get failed: invalid character '<' looking for beginning of value

[whitis]

Server: ubuntu 20.04
Client: Ubuntu 18.04.6 LTS bionic beaver

Error message appears repeatedly at 1-2 second intervals on both client and server.

main.go:108: get failed: invalid character '<' looking for beginning of value

On client side:
ldd ~/go/bin/ssh-p2p
linux-vdso.so.1 (0x00007ffde8791000)
libpthread.so.0 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libpthread.so.0 (0x00007fb4c70a8000)
libc.so.6 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libc.so.6 (0x00007fb4c6cb7000)
/lib64/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2 (0x00007fb4c72c7000)

Client side command
~/go/bin/ssh-p2p client -key="$key" -listen=127.0.0.1:2222

Server side command
~/go/bin/ssh-p2p server -key="$key" -dial=127.0.0.1:22

$key has same value on both ends.

ssh -p 2222 127.0.0.1 does not connect through. It just sits there with no messages or prompts. SSH sever is installed on server ed.

client and server are separated by 20 miles and a snow storm. Fortunately, this was just a test.

server side installation:
sudo apt-get install -y golang openssh-server
go get -u github.com/nobonobo/ssh-p2p
~/go/bin/ssh-p2p newkey
key = $(ssh-p2p newkey)
echo $key
~/go/bin/ssh-p2p server -key="$key" -dial=127.0.0.1:22

Key was photographed and entered twice and compared on client system.