Matrix, The Year To Date Ben Parsons, Developer Advocate, Matrix Matrix is an open standard for communication over the Internet. I will talk about the matrix standard, both the technical implementation and the reasons for its creation. We will focus on the changes and progress that has been made in the previous year, particularly getting the specification out of beta, and the growth of the ecosystem. Finally, the Matrix environment continues to develop, and we'll look at the roadmap for the future.

1. What is it? What’s changed lately? What’s next?
@benpa:matrix.org
benp@matrix.org
@matrixdotorg
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2. 2
What is Matrix?

3. What is Matrix?
Matrix is an open standard
for interoperable, decentralised,
real-time communication over the
Internet.
"3

4. What is Matrix?
Matrix provides a standard HTTP
API for publishing and subscribing
to real-time data in specified
channels…
"4

5. What is Matrix?
…which means it can be used to
power IM, VoIP/WebRTC
signalling, IoT communication…
"5

6. What is Matrix?
… and anything else that can be
expressed as JSON and needs to
be transmitted in real-time over
HTTP.
"6

7. Matrix: Distributed Architecture
Clients
Home
Servers
Identity
Servers
Application
Servers

8. "8
Telegram
Slack
Gitter
IRC
Github

9. "9
Telegram
Slack
Gitter
IRC
Github

10. No single party owns your
conversations.
Conversations are shared
over all participants.
"10

11. End to End Crypto with Olm and Megolm
• Without end-to-end encryption, Matrix’s replicated conversation
history is a privacy problem.
• ➔ Two years spent building decentralised E2E crypto into the
heart of Matrix.
"11

12. Security Assessment
• libolm 1.3.0 assessed by NCC Group in Sept 2016
• Findings released to the public!
https://www.nccgroup.trust/us/our-research/matrix-olm-
cryptographic-review
• Olm: 2x low risk finding, 1x informational
• Megolm: 1x high, 1x medium, 4x low risk.
• All findings fixed in libolm or the Matrix Client SDKs.
• No issues found in libolm since the audit!
"12

13. • Turning it on by default!
• Improved UX for managing device trust
• Cross-signing device keys
• Better device verification
• Better push notification UX for E2E rooms
• Matrix daemon support
• Negotiating E2E with legacy clients
"13
Olm: What’s next?

14. 14
Ecosystem

15. Matrix Open Source Ecosystem
The Matrix Specification (Client/Server API)
client-sideserver-side
Other Servers:
Ruma (Rust),
Jeon (Java)…
Synapse
(1st gen Matrix
Server)
Application
Services and
Bridges
Other Clients:
…and many many more
Matrix iOS
Console
MatrixKit (iOS)
matrix-ios-sdk
Matrix
Web
Console
matrix-js-sdk
Matrix
Android
Console
matrix-android-sdk
Dendrite
(2nd gen Server)
Other Services:
Bridges, Bots, Integs…
Nheko!
(Qt/C++)
Quaternion
(Qt/C++)
gomuksThunderbird
Seaglass
(macOS)Fractal
(Gtk+/Rust)
matrix-react-sdk

16. Clients
• Clients available for every platform, with far more available this year
• Many client-side SDKs:
• Official: JS, React, iOS, Android
• Semi-official: Python, Perl5, Go
• Community: Erlang, Java, Scala, Ruby, Perl6, Lisp, Elixir, Haskell,
Rust…
"16

17. Home servers
• Synapse: reference Matrix home server from the core team.
• Huge codebase in Python/Twisted.
• Some major perf and maintainability challenges…
• … though lots of perf gains lately
• Dendrite: next-generation, work in progress HS from the core team
• ~30K lines of Golang
• Received love this summer from interns and GSOC (more later)
• Other home servers from the community using Rust, Java
TypeScript and more
"17

18. More home server implementation?
With the release of r0, we expect
to see an increase in home server
project activity.
"18

19. The Matrix APIs
• Client-Server API
• Server-Server API
• Application Service API
• Identity Server API

20. The Client-Server API
To send a message:
curl -XPOST -d '{"msgtype":"m.text", "body":"hello"}' "https://
alice.com:8448/_matrix/client/api/v1/rooms/ROOM_ID/send/
m.room.message?access_token=ACCESS_TOKEN"
{
"event_id": "YUwRidLecu"
}
"20

21. To control a Hue light:
curl -XPOST –d '{
"room": "1",
"light": 2,
"brightness": 0.5,
}' "https://alice.com:8448/_matrix/client/api/v1/rooms/ROOM_ID/send/
org.matrix.midi?access_token=ACCESS_TOKEN"
{ "event_id": “ORzcZn2” }
The Client-Server API
"21

22. Server-Sever API
• Synchronises messages and room state between servers, in real-time
• Can retrieve historic messages from each other
• Query profile and presence information about users on each other's servers
"22
Application Services API
• Have privileged access to the server
• Can subscribe to server traffic to provide custom application logic
• They can masquerade as 'virtual users'.

23. 23
Bridges

24. Bridges
• IRC
• Discord
• Telegram
• Slack
• SMS
"24
• Gitter
• RocketChat
• Email
• Mastodon
• …more

25. 25
Bridge
3rd party
Server
3rd party
Clients
Building Bridges

26. Typical Bridging Stack
"26
matrix-
appservice-
irc
matrix-appservice-bridge
matrix-appservice-node
matrix-js-sdk
Node JS
matrix-
appservice-
slack
matrix-
appservice-
purple …

27. Matrix to IRC
matrix-
appservice-irc
ircd
(e.g. Freenode)
IRC clients

28. Matrix to IOT…
Janus WebRTC Gateway
(from MeetEcho)
Parrot Bebop
Drone

29. 29
What’s New?

30. 30
Client Ecosystem
Explosion

31. Client Ecosystem explosion
There were a lot of clients 12 months ago, but now there is a
genuine choice of clients for day-to-day use
Not all of these were first released in the last year, but still, an
“explosion” of work and client development is fair to claim!
"31

32. Nheko
32
• Qt
• Supports E2E
• Looks great

33. Quaternion
• Qt, looks like a Qt app
• Creator is also
creator of
libQMatrixClient,
which supports
many projects
33

34. Spectral
• Qt, uses
libQMatrixClient
• Looks great
34

35. Seaglass
• Native macOS app
• supports E2E
• looks great
35

36. Fractal
• Gnome/GTK
• Rust
• rapidly evolving
• strong community
• Adding E2E soon, at
the Rust-level, so will
be client agnostic
• Supported by Purism
for librem5 device
36

37. Gomuks
• TUI
• written in Go
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38. Client Ecosystem explosion
• Nheko - Qt, supports E2E, looks great
• Quaternion - Qt, looks like a Qt app
• Creator is also creator of libQMatrix, which supports many
projects
• Spectral - Qt, looks great
• Seaglass - Native macOS app, supports E2E, looks great
• Fractal - Gnome/GTK, Rust, rapidly evolving, strong community
• Gomuks - TUI, written in Go
"38

39. Spec Progress
• A known bottleneck
• Permanent Core Team member focused on driving this forwards
• So close……..
• Client Server API is ready
• Application Service (bots & bridges) API is ready
"39

40. "40

41. Synapse improvements
• Reference implementation and 99.999% of active home servers
• Regular incremental performance improvements
• Regular security improvements
• Noticeable improvement in responsiveness on matrix.org
• It’s now Python 3
• Installation streamlined and docs improved (thanks Robin)
"41

42. Google Summer of Code
• Two students working with the core team
• One made huge progress adding E2E bindings for the Python
SDK
• Another helped push Dendrite toward feature-completeness
• Gnome Project had two students working on Fractal (Gtk Client)
• Assisting with redesign and implementation of fundamental
features like room config screen
"42

43. DINSIC (French Government usage)
• Direction interministérielle du numérique et du système
d'information et de communication de l'État
• Deploying a huge private federation of Matrix homeservers
spanning the whole government
• Decentralised organisations (such as govt and academia)
appreciate the decentralised design of matrix, they can have
separate servers linked
• they can have different settings for many things, event security -
eg. AV severity
"43

44. DINSIC (French Government usage)
• Developed a fork of Riot for use as their official secure
communications client
• Now ready on iOS, Android, Web
• Now live with 15 servers, one per ministry
• Security Audit (with involvement from ANSSI, Intelligence Service)
happening today!
• We expect an increase in rollout speed after this
"44

45. Lazy Loading
• Specifically Lazy Loading of member list for rooms
• Can be a bottleneck for client performance but can be solved by
the server.
• Current implementation suggests an initial RAM usage reduction of
around 6x.
"45

46. The Matrix.org Foundation
• A UK non-profit company
• Guardians (five total, including some not from the Matrix
community)
• In progress:
• Property being transferred
• Articles of Association
"46

47. New users
• TADHack!
• 1946 total users on tadhack.vector.im
• Status.im using for their internal comms with a custom Riot theme
"47

48. 48
Hosted Homeservers

49. Modular.im
• Hosted Homeservers: paid hosting from the creators of Matrix
• Matrix as a SaaS (“MaaS”? “MaaSaaS”?)
• web3.foundation using it internally
• Other adopters not yet announced… soon!
"49

50. Modular.im: Next steps
• Smaller servers for individuals
• Custom DNS
• Migration path for existing home servers
"50

51. 51
What’s Next?

52. Spec r0 release
• Stable release of Matrix Spec
• We are so close!
• Client Server API is ready
• Application Service (bots & bridges) API is ready
• Federation API expected this year
• https://github.com/matrix-org/matrix-doc/projects/1
"52

53. Riot Redesign
• Current Riot is not always attractive
• The colours are not …. right
• Messaging software ecosystem is mature, there are things which
users are known to like (…Slack)
• Riot will be a glossy client, with other clients available to taste
"53

54. "54

55. "55

56. State Resolution: Reloaded
• The state of a room at an event is built up and updated by sending
state events into the room.
• View of the state of the room should be consistent across all servers.
• Problem: room graph forks and then merges again (e.g. if two servers
send events at the same time). State has to be resolved from the state
of the two branches: this is called the state resolution algorithm.
• Entirely new consensus algorithm
• Ideal algorithm should not allow malicious servers to avoid moderation
action by forking and merging the room graph
"56

57. Cross-signing
• Keep security, improve convenience
"57

58. e2e in new clients
• Currently in Riot, Nheko, Seaglass
• Needs more
• We should aim to enable e2e on private rooms by default
• Big progress happening in Fractal, will be client-agnostic
"58

59. What’s Next Summary
• Spec r0 release
• Riot Redesign
• E2E in more clients
• State Res reloaded
• Cross-signing
"59

60. 60
What comes after
what comes next?

61. What’s after that?
• Dendrite, with other home servers filling the ecosystem
• Aggregations
• Emoji Reactions
• Editable messages
• Threading - future idea
• Decentralised identity
• matrix.org Foundation
"61

62. Thank You! Swag is available!
@benpa:matrix.org
benp@matrix.org
@matrixdotorg