Matrix

The TechInc community is using a bunch of different protocols and platforms to communicate with each other, such as IRC, Telegram, Discord, Signal, email, etc. Unfortunately, this leads to fragmentation, as not everybody is able to participate in the conversations that people are having within the community.

This is one of the things that Matrix hopes to address

Matrix defines a set of open APIs for decentralised communication, suitable for securely publishing, persisting and subscribing to data over a global open federation of servers with no single point of control. Uses include Instant Messaging (IM), Voice over IP (VoIP) signalling, Internet of Things (IoT) communication, and bridging together existing communication silos - providing the basis of a new open real-time communication ecosystem.

With Matrix, it becomes possible for a Telegram user to talk to a user on Discord, and from a Signal user to talk to a user on IRC. Of course, this should not be done without the explicit consensus of the existing communities. Each community has different rules and norms that cannot and should not just be thrown out of the window for the sake of interoperability.

There are several ways that we can setup a Matrix instance and the various bridges, each having their own upsides and downsides. Before deciding on what works best, we need a common understanding of the different options.

Method 1: Full bridge

n-to-n

Method 2: Single-channel bridge

n-to-1

Method 3: Partial bride

m-to-n