This means that communications between the source of data (the uploader) and the destination of the data (the downloader) is indirect through mutual friends.
Search, access, and both uploading and downloading of these files is made by "routing" through a series of friends. The degree of anonymity may be improved further by deactivating the DHT and IP/ certificate exchange services, making the RetroShare network a real Darknet.įriends of friends may not connect directly with each other however, the possibility exists of anonymously sharing files with friends of friends, if enabled by the user. The friend-to-friend structure of the RetroShare network makes it difficult to intrude and hardly possible to monitor from an external point of view. The appearance can be changed by choosing one of several available style sheets. In addition to functions quite common to other file sharing software, such as a search tab and visualization of transfers, RetroShare gives users the potential to manage their network by collecting optional information about neighbour friends and visualizing it as a trust matrix or as a dynamic network graph.
The core of the RetroShare software is based on an offline library, to which two executables are plugged: Tor and I2P networks support, for further anonymisation (since version 0.6.0).a Posted links system, where links to important information can be shared.
It lost a point because there has not been a recent independent code audit. On November 4, 2014, RetroShare scored 6 out of 7 points on the Electronic Frontier Foundation's secure messaging scorecard. The web site 'PRISM Break' has recommended RetroShare for anonymous file sharing since 2013. There has been an unofficial build for the single-board computer Raspberry Pi, named PiShare, since 2012.