IRC

Definition

IRC stands for Internet Relay Chat and is a decentralized internet chat protocol allowing users to talk over several IRC networks. The special touch is that it only allows text to be sent. While some Clients allow bold and italic text, most clients don't do this. IRC allows file transfer through the Direct-Client-to-Client (DCC) Protocol.

History

IRC first appeared in the Summer of 1988 on a finnish server (The first IRC server was 'tolsun.oulu.fi') over the BITNET.

IRC & I2P

In I2P there is a union of various IRC servers called Irc2P IRC Network.