That's why I said it may or may not qualify. What's the threat model? What's the usage environment? (It's "encrypted p2p" between two users if one of the users is also the admin.)
For example, if the purpose of this requirement is to keep a business team's communications out of the hands of other businesses, then local IRC+SSL accomplishes that, even though the local administrator can still snoop on it. Being able to say that company secrets never left the company was a big hit with our investors, and it didn't matter that it was technically possible for our sysadmin to snoop on them because he had physical access to all our workstations anyway.
If you don't have a trusted administrator, all is not lost. Each user can run their own ircd on the same VPN. It's less convenient to set up but any IRC client can handle multiple servers. Again, it depends on your requirements. (Are there 5 users, or 5000?)
Like any other technology, IRC can be used as part of a secure system. It has the advantage that it's free and easy to run yourself. Without knowing more context, though, it may or may not be practical.
For example, if the purpose of this requirement is to keep a business team's communications out of the hands of other businesses, then local IRC+SSL accomplishes that, even though the local administrator can still snoop on it. Being able to say that company secrets never left the company was a big hit with our investors, and it didn't matter that it was technically possible for our sysadmin to snoop on them because he had physical access to all our workstations anyway.
If you don't have a trusted administrator, all is not lost. Each user can run their own ircd on the same VPN. It's less convenient to set up but any IRC client can handle multiple servers. Again, it depends on your requirements. (Are there 5 users, or 5000?)
Like any other technology, IRC can be used as part of a secure system. It has the advantage that it's free and easy to run yourself. Without knowing more context, though, it may or may not be practical.