Run a node Coming
Run a node. Not yet.
Pigeon's network is made of mailbox servers, called nodes, that hold sealed messages until they're collected. Today Pigeon runs every node. Running your own is planned, and isn't open yet.
Now
Pigeon runs the nodes for the private alpha. The node software is built and tested; the list of nodes is fixed.
Next
Running nodes for your own organisation, on your own machines. Planned; not available.
Later
An open network anyone can join, with defences against one operator posing as many. Planned; not designed in full.
What a node does
A node stores sealed envelopes and hands them back to whoever can prove they may collect them. It never holds a key that could open one, keeps no accounts, and doesn't parse what it stores. Each message lives on five nodes, so a node going down doesn't lose anything.
The details, for engineers: architecture, reliability and the threat model, which lists what a dishonest node could still try.
When can I run one?
We don't have a date, and we won't give one until we can keep it. This page will say when it opens. There's no waiting list, so there's nothing to sign up for and nothing we keep about you.