@J12t I think the three leading candidates for the abstract protocol are:
- OpenPGP. Very straightforward, easiest to implement.
- Signal. Much more complex, not a formal standard, but very widely used for messaging.
- MLS. Also complex. A formal standard. Much less widely used.
My big concern is that if we choose a complex abstract protocol, very few developers will implement it. I'd rather have something less featureful and widely implemented than something fancy that nobody uses.