specs/standards/application/qaku.md

title	name	category	tags	editor	contributors
WAKU-APP-QAKU	Waku App Qaku	Standards Track	waku		Jimmy Debe <jimmy@status.im>

Abstract

The document describes the different components of the Qaku web application. Qaku is a Waku web applications that utilizes some Waku protocols to provide a private and censorship-resistent question and answer service.

Background

Waku is a family of robust, censorship-resistant communication protocols designed to enable privacy-focused messaging for the decentralized web. Current Q&A platforms are controlled by centralized organizations who have the ability to remove, block and censor content published by any user. This could cause a user to not express their ideas or ask reall questions with fear of prosecution by a thrid party.

Qaku aims to solve this by utilizing a few 10/WAKU protocols to create a Q&A forum. The user can create a Q&A board with a wallet address, send questions or answers directly to other peers without the need of storing and/or retrieving the content from a centralized server/domain. Familiar features like upvoting, sharable links, and board moderation are also capable.

Specification

The key words “MUST”, “MUST NOT”, “REQUIRED”, “SHALL”, “SHALL NOT”, “SHOULD”, “SHOULD NOT”, “RECOMMENDED”, “NOT RECOMMENDED”, “MAY”, and “OPTIONAL” in this document are to be interpreted as described in RFC 2119.

Control Message

New Q&A boards are created by a client who SHOULD be identitfied as the owner. At the time of creation, the owner creates a ControlMessage to configure the board. This message contains all the settings of the board and is published to the Waku network.

The ControlMessage is a JSON object:

• It MUST include a title name
• It MAY include a list of admin identities.
• It SHOULD include the identity of the owner, idenities explianed below.
• It SHOULD include the start and end date for clients to publish a new post.

{
  "ControlMessage" : [
    title: string,
    id: string,
    enabled: boolean,
    timestamp: number, // time the ControlMessage is created
    owner: string, // the address of the owner
    admins: string[], // a list of addresses
    moderation: boolean, // 
    description: string, 
    updated: number, 
    startDate: number, 
    endDate?: number,
    allowsParticipantsReplies: number,
    delegationInfo?: DelegationInfo
  ]
}

id:

• SHOULD be generated from the title value, timestamp value, and the owner address value.

The ControlMessage is the first message published on the content-topic of the Q&A board. Only clients subscribed to the content-topic can view the ControlMessage.

Identity

The identity of a client is a public address identifier in the form of a hexadecimal string. Clients SHOULD generate a private key on a local machine and MAY encrypt the keys with a password. Public addresses are then generated with the private keys. The address SHOULD be used to sign and verify messages.

Node

The Qaku application SHOULD by default connect to The Waku Network. When a user accesses the Qaku app, the user joins a new session that SHOULD create a new content_topic. When the user exits the Qaku app, the session ends but the content_topic remians available on the Waku network for other users to connect to.

Qaku uses the following 10/WAKU protocols:

• the 19/WAKU2-LIGHTPUSH to push a message type to the Waku network.
• the 12/WAKU2-FILTER to subscribe to Waku content_topic and listen to messages published to that topic.
• the 13/WAKU-STORE to query and load old messages from the Waku network for users.
• A new content_topic is created when a new Q&A board is created.
• All questions and answer are pushed to the content_topic

Messages

The Waku network processes real-time message updates, which enables new questions and answers to be acceisble quickly. A conec ulti Messages are sent to a content_topic that are identified as a message_type.

The 13/WAKU-STORE nodes provide historical storage of the Qaku messages.

The following message_types used in Qaku include:

• Question Message
• Answered Message
• Upvote Message
• Moderation Message
• Poll Message

Question Message

The QuestionMessage type is generated by any user asking a new question on a Qaku board.

{
  "QuestionMessage" : [
    "question": string,
    "timestamp": number,
    "author?": identity,
    "delegationInfo?": delegationInfo
  ]
}

Answered Message

The AnswerMessage type is generated by any sending an answer to the Qaku board.

{
  "AnswerMessage" : [
    hash: string,
    text: string,
    timestamp: number,
    delegationInfo?: delegationInfo
  ]  
}

Upvote Message

{
  "UpVoteMessage" : [
    questionId: string,
    hash: string,
    type: UpvoteType,
    timestamp: number,
    delegationInfo?: DelegationInfo;
  ]
}

The owner MUST be able to enable and disable questions added to the board. When a new question is created, the interface SHOULD lis

Copyright

Copyright and related rights waived via CC0.

References