Jeffrey Yasskin, Chrome team, 2019-06-05
I have been developing the Web Packaging specifications that live in https://github.com/WICG/webpackage. As of June 2019, Chrome has shipped an initial version of "Signed Exchanges" and is working on an implementation of "Bundles". Once the whole system is implemented, we expect it to allow publishers to sign bundles of content that can be distributed to customers in a variety of new ways, including peer-to-peer and via potentially-untrusted distributor websites, some of which will be large aggregators like Google or Facebook.
We expect this new distribution system to have several positive effects in connecting publishers with their readers:
- When readers have restricted access to the global internet, whether through flaky connectivity, expensive connectivity, or government censorship, packages can be shared peer-to-peer, and the recipient can see a trustworthy description of the publisher of the content in their URL bar.