with no centralised server which is totally anonymous. When you open TorChat for the first time it will automatically create you an ID (known as an Onion address on the Tor Network) which is a series of 16 charactors. Give this to a chat partner and they can add you and send you instant messages and file transfers. Finished chatting and don't wish them to be able to contact you again? Simply remove your identity and start again with a new ID! By using the Tor Network, your guranteed that your privacy will not be breached, your IP address is not given out to anyone as the Tor Network will hide it. When you send a message over TorChat, your message goes down a totally random 'Tor' Chain where its passed across 6 seperate nodes on the Tor Network, each node doesn't know other people on the chain. Your message is encypted as it goes across so even if one of the nodes tries to read your traffic, they won't be able to see whats inside. You can read more about how the Tor Network works or how the Hidden Service Protocol (used by TorChat) works. As the entire transaction happens on the Tor Network, the traffic from send to receipt never leaves the Tor network, meaning no part of the messaging takes places across the normal internet 'clearnet' keeping your messages private, secure and totally anonymous. TorChat comes as a Portable Application with no install needed. So you can use it from a Flash Drive, or have it on your PC somewhere. When your finished with it simply delete the folder and the application is gone without a trace! (However, if you wish to keep the Onion ID you were assigned, your need to keep the hidden_service key in the folder, as without this the network will generate you a new one) You can download TorChat for Windows and Linux here: https://github.com/prof7bit/TorChat You can get the Mac port of TorChat here: SourceMac I've been using this over the past few days to exchange a few vpn passwords with a friend who I have on normal IM, but wanted a secure method to deliver a password. I've also used this to help someone on the forum who wanted to use IM instead of waiting for PM's back and fourth, so it really does have real world usage!