Built by Team GhostWire, Open University of Kenya. A decentralized mesh communication platform for when the internet goes dark.
GhostWire conceived as a response to connectivity inequality in the Global South. Initial architecture design, threat modeling, and technology selection. Rust chosen for memory-safe core, libp2p for P2P networking.
Core Rust implementation: crypto_machine module (AES-256-GCM, Ed25519, X25519), libp2p networking stack with Kademlia DHT, Gossipsub pub/sub, and QUIC/TCP transports. Axum HTTP API for dashboard.
LightGBM anomaly detection model trained and exported to ONNX (76.7us inference). GNN routing model development began. ONNX Runtime wired into Rust backend for real-time anomaly detection.
Processed GuifiSants mesh dataset (7,931 samples, 63 nodes, 31 days) for GNN training. Team expanded to 7 members from Open University of Kenya. Website, documentation, and GCD4F submission preparation.
Target submission for Global Challenge Design for Future 2026. Theme: AI for Society. SDG alignment: 9 (Industry, Innovation, Infrastructure), 11 (Sustainable Cities), 17 (Partnerships).
Open University of Kenya. Building resilient communication infrastructure for connectivity-constrained communities.
System architecture, Rust core, AI/ML integration, cryptographic design. Project vision and technical direction.
mirungu015@proton.meOpen University of Kenya. Contributing to GhostWire development and documentation.
Open University of Kenya. Contributing to GhostWire development and documentation.
Open University of Kenya. Contributing to GhostWire development and documentation.
Open University of Kenya. Contributing to GhostWire development and documentation.
Open University of Kenya. Contributing to GhostWire development and documentation.
Open University of Kenya. Contributing to GhostWire development and documentation.
GhostWire is being submitted to the Global Challenge Design for Future 2026 competition. The competition challenges teams to build technology solutions that address real-world problems with AI.
Theme: AI for Society
Institution: Open University of Kenya
Alignment with UN Sustainable Development Goals:
In Hindu and Buddhist cosmology, Indra's Net is described as an infinite web stretching across the cosmos. At each intersection hangs a jewel. Each jewel reflects all others. No jewel is more important than any other. The net has no center. The net has no edge.
The original internet architects independently rediscovered what African philosophy had encoded for millennia: systems built on mutual relationship rather than central authority are more resilient, more equitable, and more aligned with existence itself.
Information wants to be free not because someone decided this, but because this is its nature. The architecture of connection is not a product to be sold but a right to be exercised. GhostWire does not sell connectivity. It enables it.
The architecture itself is the philosophy. Every design decision in GhostWire serves one purpose: ensuring that no single entity can control, monitor, or disable the network. No central server. No owner. No kill switch.
I am because we are. The stranger is a node that has not yet connected to the net. Every person who joins the mesh strengthens it. Every person excluded weakens it. The mesh is only as strong as its most isolated node.
GhostWire begins here: not as a product, but as a restoration. The first root of Yggdrasil. We are not inventing something new. We are remembering something old — that communication belongs to those who communicate.
The internet was never meant to be owned. It was meant to be lived. GhostWire is our attempt to remember what that feels like.
— From GhostWire: The First Root of Yggdrasil