The Hypersketch team brought this concept to life with their peer-to-peer sketch app built on the Pear Runtime platform that allows two or more people to collaboratively work on a whiteboard. The peer-to-peer nature of the activity allows the creators to establish a direct connection, keeps their creations completely secure and private and maintains the true spirit of collaboration.
The app was developed by Team Irregular—Dilpreet, Rachit, and Prasant—who set out to build a decentralized, privacy-first collaboration experience. They saw a clear gap in the market: while real-time collaboration tools exist, they all rely on centralized infrastructure—introducing privacy risks, latency, and unnecessary reliance on third parties.
In this interview we discussed their inspiration for the app, why it's a perfect fit for a peer-to-peer platform and their experience building on Pear Runtime for the first time.
Q: Tell us about your team and your project.
We are team Irregular. Dilpreet is our team leader and me, Rachit and Prasant, all are the team members. Our project is HyperSketch, which is a real time collaboration whiteboard app where people can collaborate on a whiteboard in real time.
Q: What problem does the app solve?
Our app solves the problem of real-time sketching or real-time drawing using peer-to-peer technology. Suppose I want to draw something or collaborate with friends in a far away city. With Hypersketch we can do this in real-time and work together.
While there are real-time whiteboards available today—they all use centralized servers. Our whiteboard is decentralized; it uses peer-to-peer technology, so data stays between the users only, and does not flow through a centralized server. All of the user's data and drawings are saved on their local computers, keeping their data completely private with no access whatsoever to outside servers or users.
Q: How was your experience with Pear Runtime?
It was a great experience because I have been using Node js or Syntax servers to create peer-to-peer apps. The transition was very easy, and it was not more difficult than using other runtimes. And the Pears docs were fantastic and easy to read and understand. Using Pear Runtime and Pears was a very good and seamless experience.
Q: How do you see the future of decentralization?
Globally we are seeing a movement towards decentralization. We see great potential for monetizing Hypersketch as more and more people adopt decentralization and peer-to-peer technology. We also value the cost efficiency of using Pear Runtime, which eliminates the need to pay for servers and infrastructure costs.
