Pest is a peer-to-peer network protocol for secure real-time communication between mutually-consenting parties. It is designed for decentralization of control, obstruction of eavesdropping and traffic analysis, resistance to natural and artificial interference, and fits-in-head mechanical simplicity—in that order.
Akris is written and maintained by thimbronion (WOT: thimbronion) and implements a large subset of the current spec. Akris is written in Python 3.11 and Akris Desktop provides a cross-platform GUI via Python's Tkinter library.
Blatta is written and maintained by thimbronion (WOT: thimbronion) and implements a large subset of the current spec. Blatta is written in Python 2.7 and uses SQLite3 for the database. Blatta is no longer in active development after being rewritten as Akris.
The best way to join is to read the whitepaper and write your own Pest client, then use that to peer with other users or a group of friends. The second best way to join is to set up one of the implementations listed above. However, if that all seems a bit daunting right now—but you still think you'd like to learn more—you can drop into the Discord <=> Pest bridge and ask for help in setting up your own Pest station. Any messages you write in the chat will be automatically broadcast in the inaugural pestnet via the discord_bridge bot and show up in the various loggers (bitdash, nosuchlabs) with your selected username prefixed to your message.