Some notes toward a fully distributed, serverless socnet/communications network using CouchDB.

[Bryce Lynch]

More notes.  I do my best thinking when I'm stuck in traffic, it seems.
Again, this will need discussion, and at this point with people who've
built CouchApps and can actually speak to how they do or do not work, and
under what circumstances.  I'm also probably missing some important stuff.

-----

problem: addressing

practically everybody is behind at least one NATting firewall these days

IP addresses are dynamic, so you can't count on a buddy being reachable at
the same IP for very long

having the Network25 app post its current IP address somewhere (a field on
a blog, to a mailing list, Tweet) or get a dynamic DNS hostname every time
isn't really workable.  in fact, it outs the user in obvious ways, and not
everyone is okay with that

another problem: Port forwarding.  there are some solutions to this, but
not all of them work well, work at all, or are suitable.  multiple layers
of NAT make this solution suck.

solution used by TorChat, which would probably work for us: Tor hidden
service addresses

TorChat creates a unique hidden service address for you when you set it
up.  when you add people to your buddy list, it stores <public key>.onion
in the list, and it's up to you to set an alias ("qwertyuiopasdfgh.onion"
== "Bryce A. Lynch") on it

Network25 should be able to do the same thing

the Zero State is talking about using Tor for general communications in the
future, anyway, this would be a perfect time to start

When the Network25 socnet software starts up, it looks to see if Tor is
running, if it has any hidden services configured, and if any of those
services correspond to a unique port that Network25 uses

shell/batch scripts FTW

if not found, it tells the Tor daemon to create a hidden service
descriptor, copies the public key/.onion hostname into the user's Network25
profile, and announces it to that person's friends so they know where to
find zir and can start synching databases

the name of the hidden service is then added to a field in your profile
document, so when people friend you on the network they know how to reach
you:
public profile document (gets replicated)
{
_id: "Bryce A. Lynch",
_interests: ["long walks on the beach", "moonlit nights", "massively
distributed systems", "tor", "writing stuff about CouchApps in Tomboy"],
_friends: ["friend", "friend", ...],
_publickey: "<public key>",
_toraddress: "qwertyuiopasdfgh.onion",
...
}

this means that CouchDB (configured to use Tor rather than IP address/ports
combos) knows how to reach your copy of the socnet software and sync its
copies of users' databases (profile, timeline, forums/communities/mailing
lists/distribution lists/news feeds)

this also helps authenticate users, in the same way that hidden services
are authenticated (there is a corresponding private key which is never
shared by Tor).  if the public key (.onion) and private key (on your box)
don't match, then the service isn't trusted

because database creation in CouchDB is cheap, there is no reason why there
can't be multiple databases in every user's profile
b" user profile
b" shared public forum (anologous to the Doctrine Zero mailing list)
b" specific forums (public or not) (anologous to zs-p2p, zs-arg mailing
lists)
b" personal blog
b" blogs specific to the projects the user is working on (which themselves
can have multiple people posting to them, because they're distributed)
b" private blogs/chat forums for specific people
b" blog/news feed/private messages from everyone the user has friended in
Network25
b database: amon_zero_public_feed
b database: amon_zero_private_messages
b database: amon_zero_philosophical_pontification
b database: bryce_a_lynch_public_feed
b database: bryce_a_lynch_project_byzantium
b database: bryce_a_lynch_3d_printing
b database: bryce_a_lynch_private_messages
b database: zs_med_discussion
b database: zs_arg_plot

restricted databases are only replicated by members that are part of that
project or group

a list of authorized users and their corresponding public keys are part of
the database for every forum

a majority of people in a private forum have to vote to include that person?

all messages are encrypted to the public keys of everyone authorized to
participate in that form/replicate that database

private databases are only replicated by people they're shared with, i.e.,
a personal chat feed for one other person is only in two places in the
Network25 socnet, your machine and theirs

consider making private databases purgeable, i.e., either or both people
can have their copy of the socnet software dump the database so that there
is no record of the discussion on either side

this is where PKE or OTR would come into play - even if the database were
recovered somehow, it should be difficult for the attacker to figure out
what the cyphertext is

I don't know how easy, or how safe implementing crypto at the level of a
CouchApp is.

all of us are going to have running copies of the Tor Browser Bundle, and
all of us are going to have copies of the CouchDB stack and Network25 app,
so it would be possible to use a crypto.cat-like plugin for the TBB which
implements the encryption/decryption/acquisition of a buddy's public
key/addition of key to the user's profile database

how much disk space will this take up?  I don't know yet.

will CouchDB contact other nodes over Tor?  I don't know yet.  have to test
it out.

encryption/decryption of data before it enters/leaves the CouchApp?  good
question.  I don't have enough experience yet with CouchApps to say, but
would love to talk to someone who does

-- 
The Doctor [412/724/301/703] [ZS (MED)]
https://drwho.virtadpt.net/
"I am everywhere."

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