We will probably put out some explainers soon-ish. We're working hard now to get the early version packaged so it's easier for people to test. Which I think will help understand the protocol better as well
But as a quick answer:
I think iroh iirc, is overlay only and still builds on top of IP.
FIPS is meant to run native, with the overlay being bonus for bootstrapping the Network.
Reticulum comes closest to doing doing what FIPS does, but its focussed more on low-bandwidth applications. FIPS focuses on medium/high bandwidth networks. Additionally FIPS also treats the existing IP stack as a first-class citizen, so that application developers don't have to customize their apps in order to run over FIPS. The way routing works is quite different as well.
npub1qq…qujme
2026-03-09 20:40:55 UTC
in reply to nevent1q…3ya9
Author Public Key
npub1qqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqzqujmePublished at
2026-03-09 20:40:55 UTCEvent JSON
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"content": "We will probably put out some explainers soon-ish. We're working hard now to get the early version packaged so it's easier for people to test. Which I think will help understand the protocol better as well\n\nBut as a quick answer:\n\nI think iroh iirc, is overlay only and still builds on top of IP. \nFIPS is meant to run native, with the overlay being bonus for bootstrapping the Network.\n\nReticulum comes closest to doing doing what FIPS does, but its focussed more on low-bandwidth applications. FIPS focuses on medium/high bandwidth networks. Additionally FIPS also treats the existing IP stack as a first-class citizen, so that application developers don't have to customize their apps in order to run over FIPS. The way routing works is quite different as well.",
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