---
title: "A decentralized packet network"
---

Ouroboros is a peer-to-peer transport network built on a new recursive
network paradigm following a UNIX design philosphy. The aim is to
provide a secure and private networking experience and simplify
writing distributed software and networking libraries.

Ouroboros is compatible with TCP/IP and can be overlayed over UDP and
Ethernet. IP applications can be tunneled over Ouroboros. Ouroboros
provides its own name resolution, reliability mechanisms, routing
algorithms, and (soon) congestion control.

Ouroboros was originally started at [imec](www.imec-int.com) under its
Future Internet research, and is [free
software](https://www.fsf.org/about/what-is-free-software). It is
written in C for and its application library provides a simple,
unified API for synchronous and asynchronous Inter-Process
Communication (IPC) and networking.

The best places to start exploring Ouroboros is this introduction
presented at [FOSDEM
2018](https://www.fosdem.org/2018/schedule/event/ipc/), and the [PhD
dissertation](https://biblio.ugent.be/publication/8615152) of Sander
Vrijders, especially chapters 5-6.

This new website is currently under construction and undergoing
frequent updates. The documentation is still sparse, please don't
hesitate to [contact us](/contribute) with any questions you might
have.