---
title: "About"
draft: false
date:  2019-08-02
---

The Ouroboros project is a decentralized packet network implementation
started by Sander Vrijders and Dimitri Staessens. It stems from our
deep interest in computer networks, trying to solve some long standing
problems in IP networks such as achieving clean fragmentation, routing
scalability, efficient congestion control and simple
multicast. Instead of trying to tackle these issues in isolation, we
subscribe to the view that the entire TCP/IP design is *fundamentally*
broken, and a holistic approach is needed to build efficient packet
networks.

In addition, a lot of the design is inspired by Edward Snowdens
revelations and his call to [drastically improve end-user security and
privacy](https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2014/05/edward-snowdens-other-motive-for-leaking/370068/)
on the internet.

### Licenses

Ouroboros is [free
software](https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html). The libraries
are available under the [GNU Lesser Public License (LGPL) version
2.1](https://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/lgpl-2.1.html). The
daemons are available under the [GNU Public License (GPL) version
2](https://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/gpl-2.0.html). The tools
are availabe under the [3-Clause BSD
License](https://opensource.org/licenses/BSD-3-Clause).

Ouroboros logos © Dimitri Staessens. All Rights Reserved.

### Disclaimer

Ouroboros is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but without
any warranty; without even the implied warranty of merchantability or
fitness for a particular purpose.

At present, Ouroboros should be considered an advanced research
prototype.