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What you're seeing here is one of the first nodes on ARPANET. It's known as a Interface Message Processor (IMP).

Note the word "Message" in "Interface Message Processor" because messaging was core to its use.

These nodes were used to connect participants of ARPANET, and they were the precursors to today's modern routers.

An IMP's job was to be a middleman node that would literally store and forward a message from one originating node towards its ultimate destination.

Why do I mention IMPs? Because right out of the gate, the goal of federating nodes was about creating the infrastructure for sharing messages. And what enabled this unique form of cooperation were IMPs.

The terminology has changed, but the idea remains the same.

What the Fediverse is about is sending messages from one node to another. And when there cannot be a direct connection, middleman nodes can send messages from one originating node to its ultimate destination.

#LearnFediverse