Install veilid with Homebrew, Nix

Project links

• Homepage
• Repository
• Upstream docs
• Package manager page

Commands and aliases

• veilid-cli
• veilid-server

Project history

Veilid was launched at DEF CON 31 in August 2023 by members of Cult of the Dead Cow, including Christien Rioux and Katelyn Bowden. The launch material described it as conceptually similar to IPFS plus Tor, but designed as an application framework with private routing rather than as a blockchain or transaction network.

The GitLab project was created in July 2023, shortly before the public DEF CON release. The project's developer book describes Veilid as both a protocol and an application development framework, with sections for concepts, running nodes, and building apps through APIs such as Python and Dart.

Adoption history

Veilid's adoption is still early and community-driven. It gained attention because of its cDc lineage and because privacy advocates and decentralization writers saw it as part of a renewed push toward peer-to-peer applications that are not dependent on large social or cloud platforms.

The flagship demonstration has been VeilidChat, a decentralized secure chat application built on the framework. The broader adoption story is less about a mature installed base and more about providing developers with reusable privacy networking primitives.

How it is used

Package users install `veilid-server` to run a node and `veilid-cli` to interact with it. Developers use the framework and language bindings to build applications that discover peers, exchange data, and use Veilid's routing and DHT-like primitives rather than standing up a conventional centralized backend.

The project explicitly targets mobile, desktop, web, and headless node use. That makes the Homebrew package relevant not just for app developers but also for power users who want to operate nodes and help bootstrap the network.

Why package nerds care

Veilid matters in package collections because it is not merely another chat app: it is a privacy-preserving P2P substrate packaged as developer infrastructure. Its presence in Homebrew and Nix makes experimentation with the network much easier for Rust, privacy, and decentralized-systems communities.

Timeline

• July 2023: The public GitLab project is created.
• August 11, 2023: Veilid is released at DEF CON 31.
• Late 2023: EFF and security media coverage position Veilid among contemporary peer-to-peer web and privacy-infrastructure efforts.

Related projects

• Veilid is commonly compared with Tor, IPFS, BitTorrent-style peer discovery, Secure Scuttlebutt, Freenet, and other anonymous or decentralized P2P systems. Unlike many of those, its stated packaging is an application framework rather than a single end-user network product.

Sources

• https://gitlab.com/veilid/veilid
• https://veilid.com/
• https://veilid.com/Launch-Slides-Veilid.pdf
• https://veilid.gitlab.io/developer-book/
• https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2023/12/meet-spritely-and-veilid
• https://www.theregister.com/special-features/2023/08/12/cult-of-the-dead-cow-unveils-veilid-peer-to-peer-project/830646