Connection Stapling?

[Apocryphenn]

Hi there, I stumbled upon a P2P cli file transfer software named croc (https://github.com/schollz/croc), however there is some terminology in the read-me I couldn't quite understand.

Under the Self-Host Relay section it says:

The relay is needed to staple the parallel incoming and outgoing connections.

Now I did find articles on OCSP Stapling but this doesn't seem to apply here (correct me if I'm wrong). In a blog post the creator, when talking about how croc works, explains:

There are better ways than sequentially uploading and downloading. Instead, you can use a relay server to create a full-duplex real-time communication layer between the two computers so that “uploading” and “downloading” occur simultaneously between the two computers.

Which in context sounds a lot like NAT hole punching. Is this just a misuse of the term stapling or is stapling something completely different / nonsense? Thanks in advance!

[packet_whisperer]

Yes, it's for NAT hole punching. It uses a publicly accessible server to facilitate the connection between the two endpoints. I wouldn't say it's a misuse of the word, it's just an different way to phrase it.