Keet: Tether’s P2P communication app built to survive internet shutdowns

One hundred and ninety-three in 41 countries: that is the reported figure on cases of social media shutdowns across Africa between 2016 and 2024. The subsequent years weren’t any better, with cases rising to 300 between 2024 and 2026. Each case affecting at least 10 million people: national stakeholders target platforms like WhatsApp, Telegram, and Facebook to curb democracy in contributions to national matters.

Away from Africa, censorship is a global issue and affects the highest levels of civilization and technological advancement. Cases of strategic user limitation have been reported across Europe, Asia, and the Americas; a perfect representation of the depth of censorship worldwide.

Beyond censorship, server failures are also implicated in what is now known as unintentional deplatforming. For example, there have been AWS, Oracle, and Cloudflare data center outages and more than 4 cases in the first three months of 2026.

While UNESCO and the #keepiton movement continue to advocate for social freedom and against intentional deplatforming, the inherent design of the internet and social applications is the greatest enabler of censorship.

Deplatforming mostly takes a ‘provider’ route: blocking via DNS/IP restrictions, suspending internet gateways, GPS spoofing/jamming for ISP satellites, removal from app stores, and DPI throttling make up a long list. Apparently, providers’ control over the core communication infrastructure threatens the usability of social tools for the billions who rely on them.

The ‘unstoppable web’; an optimistic vision of the internet, championed by applications that solve the centralization problem by excising providers and supporting usage by millions of users, is a view held to the core by Tether. ‘The stable project’ is weaving the fabrics of financial, communication, and technological sovereignty with integrated solutions.

On July 25, 2022, Tether launched Keet, a distributed social messaging application built with the Pear runtime. A collaborative effort between the stablecoin firm and Holepunch, Keet combines a self-verifying data structure, a P2P file management protocol, and holepunching technology, each forming layers of a hyper-efficient system that creates tamper-proof connections between millions of devices.

The technology that underlies Keet is a counter-response to deplatforming and the centralized internet. It does not rely on servers to operate, and turns users into infrastructure, creating a connectivity web that serves as a substrate for billions of users in an unstoppable flow of communication.

The Keet application has been downloaded over a million times across Google Play Store, iOS App Store, and as a native desktop application. Commenting on the application’s growing popularity, Tether CEO, Paolo Ardoino, said;

“Keet is gaining significant traction. Especially in countries where freedom of speech is under attack, and the most common messaging platforms are no longer trusted by the local population. Pure P2P is unstoppable.”

Keet supports text and video-based communication. Just like popular centralized social apps, it supports personal and group chats, lets you create channels, host group calls, and make crystal-clear video calls.

Untethering the internet from ‘providers’ with Holepunch

Holepunch is the connectivity layer of the Keet application. It is Tether’s solution to centralization in communication that plagues both human and AI agents. As a base layer for cutting-edge applications, it is purpose-built for a broad range of use cases and employs a peer-based development and operational approach.

Holepunch establishes secure, tamper-proof inter-device communication using HyperDHT, a distributed hash table based on the Kademlia algorithm that serves as the global coordination layer for connectivity on Keet.

Devices in the network discover each other using ‘Topic’, a 32-byte hash key that connects entities with the same intent. When connected, devices can send text messages using Hypercore. Hypercore is an ‘add-only’ data log that verifies and records data in real time using a signed Merkle tree.

File transfer on Keet is handled by Hyperdrive. Hyperdrive is an evolution of P2P file systems; it enables users to share and download files in real time and without servers.

By enabling inter-device connectivity without ‘providers’ via hypercores and HyperDHT, Holepunch sets the stage for unstoppable, private communication. On Keet, the communicating devices handle all aspects of their information transfer without interacting with a server or any controlled infrastructure.

Holepunch’s technology is packaged into Pear, a P2P runtime and development kit that enables developers to easily build decentralized applications for various sectors. Keet was developed with the Pear runtime, which also powers a range of other applications, including Tether’s AI applications; the QVAC Health and QVAC Workbench, an AI-powered Work Assistant, and PearPass, a decentralized password manager.

Scaling a distributed application, infinitely: Unstoppable communication, unlimited users

To date, peer-based internet and applications are more popular among cypherpunks and a siloed community of users. This is as deliberate as an alpha testing program for a new application. Decentralized internet solutions break down at scale due to their architecture. But for an application intended for widespread use, Keet must maintain high performance as user counts grow.

Keet’s scalability is built into the Holepunch backend. Holepunch turns every user into part of the network’s overall infrastructure. Each new user is an asset, exponentially expanding network capacity by contributing their bandwidth and creating a Swarm that securely streams and downloads information.

Yet, Keet’s biggest appeal is its indestructibility. Like other Holepunch applications, Keet lives on users’ devices rather than a central server. Therefore, as long as there are peers (users) on the network, the application will continue to work.

According to Mathias Buus, Co-founder of Holepunch:

“If we stop working, the apps will still work.”

Shifting to decentralized media

Decentralization is the only way we maintain control and challenge schemes to trim how we communicate. In addition to ensuring that no entity disrupts our means of communication, decentralized media also offers true privacy. Instead of relying on privacy policies that are enabled by default, decentralized media ensures that confidential data is never exposed. Keet is the netizens’ ticket to secure, scalable, unstoppable, and private communication.

Take back control of your communication by downloading the Keet application and checking out other applications built with Pear and Holepunch.