Privacy-first peer-to-peer file transfer
Founder & Engineer
2026 — ongoing · active build
React · Python · Fastify
Shipped · in production
What it is
Beam is a privacy-first peer-to-peer file transfer platform. You scan a QR code and files move directly between devices, end-to-end encrypted, whenever a direct connection can be established — no cloud storage holding your data. It's in active development and getting faster and more reliable constantly.
Why it was hard
Sending a file usually means uploading it to someone's cloud first — slower, and a copy of your data now lives on a server you don't control. Beam's bet is that the fastest, most private path is the direct one: device to device, nothing in the middle.
What we learned first
The friction in existing tools is trust and setup. QR-code pairing removes the account, the link, and the upload wait in one move — point a camera, connect, transfer. From there it was about squeezing the direct connection for every bit of throughput the network allows.
How it's built
A React front end handles pairing and transfer UX, a Python/Fastify signaling layer brokers the initial handshake over WebSocket, and the file data itself flows directly between peers over an encrypted channel — never through a server. When a direct connection lands, throughput reaches up to 1.2 GiB/s*.
What shipped
- Instant transfer by scanning a QR code
- End-to-end encrypted, device-to-device
- No cloud storage for file data — no servers in between
- Speeds up to 1.2 GiB/s* (network dependent)
- No account, no link, no upload wait
Where it fought back
Direct connections that hold
Establishing a reliable peer-to-peer link across varied networks is the hard part. The signaling layer negotiates the connection, then gets out of the way so data goes straight across.
Speed at the edge of the network
With no server relay, transfer speed is bounded by the connection itself. Beam is tuned to push right up to that ceiling — up to 1.2 GiB/s depending on network specifications.
Private by construction
End-to-end encryption and no cloud storage aren't a setting — they're the architecture. The file data never touches a server, so there's nothing in the middle to leak.
What it did
What I'd tell you over coffee
The shortest path is the best product. Removing the server didn't just make Beam more private — it made it faster. Sometimes the biggest feature is the infrastructure you refuse to build.