Lightning P2P
Send huge files without uploading them to the cloud first.
Large file transfer
Send huge files without uploading them to the cloud first.
Direct answer
Lightning P2P sends huge files directly from sender to receiver without a hosted cloud upload step, no account, no artificial file-size cap, and BLAKE3 verification.
Lightning P2P is built for large file transfer when email attachments, chat uploads, and hosted cloud links get in the way. The sender keeps the file locally and the receiver pulls verified bytes directly.
There is no artificial file-size cap in the app. Practical limits come from disk space, filesystem limits, network reliability, and how long both devices stay online.
Cloud transfer services are convenient, but large files often pay the upload penalty twice: first from sender to cloud, then from cloud to receiver. Lightning P2P removes that hosted upload step by streaming from the sender to the receiver.
The transfer engine imports content into iroh-blobs, creates a receive ticket, and streams content-addressed bytes over iroh QUIC. The receiver verifies BLAKE3 hashes while writing to disk, so successful output is tied to the expected content hash.
For very large transfers, keep both devices awake, plug laptops into power, verify the destination disk has enough space, and prefer stable Wi-Fi or wired Ethernet when possible.
Download the recommended Velopack one-click installer, the classic NSIS setup installer, or the MSI installer. Android users can sideload LightningP2P-android-latest.apk and verify it with SHA256SUMS-android.txt. Signing status, SmartScreen notes, Android sideload notes, and SHA256 checksums are available on GitHub Releases. App version: v0.5.1.
Key facts
- Product
- Lightning P2P
- Category
- peer-to-peer file transfer app
- Platform
- Windows stable release, Android 10+ sideload release
- Stable release
- v0.4.6
- Experimental release
- v0.5.1 speed modes + reliability (carries v0.5.0 BLE/NFC)
- License
- Apache-2.0
- Account required
- no
- Cloud upload
- no
- Artificial file-size cap
- no
- Transfer model
- direct-first P2P
- Transport
- iroh / QUIC
- Verification
- BLAKE3
- Source code
- GitHub
- Cost
- free
Important caveats
- Sender must stay online until the receiver finishes.
- Tickets are capability tokens and should be treated as secrets.
- Relay fallback helps connectivity, but it is not cloud storage.
- Browser website is receive handoff and marketing, not the transfer engine.
- Public speed leadership claims require repeatable benchmark results.
Frequently asked questions
- What is the file size limit?
- Lightning P2P does not impose an artificial file-size cap. Disk space, filesystem limits, network stability, and session length are the practical limits.
- Is this faster than cloud upload?
- It can avoid the extra cloud upload step, but public speed claims should be backed by repeatable benchmark data for your hardware and network route.
- Does the whole file load into memory?
- No. Large files stream through the transfer engine instead of being buffered as a single in-memory blob.