Matrix.org - Holiday Special

The Matrix Holiday Special 2024

2024-12-25T00:00:00+00:00

Hi all,
Once again we celebrate the end of another year with the traditional Matrix Holiday Special! (see also 2023</a>, 2022</a>, 2021</a>, 2020</a>, 2019</a>, 2018</a>, 2017</a>, 2016</a> and 2015</a> just in case you missed them).
This year, it is an incredible relief to be able to sit down and write an update which is overwhelmingly positive - in stark contrast to the rather mixed bags of 2022 and 2023. This is not to say that things are perfect: most notably, The Matrix.org Foundation has not yet hit its funding goals, and urgently needs more organisations who depend on Matrix to join as members</a> in order to be financially sustainable. However, in terms of progress of Matrix towards outperforming the centralised alternatives; growth of the ecosystem; the success of the first ever Matrix Conference; we couldn’t be happier - and hopefully the more Matrix matures, the more folks will want to join the Foundation to help fund it.
So, precisely why are we feeling so happy right now? 
🔗</a>Matrix 2.0</h3>
Matrix 2.0 is the project to ensure that Matrix can be used to build apps which outcompete the incumbent legacy mainstream communication apps. Since announcing the project at FOSDEM 2023, we’ve been hard at work iterating on:

Sliding Sync, providing instant sync, instant login and instant launch.</li>
Next Generation Auth via OIDC, to support instant login by QR code and consistent secure auth no matter the client.</li>
Native Multiparty VoIP via MatrixRTC, to provide consistent end-to-end-encrypted calling conferencing within Matrix using Matrix’s encryption and security model.</li>
Invisible Cryptography, to ensure that encryption in Matrix is seamless and no longer confuses users with unable-to-decrypt errors, scary shields and warnings, or other avoidable UX fails.</li> </ul>
All of these projects are big, and we’ve been taking the time to iterate and get things right rather than cut corners – the whole name of the game has been to take Matrix from 1.0 (it works) to 2.0 (it works fast and delightfully, and outperforms the others). However, in September at the Matrix Conference we got to the point of shipping working implementations of all of the Matrix 2.0 MSCs, with the expectation of using these implementations to prove the viability of the MSCs and so propose them for merging into the spec proper.
Sliding Sync ended up evolving into MSC4186</a>: Simplified Sliding Sync, and is now natively integrated into Synapse (no more need to run a sliding sync proxy!) and deployed on matrix.org, and implemented in matrix-rust-sdk and matrix-js-sdk. MatrixRTC is MSC4143</a> and dependents and is also deployed on matrix.org and call.element.io. Invisible Cryptography is a mix of MSCs: MSC4161</a> (Crypto terminology for non-technical users), MSC4153</a> (Exclude non-cross-signed devices), MSC3834</a> (Opportunistic user key pinning (TOFU)), and is mostly now implemented in matrix-rust-sdk - and Unable To Decrypt problems have been radically reduced (see Kegan’s excellent Matrix Conference talk</a> for details). Finally, Next Gen Auth is MSC3861</a> and is planned to be deployed on matrix.org via matrix-authentication-service</a> in Feb 2025.
It’s been controversial to ship Matrix 2.0 implementations prior to the MSCs being fully finalised and merged, but given the MSCs are backwards compatible with Matrix 1.0, and there’s unquestionable benefit to the ecosystem in getting these step-changes in the hands of users ASAP, we believe the aggressive roll-out is justified. Meanwhile, now the implementations are out and post-launch teething issues have largely been resolved, the MSCs will progress forwards.
One of the things we somehow failed to provide when announcing the implementations at the Matrix Conference was a playground for folks to experiment with Matrix 2.0 themselves. There’s now one based on Element’s stack of Synapse + matrix-authentication-service + Element Web + Element Call available at element-docker-demo</a> in case you want to do a quick docker compose up</code> to see what all the fuss is about! Meanwhile, matrix.org should support all the new MSCs in February – which might even coincide with the MSCs being finalised, you never know!
Rather than going through Matrix 2.0 in detail again, best bet is to check out the launch talk from The Matrix Conference…